Posted on 09/18/2020 8:19:24 AM PDT by Vigilanteman
Sorry to take up space for what is essentially a vanity post. But this is interesting and important enough that I would like other Freepers to weigh in from their various parts of the country.
We live in a mature working class neighborhood about an hour's drive ESE of Pittsburgh, PA. We've been here just under 20 years.
Most of the homes in the neighborhood, including ours, were built about 50 years ago. It has been a fairly stable neighborhood which includes neighbors who work for the Pennsylvania State Police and leave their cruisers parked in the driveway.
Trump signs outnumber Biden signs by a ratio of 4 or 5 to 1 and that doesn't include supporters like us who don't put out lawn signs for various reasons.
Our lot size is about 1/5th of an acre which is, slightly but not much more than the 1/6th acre average. In a normal year, property values will fluctuate up and down, but normally no more than about 3 to 4% on an annual basis. Except this year it is already up 10%, just about all of that increase taking place in the last three months.
And it isn't just our little corner lot, it is the entire neighborhood.
(Excerpt) Read more at zillow.com ...
One of the condos was owned by a recently deceased person whose son-in-law I know. They had a garage sale a few weeks ago and already have offers, and it’s not even listed yet.
There was an estate sale about a half mile from where we live. The home is on 5+ acres and looks like a Spanish home for a very rich owner with its own little vineyard.
An enterprising real estate lady got permission from the heirs to put up a table to sell the home during the estate sale. She got some dream bottom line suggestions from the heirs. She ended up with several offers over the dream offers and other backup offers.
We recently sold our MA home and relocated to KY. (We closed on our KY home today, as a matter of fact. Yay! 15 yr. mortgage at 2.25%) There has been a precipitous drop in the number of homes for sale here since we began looking in June. Sellers are largely getting their asking price.
We made out very well on our MA house: by my rough calculation it appreciated in value over 8 years by about $80K. We could have purchased 2 homes in KY for what we got for our MA home. That’s partly why we made the move. Property taxes will undoubtedly be less than half, maybe as low as a quarter of MA rates. Energy costs are lower, no one cares how many guns I own, and winters are milder. Win-win. We’re very happy so far.
Rates have been low for a long time.
In my part of Florida values are going up because sane people are leaving democrat hellhole cities. I own two houses and I get five or six offers a month EVEN though neither of my homes is for sale or listed or anything...
Coworker recently sold her house in 6 hrs, something like 10% or 15% over asking price.
All the lumber in a house does not add up to what the furnace/AC costs. The big money in a house is the kitchen.
Windows and doors cost a lot more than lumber, plywood, osb.
FYI, the wholesale lumber market topped out a couple weeks ago. Plywood/OSB is still tight. Prices are just starting to come down. For example, the price of a 4x4-8’ #2 SYP from a sawmill went from a low of $350/mbf in March to a high of $1400/mbf last month. We can buy them today for $850/mbf.
2x4-16’ #2 Spruce was $400/mbf in March. Topped out at $1500. Today they are asking $1150. Prices are falling. They do not fall equally. Just like they did not go up equally.
People are just weighing the high cost of suburban living against the extra expense of the number of 5.56 rounds needed to survive in today’s Democrat-run cities. :)
Home values in our subdivisio have dropped largely because a group of whackjobs have been claiming the subdividion is “unsafe” because of the layout of the streets. Buyers have stopped looking at homes in the subdivision and are looking at homes in nearby subdivisions where the streets meet the same Texas state design criteria but which have not been unjustifiably labeled as “unsafe”. Homes in those other subdivisions are increasing because demand outstrips supply.
“Many of these sh!tholes are banking on a bailout from “President Joe Biden””
Oh, yes. We agree!
If you have a few minutes you may want to watch the first 5 or 6 minutes of the video below. It is from a podcast guy in NYC that prompted Jerry Sienfield to write an oped in the NYT rebutting this guy’s story.
He seems very credible and he explains how NYC has dug themselves a hole that is going to be impossible to fill. The guy even asks the question, what will the rest of the country’s taxpayers do when they are asked to send billions of dollars in their tax money to bail out NYC. His take is very interesting about what could happen — and to me is not a big stretch. In fact, it brings up the broader question of a Biden president raising taxes big time to bail out all of the lib states that have dug the same wholes — or worse.
I live in Northern Gwinnett County in Georgia. The county Indoctrination System is building a STEM school two miles away. I am planning on selling my home in two years and then moving away from Gwinnett.
This is what I’m waiting for. I have a lot of cabinets and shelves (and a wall) to build in my new shop/garage. I put it all on hold until this price bubble bursts, which I’m confident it will. But it may not go as low as it was.
Regarding price variability, the 1x6 “fence” boards I bought months ago to build our planter boxes cost $1.65. Now, they are $1.74. Really, no difference.
Wound up about 67k with slab and erection. I thought it was a pretty good price. I was mostly trying to show how much lumber has gone up since June. Signed my contract at the right time.
...the reason is this: 4x9 OSB sheets were $9 a couple of months ago. Now they are $24. And 2x4 studs were $3.25 and now they are $7.29.
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Yes. Prices are up everywhere.
DH’s new shed had a 15% materials surcharge added due to material costs.
Yes. That’s pretty much on par with what I ended up with. I’m just angry I didn’t pull the trigger on it years ago. :(
That’s a really nice size, BTW!
>>>In MA property taxes cannot rise more than 2 1/2 percent<<<
In CA it’s 2%, but that has nothing to do with a new Property Assessment when the House changes hands.
We sold our House in CA for $795,000. Our Property Tax Bill thanks to Prop 13 was around $3,600 a year.
We bought the House back in 1991 for $242,000 and the Property Taxes back then were about $2,600. The overall Tax Rate is 1.25%, 1% limited by Prop 13 and the additional .25% is Bonded Indebtedness since CA Voters never met a Bond Measure they didn’t love.
The Buyers of our House are now paying about $10,000 a Year in Property Taxes based on the new Assessment. Any increases to their Property Tax Bill will be limited to 2% a Year.
I wanted to do mine six years ago when I bought the property but decided to wait until I started drawing social security (happened last November). Bailed out to the country in March to avoid zombie apocalypse and decided to go ahead and get it done. I think everyone in the country had the same idea...it was hard to get quotes. Went with Summertown Metals...Mennonite owned company. Real happy with results. Garage doors being installed today.
“BTW, I think the reason is this: 4x9 OSB sheets were $9 a couple of months ago. Now they are $24. And 2x4 studs were $3.25 and now they are $7.29.”
Ain’t that the truth. Standard 2x4x8’ is $6-$10 at Lowe’s. I’m guessing that’s why we can’t keep a house on the market In our neighborhood...cheaper to buy existing than build new.
I’ve seen this movie before.
I wanted to do mine six years ago when I bought the property but decided to wait until I started drawing social security (happened last November).
I used Sturdibuilt out of Greensburg. They guys that actually built it are Mennonite. The quality blew me away. The concrete floor could be a roller skating rink. :)
The last ten feet (30x10) is just an extension of the roof and a concrete porch. The 16x30 section next to it is the windowed part with the french doors. It will be the “mancave”, small project area.
I did get a floor to ceiling section of shelving in right after it was built, as well as two rolling 2z6 carts. But I refuse to pay the modern lumber prices for the rest. I don’t need it that bad. It’s a matter of principle.
I’ve seen this movie before.
1x6 boards have not increased that much in price. Maybe 10% over the last couple months. Nothing out of the ordinary for a seasonal trend. They mostly went up in price because mills stopped 1” boards and made more 2” dimension.
The biggest increases were in the lumber items used for pressure treating. Some of those items like the previously mentioned 4x4’s tripled in price. 2x4’s & 2x6’s, 2x8’s doubled in price over 5 months. 2x10’s & 2x12’s increased 50%.
7/16” OSB went up 3-4X in price since January. It was $190/msf($6/sheet) last winter. It is now $750/msf.($24/sheet) wholesale price.
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