Property Pricing in your area - gone up or down?

[bjcheung77]

It's been a red hot market in my area, for the last couple of years.
How is it in your neck of the woods? You in a Rural Rancher/farm area?

Do you own or rent? House, Duplex, Townhouse, Modular/Mobile home or Apartment/Condo?
Sometimes I have thought about buying an RV and parking it here as a secondary home.
It's so much cheaper than a house... With most of the necessities, but not much luxury.

But I think the best and most affordable, probably is a modular home, not a mobile home, there's a difference not only in price, but materials and standards they are built with... Mobile homes are a lot cheaper, but may not last a generation or two.

[dfrecore]

I live in North Inland San Diego county, and I think prices are not quite what they were when the bubble burst, but pretty high. We moved here 5 years ago, and it was DEAD. Very low inventory, high rent because people were losing their homes left and right, no building going on. Now, prices are up (inventory is still low though, so houses go fast), and there is a building boom going on. Lots of new subdivisions going up all over the place. Even commercial buildings are being built again.

[cookderosa]

I'm in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, NC) and our housing market is on FIRE. Houses in my neighborhood have been sold without even making it onto the MLS. Crazy!


EDIT: we owned an RV for years, and while it's true that they are less in cost, they always depreciate in value while a home on land will usually appreciate in value. Just something to consider.

[videogamesrock]

My rentals in Cape Coral Fl have doubled in value since 2010. The rents are up also from $950 in 2010 to $1400 in 2016. my properties in Idianapolis In have gone up about $10,000 since last year. The rent has gone up form $950 last year to $975 this year. My Memphis and Birmingham properties have remained the same in value and rent since last year. My Colorado rental has increased in value from $150k to $300k since 2009 and rented for $1050 in 2010 and now rents for $1900 in 2016.

[sanantone]

The housing costs in Austin are out of control. There is only enough affordable housing for 1 in 4 low-income people. Even people who make lower-middle class salaries struggle to find affordable housing in decent neighborhoods, and those who are middle class (not upper-middle class) struggle to afford a house. People from California and other states are coming in making $80,000+ salaries in the IT industry and are driving the rent and home prices up. The east side of Austin was historically a predominantly black area, but is now being gentrified driving the home values up. People can no longer afford their property taxes. The percentage of black people in Austin has dropped two percentage points in recent years as blacks move to the suburbs.

[dfrecore]

In CA, we passed Prop 13 in 1978, making property taxes 1% of the sale price, and putting a 2% cap on assessed value (they can only say your property went up 2% each year, even if it goes up 5% or 10% or even more). Which means that even if prices go crazy high, you can still afford your property taxes. I think originally it was to help old people keep their homes (30 years later your taxes could easily be more than your social security check!), but has benefitted many people since then, especially in our crazy market which is constantly going way up and down like a roller coaster.

[LaterBloomer]

Maybe we should do away with the idea of home ownership as the American Dream? While I didn't read any of the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" series, I was told that the author does NOT consider homes an asset. (Which other asset do you own that you have to pay to maintain?)

Instead, communities should encourage the building of high-quality apartments. Places where you'd want to live because you don't hear you neighbor because of sound-proofing, someone else maintains the yard, etc. There would be enough units that there wouldn't be crazy rent wars. Then, when economies cycle, folks who want to find work can leave the area because they won't hang around hoping and praying that they'll get back their "investment" in their home. It makes for a more mobile workforce.

[videogamesrock]

Your personal home is a liability not an asset because assets make you money while liabilities cost you money. The reason why the price of housing has mainly rebounded is because of the mass overspending that is happening with our federal government. Every year tht the government borrows 1t from the printing press, this creates inflation which is reflected in real things of value. Since 2009 the printing press has doubled the amount of money in circulation which will make the American Dream very difficult to achieve for good. The government is lying about the real rate of inflation. The government is trying inflate away its debt by paying it back with cheaper dollars. The governments biggest fear is deflation which is exactly what it is trying to avoid. Inflation means higher housing prices and the ability to repay debt with cheaper dollars. Inflation is a tax on savers. Savers have their money eroded every year as the rate of inflation grows faster than the low interest rates offered by the fed. My average tenant now is pushing 40% their income to cover rent payments. It is and will not get better. More government deficit spending will result in higher costs of living. The last 2 presidents are to blame for this mass inflation we are seeing. Even at the grocery stores we are seeing higher prices and smaller packages.

[dfrecore]

Maybe we should do away with the idea of home ownership as the American Dream? While I didn't read any of the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" series, I was told that the author does NOT consider homes an asset. (Which other asset do you own that you have to pay to maintain?)

Instead, communities should encourage the building of high-quality apartments. Places where you'd want to live because you don't hear you neighbor because of sound-proofing, someone else maintains the yard, etc. There would be enough units that there wouldn't be crazy rent wars. Then, when economies cycle, folks who want to find work can leave the area because they won't hang around hoping and praying that they'll get back their "investment" in their home. It makes for a more mobile workforce.

First, no one is saying that the American Dream is home ownership. Each person gets to decide for themselves what their own American Dream is. For some people, it's home ownership, for other's, it's owning their own business, and if you ask a refugee or immigrant from some war-torn nation, I'd be willing to bet that their dream was freedom and safety.

As for Kiyosaki (RDPD), I have read a couple of his books, and he doesn't share the same views as most people I know. There are plenty of assets you pay to maintain; cars, boats, rental properties, stocks (you pay fees if you own any mutual funds), etc. If you consider your body an asset, you pay lots of money to maintain it (food, shelter, clothing). I would argue that EVERY asset you have needs to be maintained in some way with money, but feel free to tell me I'm wrong, and give me a couple of examples where this is not true.

No thanks to a high-quality apartment! Besides the fact that rent goes up every year (on average) and your monthly house mortgage does not, there is no way I'm living in an apartment complex like that. I saved up money to get AWAY from that lifestyle, thank you very much. I like having a yard, having space in my house, being able to put in a pool, being able to remodel to make it exactly what I like, etc. I ENJOY all of that, and wouldn't give it up for anything. And, by the way, over the last 10 years we have rented several times while moving around, and we rented a HOUSE each time, never an apartment. Oh yeah, and we were plenty mobile while doing this - we moved 30 miles away to closer to family when my kids were little, and then 500 miles away to follow a job.

[dfrecore]

Your personal home is a liability not an asset because assets make you money while liabilities cost you money. The reason why the price of housing has mainly rebounded is because of the mass overspending that is happening with our federal government. Every year tht the government borrows 1t from the printing press, this creates inflation which is reflected in real things of value. Since 2009 the printing press has doubled the amount of money in circulation which will make the American Dream very difficult to achieve for good. The government is lying about the real rate of inflation. The government is trying inflate away its debt by paying it back with cheaper dollars. The governments biggest fear is deflation which is exactly what it is trying to avoid. Inflation means higher housing prices and the ability to repay debt with cheaper dollars. Inflation is a tax on savers. Savers have their money eroded every year as the rate of inflation grows faster than the low interest rates offered by the fed. My average tenant now is pushing 40% their income to cover rent payments. It is and will not get better. More government deficit spending will result in higher costs of living. The last 2 presidents are to blame for this mass inflation we are seeing. Even at the grocery stores we are seeing higher prices and smaller packages.

My home will make me money when I sell it, and it's making me money each month as rents go up but my mortgage does not. You have to pay for housing whether you own it or rent it, and rents go up over time; mortgages do not. Also, once you pay off your house (and 1/3 of all Americans have a paid off house), your monthly housing costs are SIGNIFICANTLY lower than anyone near you, whether they are still paying down their mortgage (which will eventually be lower than the rental amounts nearby), or renters.

Owning your own home locks in your housing costs for the rest of your life, if you don't move. And if mortgage rates go down, you can actually make your monthly costs go DOWN with a refi. There is no way to do that with renting the same place year after year.