All About Pocket Knives

Would really like to hear about what is going on in home prices(and land) throughout this nation, insane around here.

Same here in Sheridan, Kris; same in Billings, Cody, and so on. The folk from the West Coast are on their way! They are offering MORE than the asking price, and sometimes sight unseen! Think our real estate taxes might go up?

I hear that, most folks have a slice of heaven around here, and the prices are quite high. I can see many wanting to sell with these prices, but they wont be able to afford the same lot most places in the US. I see many being priced out of homes and definitely land in the future. JMO

Montanaman wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 10:41 pm I hear that, most folks have a slice of heaven around here, and the prices are quite high. I can see many wanting to sell with these prices, but they wont be able to afford the same lot most places in the US. I see many being priced out of homes and definitely land in the future. JMO

They can get a nice place in downtown Flint, MI.

What has happened in the cities affects everyone. Wish I had any clue of an answer.

It’s through the roof here. My little place 8 1/2 acres, two shops, barn, and a house has more than doubled from what we have for it 5 years ago. If I could afford anything else I’d sell in a minute. But where would I go?

Prices are insane in north Texas. The biggest issue is property tax is based on value and when the houses around you sell so high it drives my taxes up the maximum allowable amount every year.

Here in North Texas it varies greatly. My daughter bought 8 acres at over $10K per acre. I know some
friends in Ponder, TX paid over $21K per acre and the land next to them is now going for over $25K per
acre. Ken might be able to give better info on the average land in our region.

Houses are not as high as in many other U.S. locations but for us they are getting out of control. The
house I'm building right now is in a sub-division out in the county (for now) and our lot is a corner lot.
The sq. ft. of the house will be right at 1,700 and the final price will be just over $300K.

I don't think you really want to know what is going on here in Northern Virginia. We have a 5 BR split level house that was built in 1952 (same year we were born) that we bought in 1989. We have a little over 1/2 acre, inside the beltway, and when one goes for sale in our neighborhood, a bidding war ensues. I don't even want to know about the prices any more. Our kids and grandchildren live near by, and we have to live somewhere, right?

Prices here are insanely high relative to what they were just two or three years ago. Average home price in a small but fast growing city near here currently range from $190 to $230 per square foot of air conditioned/heated space, according to data on home sales published monthly in a local publication. So a 2000 sq. ft., 3 bedroom, 2-1/2 bath home on a 5100 sq. ft. city lot is bringing about $400,000+. It’s a seller’s market - homes for sale are typically on the market 2 -3 days or less.

Real estate developers are buying acreage all over north Texas, and Texas in general. New housing subdivisions are springing up everywhere - some of the construction practices are frankly appalling, especially the tract home builder/developers. Driving on any major thoroughfare through a residential area it isn’t unusual to see 15-20% of the license plates are from Michigan, Colorado, California, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Illinois, etc. Many are retirees who sold their homes, bought a larger home here for less money, and put the difference in retirement income.

Others are moving here for jobs, low taxes and lower cost of living. I’m wondering how much longer that lower cost of living will last, especially when the newcomers vote for all the costly @*&#* that was the reason they left their homes to move here. And I’m worried about where they’re going to get enough water for all those newcomers!

Ken

C-WADE7 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 11:03 pm Prices are insane in north Texas. The biggest issue is property tax is based on value and when the houses around you sell so high it drives my taxes up the maximum allowable amount every year.

Here in Ky. the property taxes are based on assessed value and property is reassessed every four years. I've lived here for nearly 35 years now. Last year when I got my annual tax bill it had gone up 82.7% from the previous years bill. It may not be as huge of an influx as the state of Texas is experiencing, but we too are getting a lot of new property buyers coming in from out of state because the costs here are relatively low. The problem with that is the reason the values have been low is because wages here tend to be modest as well. When both wages and property values are in sync, things work pretty smoothy for most folks. When the wages remain low but the property values are driven much higher by folks who have lived and worked in higher wage areas, the locals tend to take a pounding. We are beginning to see that trend here. It's not hard to envision things reaching the point where long time residents get squeezed out of their homes because they can't afford the surging property taxes along with all the other cost increases inflation is piling upon us.

philco wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 2:39 am

C-WADE7 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 11:03 pm Prices are insane in north Texas. The biggest issue is property tax is based on value and when the houses around you sell so high it drives my taxes up the maximum allowable amount every year.

Here in Ky. the property taxes are based on assessed value and property is reassessed every four years. I've lived here for nearly 35 years now. Last year when I got my annual tax bill it had gone up 82.7% from the previous years bill. It may not be as huge of an influx as the state of Texas is experiencing, but we too are getting a lot of new property buyers coming in from out of state because the costs here are relatively low. The problem with that is the reason the values have been low is because wages here tend to be modest as well. When both wages and property values are in sync, things work pretty smoothy for most folks. When the wages remain low but the property values are driven much higher by folks who have lived and worked in higher wage areas, the locals tend to take a pounding. We are beginning to see that trend here. It's not hard to envision things reaching the point where long time residents get squeezed out of their homes because they can't afford the surging property taxes along with all the other cost increases inflation is piling upon us.

We get assessed every year but I think 10% raise per year max. I live near Whitesboro Texas and land is 20-50k an acre depending on location and who’s buying. Lots of high dollar horse operations around here($1,000,000 horses) so the money flows.

I will echo what Ken and David said. It's insane here in North Texas. We moved back to our little home town in April of 2020, just as the pandemic started. Our place (5 acres, house, shop w/ apartment) has increased in value by about 40% since then, according to Realtor.com. We are rural, but builders are buying up all the tracts of land around us 200 to 400 acres at a time, and throwing up sub-divisions as fast (and I mean fast!) as humanly possible. We go riding around in our SxSs, and they are throwing up 5 to 10 houses a week in them. Most of these new homes sit on 1 acre, are 2,000 to 2,700 Sq ft, and go for $500K, plus or minus. Over half the folks we stop and talk to are from out of state - with a lot from California and Colorado. They are very hesitant sometimes to tell us where they are from - especially if it is from California. In the next breath, they assure us they are not going to "California our Texas". I wonder if these Californian's feel like all the Okies fleeing the dust bowl for California back in the depression? And now they are fleeing back.

The landscape is changing so fast it is mind boggling. Traffic is getting worse, and of course the old country roads were not built to handle all this traffic. I guess change is inevitable. I've just never seen such a rapid transition in my 60 years. The little town I grew up in had not changed much since I moved away 40 years ago, and I loved that. But that is all fixing to change.

What do you think is a good time to buy a house now? I have been saving money for a hose for more than 5 years, and now it seems it’s time to choose a good option, but the prices are insane. And I think maybe I better rent for some more time and see what happens to the housing markets.

I'll give you one opinion and some guys smarter than me can jump in here and help you. I don't think the price of the houses is going to change that much in the next 5 years or so. By that I mean a house for 300K today is most likely still going to sell for 300K or more in the future. What you need to be paying attention to is the interest rates and the city and county tax rates. If you wait, do it for the interest rates not the price of the house.

QueueWhere wrote: ↑Fri Sep 30, 2022 6:55 pm What do you think is a good time to buy a house now? I have been saving money for a hose for more than 5 years, and now it seems it’s time to choose a good option, but the prices are insane. And I think maybe I better rent for some more time and see what happens to the housing markets.

I'm a big believer in home ownership. It's the top way most of us ever accumulate wealth. Every rent payment you make is gone forever, never to return. Every house payment you make gets you a little closer to owning your own home free and clear. At first the headway you make is slow, but as you pay down the principal, your progress accelerates. Currently interest rates are on the rise, but they still aren't close to the 10% rate I started out with when I built my home. I'd advise anyone to secure a fixed rate loan to hedge against future interest rate increases. If, somewhere down the road, interest rates decline again, you can always refinance to take advantage of a lower rate.
One other bit of unsolicited advice I'll offer is this'; If you can pay even just a little extra above and beyond your scheduled monthly payment, do so. Every dollar extra you pay will go to reduce the principal and that means you'll never have to pay interest on that dollar again. Over the life of your loan, it can make a huge difference in your overall cost and also will accelerate your final payment.

That is great advise that Phil just gave you especially the payment. I pay more than my scheduled payment each month and in the end I will have saved thousands of dollars. Good luck with whatever you decide...

Disclaimer: I live in an insane area for housing prices. There is a house on our street that is 966 sq ft (yes, you read that right - 966!!), and it just sold in 3 days for $1.3 million. And, no, there is no big parcel of land with that - the lot size is 3,995 sq ft. I am willing to bet that whoever bought this little 2 bedroom house is planning to tear it down to ground, then build a 3 story house on the lot. That house will probably sell for $3 million.

One thing I know for sure about our local housing prices: Housing prices go up FAR faster than wages and on the occasions when they go down, they NEVER go down enough to offset the associated increase in mortgage rates. So, the result is that you keep getting farther and farther behind on the monthly housing cost/monthly salary metric, and the down payment keeps getting higher. You have to get in when you can, and even if it goes down after you buy, just hang on, because that downturn won't last more than a year or two. If I had not bought a house here in 1987, I wouldn't be able to afford to live here now.

But, we are definitely not a "normal" housing area. I wouldn't make any investment decisions based on our lunatic market!

QueueWhere wrote: ↑Fri Sep 30, 2022 6:55 pm What do you think is a good time to buy a house now? I have been saving money for a hose for more than 5 years, and now it seems it’s time to choose a good option, but the prices are insane. And I think maybe I better rent for some more time and see what happens to the housing markets.

I did research online, and blogs like https://timthomas.co/signs-of-a-housing-market-crash/ tell there is a bubble in the housing market, and the market will crash or has already crashed. There are many signs it’s already happened, but I don’t know what conclusions to draw from this.

Average $142K last month according to a Google search.

My house is over 100 years old, it's not a dump but it could stand some work. I bought it 27 years ago, unfinished for $44,000 with the interior around 80 percent finished. I did put a new roof on the house and garage. Last year when I got my property tax bill the county estimated my property for $89,000. No way in the world would my property would pull in that amount of money. Don't really care, after I turned 65 I filed for the old fart credit, don't remember what it was called, and my taxes went down to $30 something a year. I was paying close to $500 a year for the house and garage, two lots. Don't know if Indiana is the only state that gives that deduction but it's worth looking in to! Property is going up in the county I live in though, how much I don't know.

I just did our end of month City deposits, down from $900,000 earlier this year to $280,000. Mainly driven by collected real estate recording taxes, or lack thereof.

Our house price has a good deal more than doubled since we bought it 7 years ago. I couldn't buy it now if I had to. Feel kinda sorry for the one's trying to get into the market. I've read where some areas actually subsidize tracts for police, fire, and teachers because they can't afford to live anywhere near where they work. Hope those poor folks in Florida have the wherewithal to rebuild what they had.
"I Wish A Buck Was Still Silver, Like Back When The Country Was Strong"(Merle Haggard)
J.O'.

I have, after a lot of searching found some housing I can afford. Let's see now, with a 30 year loan how much is that a month????

Prices are thru the roof here in Maine