What housing market?”
We are in the Houston suburbs and houses in our area are gone within 30 days of hitting the market, some sooner. Our neighbor got a job in the oil patch in west Texas and their house sold within ten days of listing at a cost of $50,000 more than they paid ten years ago and sale was for cash. Lots of people moving here from the east and west coasts and, to them, our houses are a real bargain.
Bad thing about that though is that all the houses in our neighborhood will now be valued for more and so our taxes and insurance will go up by a bunch next year.
Same thing happening here in FL. They’re building like crazy, and the older homes don’t stay on the market long either.
That’s not happening in my neighborhood in NW Harris County. Too many people asking way less than they should because of realtors lowballing. I hate realtors. Most of them are worthless and/or crooks.
True here in LA too. They say that there are usually multiple bids all cash ... many foreign buyers.
“Our neighbor got a job in the oil patch in west Texas and their house sold....”
Ask any of us who lived in Texas and derived our incomes from the oil industry about 1982. That was the year of the “oil depression.” There were other oil “booms to bust” eras on the average of 10 to 20 years.
My business is supported by the oil related welding industry and has been since 1979. I’ve seen the history of these cycles several times and known those who put their hopes, dreams and life savings in jeopardy by thinking “the last bust was the final one.”
I would venture to say that your neighbor just might have jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.
“We are in the Houston suburbs and houses in our area are gone within 30 days of hitting the market, some sooner. Our neighbor got a job in the oil patch in west Texas and their house sold within ten days of listing at a cost of $50,000 more than they paid ten years ago and sale was for cash. Lots of people moving here from the east and west coasts and, to them, our houses are a real bargain.”
We just sold in Cypress. Put house on market $25k above agents recommendation and got $5k above list first day. Sold for 45% more than paid for in 2011.
And you just hit the nail on the head.
There is no American Housing Market. All markets are local. As people flee to go where the jobs are, prices drop in one area and go up in another. When we left TX two years ago, our house/land value had dropped from $100,000 to $65,000 over a seven year period. Although we listed the property lower than any of the others, it still took 10 months to find a buyer. Ten years ago I sold a house before I had the opportunity to get a realtor. The house we bought in TX was on the market for just a couple of days by the time we put in our offer and we had several competitors. What a difference time made. (We lost our shirts on that deal)
I keep telling my family that they have to stay mobile while the economy is crazy like this. Be free to go where the jobs are. Even if things suddenly turn around, it can take a decade for the nation to regain overall prosperity and some areas (like Detroit) will never recover.