US real estate

Next bubble up: College tuition.

Don’t even get me started.

I remember 1990 being a bit of a bubble and hearing people talk about the bubble in the late '70’s. It’s cyclical.

Richard: I think everything appreciates, if bought at the right price. If one owned Enron, it doesn’t matter if they are still holding the stock in 20 years, it’s still worthless. The same can be said for real estate.

For me, it’s even worse with real estate. Most of us can not afford to by property as a pure asset, we buy it for housing too. Over 20 years, maintenance will require a reasonable amount of money:

There are a number of ways to estimate annual home maintenance costs; a common shorthand calculation being to spend about 2 to 4 per cent of the value per year. For example, if you’re living in a $400,000 home, expect to pay between $8,000 and $16,000 each year.

from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/home-cents/dont-let-home-maintenance-costs-crush-your-budget/article2192147/

Plus, consider the renovation costs. Who would want a very 1990 house today?

We’ve been fortunate to own three homes since 1981, serially, and as our sole residence. But I’ve never spent 2-4% annually, on maintenance on any of them.

Our first home was 35 years old when we bought it, all I spent on it was three or four hundred dollars to paint it once, and replace a water heater. In many ways I wish we still lived in it, but my wife had other ideas…

$61,000 in 1981 (A gorgeous, mature, oak was cut down to make room for the palm tree…) :frowning:


Our second home was new; maintenance was more along the line of upgrades; flooring upgrade, landscaping, interior paint.

$121,000 in 1990


The worst that has befallen us occurred two months ago in our third, current, and last home; built in 1992.

$335,000 in 1998


The water lines are run under the concrete slab (insanity that I do not comprehend at all), recently one broke with no other outward sign other than a section of the kitchen floor got warm to the touch. This occurred due to substandard copper pipe being placed in direct contact with the soil (no insulating wrap as required by code), and the local city building inspector allowing it to slide… This identical problem, I soon learned, had occurred in four other homes on our street. Class action suit? Against who? The city? The contractor is unknown, and in all likelihood, long out of business. We followed our neighbor’s advice, and had the entire house re-plumbed (the problem had been known to reoccurr if fixed willy-nilly) … $5,300. Now who would anticipate having to re-plumb a twenty year old house?

The water heater gave up the ghost one Sunday morning; $450. A few years later the furnace went away, due in part, to our close proximity to the ocean; $2,300. But even the $8,050 we’ve spent, over thirteen years of ownership ($619 per annum) still doesn’t approach 2-4% per year [$6,700 - 13,400).

Houses should be bought to be lived in, not as portfolio items. Traditionally, every time a home changes hands it’s price increases… I call bullsh*t … buying and selling homes to turn a scheckle should be criminal. Little wonder the average guy can’t afford one.

Now who would anticipate having to re-plumb a twenty year old house?

Anybody, who ever bought a summer a home at one of the “property hot spots” anywhere
in the world. It seems developers and contractors are the same everywhere. In fact I am
surprised those water lines lastet 20 years. My parents had to rewire and replumb their
appartement in Spain for years after their purchase in the 70ies.

I’d expect much of Dubai to convert back into sand (or gold dust for that matter) within
the shorter part of 20 years.

But Lew, I’d love to shell out 250K Euros for a home near the beach like that, if anything
remotely like it was to available around here. Due to expansion of the family I am actively
looking for a starter home in the median price bracket and they look mostly like that:

So, the grass is always greener…

mo-i

You’re lucky that your most recent home was built within the past 2 decades.

Where I am in NY, new construction is rare and often not that great. I’ve been maintaining my mothers house (a modest split 4 bed, built in the late 50’s) and it’s right around it’s 2nd wave of everything turning to sh*t. In the past 5 years alone it’s needed a new roof, new furnace, needs a new AC unit (But she just deals with not having AC after having moved to Florida), needed the finished basement completely rebuilt and resealed after a flood, some major plumbing work from a leaking shower, new sub floor in 2 rooms, and that’s before you even get to some modest renovations to put in new appliances to update the ones that were 30 years old.

That doesn’t even include the fact that 75% of the house is still covered with bright orange shag carpeting such that you know the main living areas weren’t redone since the '70’s.

The scary part is here on Long Island, even if you buy an old house like hers that will require major renovation, finding anything below $300,000 is nearly impossible - even for a small ranch.

Crazy, I am in the EXACT same boat, but I’m in St.Paul. Bought a 100 year old house with zero down payment on a 30 yr. fixed in September 2006. I joke that I was the last person in the US to get that kind of loan…If I could sell it breaking even, I would. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve really enjoyed restoring the place and watching it come back to life, I’ve had fun with it, but now it’s just an anchor on my career. I simply can’t afford to sell it, I would owe probably $30k at closing or walk away with a $30k loan to pay off with nothing to show for it.

At this point I’ve written off any thought of trying to make a profit on it, I just want more freedom back in my life. It’s tough to get solicited several times per month by potential employers out of state and have to have the relocation discussion right up front. Some employers provide relocation assistance in the form of moving expenses, but nobody’s entertaining real estate sales assistance as far as I know. It has pretty much come to the point where I’m frozen in my career…I really do like the Twin Cities, and if I could find a better opportunity here I would jump on it and be just fine staying, but so far I haven’t found much, but I could probably dig harder.

But hey, if anyone wants to buy my place it will be a block and a half away from the new Midway light rail station (kevlar vest additional).

Lew: My parents are in Phoenix. They have a '80’s built house. Aluminum wiring and the water plumbed through the concrete foundation. Insurace paid to fix the plumbing. They live with the fire hazard of aluminum wiring.

I’ve come in late on this conversation - and I have been lucky with real-estate to date.

Rented for 5 years in school and working, then…

First house, bought in 1996, $145K (Maryland, 3br, 2bath, 1700 sq. ft., 2 car gar., .8 acres) + a free .75 acre adjoining lot that was overlooked by the seller’s children (estate sale) and prompted my quick purchase! I gutted the entire house, renewing everything, putting about $100K into it. Sold it in 2007 for $399K. Also sold the adjoining lot in 2008 for $150K.

Second house, bought in 2007, valued at $750k, BOUGHT IT FOR $500K (a relo deal - I knew when they were starting to offload and threw in a lowball) (Maryland, 4br, 5 bath, 4000 sq. ft., 2 car gar., 2 acres). We took a beating like everyone else between 2007 and now - was revalued this year at refi for $615K, I’ve put about 10K in it, so still ahead of the game.

In 2010 we took advantage of the market, buying back the lot we sold (for far less) and buying a condo (another estate sale, a classy condo complex in Maryland) for about $60K under market value. I put $10K in renovations into the condo and it is leased as a revenue stream. We also might build on the lot and lease it out until the market comes back.

The market is still good in some areas, and took little beating in those areas (Maryland is one of them) over the last 3-4 years.

I was thinking of this thread lately. I’ve easily spent more than $10k / year in my first two years at my new home. I don’t think it will cool down for awhile either. Mind you, some of that was for aesthetics and remodeling, but a good deal was just maintenance or preventative (new roof, new driveway walls, lots of electrical re-wiring, adding insulation).

They are money pits dude. Especially as a designer. I always have a project in mind.

That’s true.

Real estate is what you make of it - buy low, improve with smarts, enjoy it and sell high when the market is right. When everyone else is selling, buy…and buy the worst house in a great neighborhood (location, location, location) then repeat and rinse!

I feel bad for those who bought into the interest-only craze or who got variable rate (balloon) mortgages - get a 30 (or better yet, a 15) year fixed rate mortgage and then make the equivalent of one extra payment a year, you’ll pay off a 30 year in 17 years!

15year fixed mortgages? Don’t think they have those hear in Canada. I think 10 is max. But with rates pretty stable over the last 10 years doesn’t make sense to do more than 5 fixed. I’d even say variable is better if you don’t mind having the stability and peace of mind of no fluctuation. Here in Toronto real estate has been increasing in price about 15-20% per year so really it paid off to get into the market when I did almost 15 years ago. Average single family home in Toronto now around $1M. I bought my first loft almost 15 years ago in an up and coming area. Sold it for double what I paid 5 years ago (rented it out while I lived abroad at a profit), and traded up to a place almost double the size 5 years ago for only 100k more than I sold the original one for. Now it’s probably already worth $3-400k more. Don’t plan on moving again until I can again double up in size/value or find something unique but 3000sf lofts are hard to come by.

Then again I know people who choose to live an hour outside the city where you can buy a 3000sf house for the price of a shoebox condo downtown.

R

I still can’t believe prices I see sometimes in the U.S. $200k for a house? Here that’s a 300sf condo! If you are lucky. In a crappy area. 10 years old.

R

It depends on where you live. $200k doesn’t buy you much even in Minneapolis downtown area, get out a ways and you’ll have better luck. Way out in the burbs, you’ve got 5 bedrooms for that. But try getting anything above a studio in California or NYC…

Agree with NURB. 200k won’t even buy you a condo in NJ. NC?..you can buy a nice place with land.

For 200k in Cali you can get an uncovered parking spot.

I’m currently researching condos for my mother in law in the Long Beach/Huntington Beach area in California and they are about 250K-350K in a decent area and less than 1K square feet. I swear they were 50K less last year.

Talking about home improvements. We’re replacing eight 3’ x 6’ double hung windows in our home and after about 6 quotes I realized what a scam it is. I had estimates from 6K - 8K (after 1/2 off and free installation and other fake promotions) with a couple of companies willing to come down 1K-2K to match prices. It was also interesting to see how each of the salesmen pitched their product and turned their perceived weaknesses into advantages.

Good to know. All new windows is on my long term project list. Going to try to make it a few more years though.

I have bought in flipped 3 properties here in Florida. Back in 2008-2009, there were amazing deals to be had! I bought my first property a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage home( 1600sqft) with a 1/4 acre lot, built in 2006 for $45k. Two years later I sold it for 90k. My second flip, I purchased a 1bed, 1bath loft style condo (700sqft) for $25k. I Sold it for more than double the price, same as the third.

The real estate market in Florida is relatively cheap still and back on the rise since the 2008 housing collapse. However, for
200k here you can easily find a nice size pool home. It may need some work, but nice bang for your buck!

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/9505-Norchester-Cir_Tampa_FL_33647_M63944-04081?row=4