[SamAdams76]

Prices still sky-high here in the Boston area but at least they don't seem to be climbing anymore. If my own house was on the market today, I wouldn't be able to afford it. Most homes in my neighborhood are going for $400,000 even today. I paid $262,000 for mine five years ago and everybody said I got such a deal. It is assessed by the town for tax purposes at $360,000. Sure doesn't seem like such a deal however when the $1,200 mortgage comes due every month! My parents used to gripe about their mortgage. They paid $135 a month from 1969-1999!

[RoughDobermann]

I shudder to think how much you put down, Sam... :-)

[Hermann the Cherusker]

A simple comparison of sanity.

My father bought his old house for an amount roughly equal to his income in 1978. If I attempted to by that house today, at rouhgly the same age, but a higher relative income than he had, I'd have to pay twice MY income to live in a neighborhood which simply is not as nice today.

That is rampant inflation and it is probably not sustainable. It is becoming very difficult for ordinary people to buy houses in mnay areas.

[eno_]

A year ago I sold an absolute wreck in the Chicago suburbs that had been in my family for $400k! Insane. My mother wanted to keep it. I told her if people are willing to pay 400k for a place that needs 150k of work, let them have it.

That's about the only time I ever successfully called a market top.