My parents bought a house in 1971 for the whopping price of $17000, 3B 1 Bath, huge corner lot with chain link fence...................I was 16 and thought it was so outrageous that they would never pay it off.....................
When I was a youth in the 60s trying to make sense of money and value, my touch stone was “$2000=a car”
My parents bought a house in 1971 for the whopping price of $17000, 3B 1 Bath, huge corner lot with chain link fence...................I was 16 and thought it was so outrageous that they would never pay it off.....................
But to be fair, people don’t buy a price. They buy a monthly payment. When interest rates drop, prices increase, and vice versa. It’s why I think the best time to buy real estate is when interest rates are high.
My parents’ first house was a 3 br 1 bath brick ranch on a 100’ x 200’ lot. They paid $15,000.00 for it in 1961, and were worried about making the payments. 12 years later they sold it for $25,000.00. They’d added a large den and a second bath, but that’s not a bad return.
I’ve never been so lucky myself. Paid $93,000.00 for my first house in 1994, a 3 br 2 bath with vinyl siding on a little over an acre. I’m in process of selling now, and will be lucky to get $135,000.00 for it. Prices have been flat and hovering around there for a decade. What equity I’ve acquired since then has been due to paying down the note. At least I was never upside down on it, but up until last year I would have taken a hit on the price and waited close to a year to get it sold. So, things are back close to “normal” was before 2008.