House prices got away from me

[fan-of-fans]

The housing market has sure gotten away from me these last 3 or so years and it’s really disappointing.

I’ve been saving up for 11 years now, debt paid off, strong down payment saved, and still can’t afford a home. When I graduated from college prices were extremely low but I didn’t have enough down payment and no credit or work history.

Steadily they’ve kept going up. I felt like I was finally getting somewhere around 2017-19, but as we know the market has doubled in price since.

People kept telling me that prices would have to go down once interest rates started increasing but as we’ve seen they have not gone down, in fact in my area they are higher than before interest rates stated increasing.

I’m just worried and frustrated that I’ll never afford anything. I look to most people my age (I’m 34) and they bought in 2017-19 era and I thought they were paying a lot compared to 2012-14 but the reality is they got in the last affordable era, not to mention a low rate.

I dream of having a nice home, a yard, a garage or shop to work in, etc. I’ve got a lot of things I’ve picked up in hopes of having a house to install or use them in but I’m starting to think it’s all for naught.

We’re getting to the point where even if I can buy a home I won’t get it paid off ever on a 30 year loan.

It doesn’t help that higher prices mean higher taxes and insurance keeps going up in Florida.

I’ve thought about moving out of state to a small southern rural town and fixing up a cheap old house there but when you look the job market is nil in those areas, hence the low pricing.

Sorry for the rant, just needed to get it off my chest. Nobody seems to know what I’m going through, they’re all older and bought decades ago and don’t realize how expensive it is now, my age and already bought, or younger and think everything is fine and they’ll be able to build their dream home if they wait 5 years…

I worry also that I just caught the tail end of the “American dream” and from now on most of us will just be stuck with rented apartment living.

 

[human]

Yes, I'm thankful I bought my house in 2014, before prices started skyrocketing. Comparable houses in my neighborhood have more than doubled since then, with no end in sight. I get constant offers to buy my house and make a handsome profit, but where would I go? By the time I buy something else, I could be looking at neutral or even negative cash flow. I'm better off just sitting tight with what I've got.

 

[texaskirbyguy]

I feel for ya...

I know exactly how you feel and what you are going though - my sympathy is with you (and everyone else in this situation.)
You were planning this out smartly, but the world events just threw everything into a turmoil unexpectedly.

My situation is very similar but different...
I am ready to move out of my city home of 27 years and retire to the coast of Oregon.
I had bought property there in 2013 for 100k, thought I would work another 8 years, retire, build my retirement home, sell the house in TX, and sit fat, dumb, and happy on the coast until I croaked.

However in 2020 things went totally haywire.

In 2021 my outlook went bleak. Building cost had risen to 1.5x of 2013 levels but supply of everything was almost non-existent, including labor.
I thought I would work another couple years and wait it out, and here we are today.

Now, building a new home (or anything) is about 2x the cost compared to 2013.
I feel like I am chasing a fighter jet on a bicycle...
A pre-built bungalow with no garage and on a zero lot line subdivision is almost 400k.
My lot over there is worth 300k now but if I sold, where would I go?? I am still holding hopes...
I also have lots of stuff for the new house - vintage fixtures, lots of boxes and packing materials..

Luckily I am secure in the place I am at now in TX, but I hate it here. Too figgen hot and not much to so (I am an outdoor/nature enthusiast). The city life here is too crazy for me.
I want more work space and a shop - can't have it at my current property.
Homes around here have about doubled in cost also so cannot easily move (still does not solve the weather and surroundings though).
I saw the first 500k mobile home for sale when looking at what is available - that means things are 'bad'...
My current home has tripled in value since I had bought it - never would have imagined that..

So I am stuck here for now. I feel the bubble has to burst at some point, with real estate values dropping at some point. But who knows when, or if...

Best advice for you is to keep your hopes up, save your $$ as best possible, and try to live as frugal as you can, but still enjoy some things in life.
If you are living in FL, I would advise considering another state only because of the hurricanes and crazy insurance costs going even crazier. However I know this is easier said than done...
Feel free to email me if you want to talk more offline - I totally understand your position and frustration.

 

[rainbowd4c]

It's everywhere. I bought my house in 2020 right before COVID. It worked for me and is in a nice area. This past June my husband and I got married, his son moved in with us and his daughters are with us part time as well. Technically I have a five bedroom ranch. Two bedrooms with egress in the basement. We have room. But it still feels cramped. We want to move to windstorm which is a subdivision two minutes from. Where we are now. But prices are outrageous. And houses are not coming on the market because they can't find something reasonably prices. For now we are just going to have to stay where we are.

 

[justjunque]

Cole,

I don't have much to bring to the table, but I'll chime in to sympathize with you.
Also, to say not to lose hope.
I don't remember what year it was when we legitimately started house hunting. We just wanted to get a sense of what we could expect to get for our money. The houses that seemed to offer what we were looking for were priced somewhere around $150K. We couldn't afford that right then, but we figured we knew that's what we were shooting for, so we could figure out what we'd need for a down payment, etc.
Once we felt we were ready, we went back to look at some of the same houses we had seen a couple of years prior. Those same $150K houses were now $250K. So, once again, we were priced out of the market.
We thought the prices then couldn't get any more insane. We were wrong. You can't touch a fixer-upper around here for $250K now.
About twelve years ago, we finally were able to buy a decent house, although we did get in a little over our heads. But, compared to today's prices, we got a steal. As others have said, we could easily sell this house today for twice what we paid for it. But...what would that get us? Everything else has doubled in price as well. Although there's a lot I hate about Massachusetts, and we'd ultimately like a house with a little more room, and a little more useable yard, we have to just be thankful for what we have. We could never afford to buy this same house today.
I'm probably not doing a very good job of raising your hopes. But, my point is; we had all but given up hope, and then we found a perfectly charming little house that (barely) fit our budget. And we're still here twelve years later, and still pretty happy with the house.
It sounds like you're going about it the right way. Just don't get too discouraged. And, if you have a good down payment saved up, you'll really be all set in the event that some sanity returns to the real estate market.

Barry

 

[fan-of-fans]

I’m not quite sure what the solution to this is, it seems to me that raising interest rates has done nothing but lock people out of buying and create even more anguish to those already priced out.

As you’ve all attested many who own homes can’t afford to buy a similar home at today’s prices, let alone rates, so there are lots of houses that aren’t going on the market even if they’d like to sell and move.

My line of thinking is rates will continue to go up and eventually we will have very few who can still afford to buy? Or will we?

At the same time inventory will probably be less and less too.

I wish this would just get over with, but if we do have a crash and prices come down substantially, it will take years, and the economy would likely not be doing well, so I’d be out of a job and unable to buy anyway.

 

[texaskirbyguy]

Unfortunately there is no easy or predictable solution as of now.
Real estate seems gridlocked at the moment. I have not seen many homes for sale in my area lately, which is a little unusual. The few I do see have been for sale for a while.
All we can do is wait to see what happens. Given a few particular world events, I can see things getting much worse (but hope to heck it won't.)

On the small brighter side, bank CD rates are way up so I moved my savings I had for the new house there for now, to earn some extra cash. I am only going a year at a time though, in a tall ladder, in case something rebounds.
So if anyone can do some saving now, it would definitely help them offset other price increases.

I sit and wait, impatiently, like many others...