Real estate market. Smokin' hot.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by daepp

Vancouver is the #1? No offense, but WTH?

Clustered streets. Noise. Traffic. Air pollution. Food pollution. Competition. Ripoffs everywhere. Government.
Too much. Have to get out.

Scrimp and save every penny.
Escape this place.
Escape to paradise.

I'm gonna move to a cold damp place where it rains most of the year, and houses are 10x the normal price.

[vash]

Denied my counter to her counter.


Sent via Jedi mind trick.

[aigel]

Get ready for another round of craziness with spring and summer coming. A house down the road is 700k asking on a 1100 sf 3/2 floor plan and a "large" 7k sf lot. This is in suburbia - not even close to anything - no public transportation options to speak of - an hour commute to just the edge of the silicon valley, leave alone SF.

G

[creaturecat]

re: Vancouver.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/vancouver-housing-market-vulnerable-to-money-laundering/article29285770/

Dozens of Vancouver-area real estate firms are failing to comply with federal anti-money-laundering laws that require them to identify who their clients are and where their money comes from, The Globe and Mail has learned.

The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FinTRAC), which enforces the legislation, says it found “significant” or “very significant” deficiencies within some five dozen B.C. brokerages in the past year. It decided to step up scrutiny over worries that money primarily from China is being laundered through Vancouver real estate.

“There were concerns being raised that those in the real estate sector were not fulfilling the obligations under the act, as well as other concerns expressed about the movement of money,” said spokesperson Darren Gibb. “The real estate sector is highly vulnerable to money laundering.”

Federal examiners visited 80 realty offices in the Vancouver area to delve into their paperwork and procedures. In 55 instances – most involving brokerage firms and some focusing just on individual agents – they found practices significantly lacking. In an undisclosed number of additional cases, the violations are serious enough to warrant fines.

“The very significant deficiencies will lead to additional enforcement action and possibly penalties,” said Mr. Gibb. “We found a number of obligations that were not being respected.”

FinTRAC found that some real estate agents were neglecting to get proper ID from clients, such as drivers’ licences or passports.

[Ayles]

Originally Posted by Ayles

It gets worse than that! $535k for 800sqf...

This one on my street just went pending last week. Was listed for 795k and will likely be a lot higher. The traffic for the open houses was crazy.
https://www.redfin.com/WA/Seattle/4003-Williams-Ave-W-98199/home/124836

The house next door to this one sold last month for 35k (535k) over asking and is only 800sqf.

Here is the most recent teardown. Property sold last year for $395k bulldozed and now I believe it recently sold for 1.5m and thats in a crappy location on a busy corner with traffic, train noise, no yard or view.
https://www.redfin.com/WA/Seattle/4417-Williams-Ave-W-98199/home/124768

Mind blown... The $795k place above ended up selling for 896k.

[djmcmath]

Originally Posted by Ayles

Mind blown... The $795k place above ended selling for 896k.

Holy crikey, that's insane.

And I thought the market here was nuts. I live in a little town called Poulsbo, population about 10,000. It's a Scandinavian settlement whose claim to fame is a historic bakery and a cool Viking statue. For a long time, people who lived here worked for the Navy, so the median income in Poulsbo was something like $40K.

Then someone realized that Poulsbo was "only" an hour and a half commute from the Amazon offices in downtown Seattle (by car and ferry), and you could get waterfront property for "cheap." Now, a 3 bed 2 bath zero clearance house in downtown Poulsbo rents for $2200/mo, and anything with a view is easily $750K. Properties are going on the market on Friday afternoon and getting pulled off Monday with numerous offers above list. Everyone is talking about how "real estate in Kitsap is such a great investment!" and saying things like "They're not building any more land!" It's got all of the symptoms of a bubble.

[look 171]

that's what they say about the market. It comes back up. Look at the past, realestate bounces back and it becomes a stronger market. You still need a place to live, to its only on paper that it dips unless you sell and playing the market then there's a real concern but as long as you can make the payments monthly, even if the bottom fell out, like it did 8-10 years ago, it comes back. Now the location of the home has a lot do do with this comeback. Big cities just keep repeating this over and over again. Pricing just keep going higher and higher each cycle.

When the bubble burst, make sure you have the stomach to buy as it keeps going down. Ride out the storm and sunshine will come soon enough.

[creaturecat]

sister-in-law had an open house in Vancouver (west end) last weekend.
380 square foot studio. 20 years old. $400,000
5 offers, sold in a couple of hours.
the first person into the apartment was from out of the country. didn't even look at the apartment. said she would pay full price, in cash, on the spot, the only subject was to register the apartment in someone else's name (money laundering), which is against the law, up here.

[jyl]

House across the street from mine listed for $975K. Same sq ft, 1 less bd, 1 more ba.

House 1 block away will go on market for $2.5MM. Far nicer than mine - a trophy, showpiece home - but similar sqft so will elevate the $/sqft averages if it sells.

In total, four houses are or will shortly be on the market on my street of my block this spring selling season. I'm interested to see what happens.

[Ayles]

Originally Posted by Ayles

Mind blown... The $795k place above ended up selling for 896k.

Drove out for work today and low and behold a team of contractors was out front loading a huge dumpster... They are gutting the place that had a relatively recent remodel and that they paid 100k over for. Pretty unreal.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by jyl

House across the street from mine listed for $975K. Same sq ft, 1 less bd, 1 more ba.

House 1 block away will go on market for $2.5MM. Far nicer than mine - a trophy, showpiece home - but similar sqft so will elevate the $/sqft averages if it sells.

In total, four houses are or will shortly be on the market on my street of my block this spring selling season. I'm interested to see what happens.

House across the street sold in 1 day. I was mistaken, it has exactly same bd ba sqft as mine, and condition is similar. Don't have exact price (actually I do, but was asked not to disclose). But multiple bids and it wasn't below asking.

Here is the alarming thing. $10K down on a near $1MM house. I thought that stuff wasn't going on any more?

[Scuba Steve]

Originally Posted by jyl

House across the street sold in 1 day. I was mistaken, it has exactly same bd ba sqft as mine, and condition is similar. Don't have exact price (actually I do, but was asked not to disclose). But multiple bids and it wasn't below asking.

Here is the alarming thing. $10K down on a near $1MM house. I thought that stuff wasn't going on any more?

Most people I know who are buying are doing it somewhere around 3% down.

A place in our neighborhood that I thought looked like a disaster of a remodel went on the market for over $600K and almost immediately shows contingent. Materials used seem decent enough in pictures at least, but the place is screwy. Like 2 or 3 kinds of cabinets used in the kitchen, and the type and pattern of the hardwood in the kitchen changes about 1/3 of the way through the island. I guess somebody likes it so that must be good enough.

[jyl]

3% in SC - ooo that's not good, housing market getting bubbly again.

[aigel]

Looks like the low down payment loans are going up again. Supposedly this time it is different because there are no 'no interest' etc. funny loans and better credit is necessary.
See quote below - very much do not agree with that. If you buy a $1mil house with 30k down and there is a recession and you lose your job half a year later, you still will be handing back the keys, even if you have good credit. If 1/3 of all home buyers did that over the previous months and years, they will do the same ...

Q1 2015 U.S. Home Purchase Down Payment Report | Newsroom and Media Center

“The growing number of low down payment loans reflects an appetite on the part of lenders and the government to provide a format to grow the number of homebuyers, particularly first time buyers. Those numbers were running near record lows over the past couple of years,” said Craig King, COO at Chase International brokerage, covering the Lake Tahoe and Reno, Nevada housing markets. “The dangers of interest only, negative amortization, and low, low credit score loans are not a part of today’s low down loan programs. These are the components that got buyers in trouble during the severe downturn. Without those types of high risk components, low down payment loans are a sound strategy.”

I really wonder WTF is up with this. It hasn't been even 10 years before the last time we had a big mess...

G

[jyl]

FHA mortgage is capped at $675K I think. Wondering how this buyer got a loan for a house with asking price $975K with $10K down. Maybe I don't have the full story. Are there low down payment jumbo loan programs other than FHA?

[daepp]

jyl - probably with a higher rate second trust deed loan along with mortgage insurance.

FWIW - I was a bank auditor in a prior life. Then the EVP and CFO of a small commercial bank. While an auditor, the S&L's had just begun selling the home loans they originated. It made sense as they freed up cash (capital) to lend to more home buyers. The loans were pooled before they were sold and the risks were both diversified and manageable because they were made with 20% down payments. I would even be ok today with 10% down, so long as it wasn't borrowed and the credit history was good.

When you sweat and scrimp and save that 20% down, the odds of you walking away from it are WAY lower than when you borrow it (as in a 2nd TD).

[jyl]

But this is 1% down . . . I really didn't think this stuff was going on any more.

[aigel]

Maybe you only hear half the story on how it was financed. Maybe some Chinese cash was thrown in that nobody mentions.

I would really like to buy a second home or condo to rent out. Not going to happen anywhere close by. Price to rent ratios are 18 and up. That is not even making sense to buy to owner occupy.

G

[jyl]

Stories I've heard lately from friends in SF.
- Family is renting a house a couple blocks north of the Presidio. Rent is $6,400/mo. They consider themselves lucky. Market rent would be $12,000/mo.
- Couple bought a 1800 sq ft SF house with a small basement unit. They rent out the basement part for $5,000.
- $2.5 MM houses for sale in SF are shown for 2 hours, then binding offers must be submitted in 48 hours. No contingencies, no inspections.
- Bunk beds in a room with 2-3 other people, strangers, are renting for $700/mo.

This is insane.

[biosurfer1]

As a data point, we are in escrow right now with our house.

Listed it 2 weeks ago on Thursday night, 5 showings Friday, open house on Saturday with extra showings all weekend. Had 5 offers to review Monday, all over asking price. We settled on an offer that was not the highest, but better deal.

First time home buyers so I've tried to be patient, but they had their 4th inspection yesterday, and it will be their last one way or another. Now I wait to hear if they want anything fixed which will be rejected if I can't do it very easily.

Their agent knows we had multiple offers so I doubt it will be much. Certainly is a good time to sell!