[jwasbury]

My 'hood is white hot at the moment. We are well above peak pre-recession values. Inventory is tight, and there are buyers. I actually want to sell my house, take the gain and move, but the area where I'd like to buy either has garbage I don't like, or pretty nice stuff that is massively overpriced and sitting on the market forever.

I don't think my local market is a bubble. The demand is strong and I think it will continue, but there is a crap load of building going on around here. Most of it is high rise condo development, so I feel that our 3 story row house has more character, privacy and a private garage which will always appeal to a certain buyer, but some of the buyers will be attracted to the 10,000 shiny new high rise dwelling units coming online over the next few years.

A local real estate agent said that at this moment, buyers are ignoring conditional issues and paying record prices in spite of dated fixtures, ratty paint and floors that need refinishing, etc. Houses that are priced right (which is roughly 40% above peak of 2007ish) sell within a few weeks of listing. He believes the prices are likely to remain high but when the new inventory comes online, I would probably need to spend a bunch of money to update things in order to have a quick sale.