Residential Median Sale Price per Sq Ft

[TOOLMAN]

Future Home prices Home price data on 384 markets - CNNMoney.com

YMMV

[Midpack]

I always assumed the disparities in real estate prices were mostly a function of supply & demand - location, location, location as they say. Lots of things can factor into demand, but still a pure example of supply & demand.

The recent bubble/meltdown was an example of demand way out of whack due to various forms of easy credit. Excess supply is still undergoing correction in many regions. But just my uneducated take on real estate...

[jerome len]

Take a look at a new residential development and go through the model homes. You'll find that the same floor plan can vary by over a $100 sq ft because of the goodies added by the buyer. So you have to add quality and quantity of features added to the base price of a new home. I looked at two 3 year old homes in a Toll Bros subdivision last week.....on the outside both homes looked the same, on the inside one had premium appliances, hard wood floors, more cabinets and that owner paid over a quarter million dollars more for their home than the other one for sale.

So, many factors go into the price per square fool.......I don't know anyone can come up with relevant comparisons. And, some of you have spoke of condos.....those have far lower land costs.....but sometimes their sq ft averages are higher than homes in the same neighborhood. Instead of sq ft comparisons, I look for comparable sales prices in the neighborhood I'm looking at.....I want to make sure I don't overpay in case I want to sell the home in the near future. And, a good real estate agent is your best friend when you're looking to buy or sell.

[FIREd]

Prices must have gone back up in SF since 2011. All the condos I looked at are ~ $700-$900/sqft in a so-so part of town. Even in the Mission, real estate goes for >$500/sqft. My house in AL goes for $90/sqft.

[donheff]

I am in one of those left side neighborhoods. Our house has appreciated about 500% since we bought it in 82. the neighborhood itself has gone from moderately expensive for the metro area to one of the most desirable in the area. Lots of young dual income families with kids even though schools are an iffy, competitive situation. DW likes those home shows that feature buying around the world. I am amazed at the mega-mansions in nice mid-sized cities that would cost half of what my house would bring. Unfortunately, we are like all the folks bidding up prices in my neighborhood - we like it here. Still, as long as something drastic doesn't happen to kill the value (dirty bomb, anyone?), it will provide a nice nest egg for the kids.

[W2R]

I bought my home in 2002 for $100/square foot, and realistically it has not appreciated much. At that price, it was relatively easy to pay off.

As is true for many women (and some men, too), my house is my "nest" and very, very important to my happiness. I love being able to afford a nice house that I like. When I enter my house, I enter a place that is beautiful to me, a place of comfort and refuge and peace that is mine alone.

To me, the lack of housing affordability in some areas is very unappealing and greatly detracts from the desirability of those areas for me. I want a nice house, I have one here, and living in crummy quarters (or living like a pauper to afford non-crummy quarters) makes no sense for me.

Now, if I could afford a nice house in an area like Honolulu, for example, AND not living like a pauper, I suppose that could be pretty superb. However, if wishes were horses, beggers would ride. Besides, I would miss New Orleans despite all of its (many, huge) faults.

[DeborahB]

I can't figure out how to calculate out (or in) the land. But if I take the current market value of our house and divide by the square feet I come up with $90/sq. ft. We have a 3100 sq ft house on .4 of an acre in a nice neighborhood.

The thing I think is worth mentioning is that people in general seem to think that because housing is inexpensive (relatively) so is everything else. Our Kansas City house isn't too expensive (NOT cheap) but the taxes and cost of groceries and so on are very comparable to more expensive parts of the country. You may have to kick out outliers like SF and NYC for that to be true.

Sales and restaurant tax here is generally about 8.5% to over 10%. It's painful And if I had kids, I'd have to move to KS so I could send them to public school because the schools here are bad.

So... there are tradeoffs.

[calmloki]

Yesterday we were in Arizona and we tend to look at places. Saw some mighty nice homes in the Carefree area for oh, a few million or 4 times that. They were pretty and you could eat and sleep in them. Also saw a couple stone buildings in Superior right adjacent to a creek - 6 300 sq.ft. rental units and a stone house for $175k. It was also a tad bit rough, but one could both eat and sleep there as well.

[Gatordoc50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TOOLMAN Future Home prices Home price data on 384 markets - CNNMoney.com YMMV

So far, the predictions are completely wrong for South Florida. I think they were assuming home prices wouldn't recover until unemployment improved significantly. But, investors are cleaning up the low end and there seems to be an endless supply of wealthy folks for the high end.

[clifp]

Buying in Vegas (where prices were under $<50 sq foot but have now risen considerably)and living in Honolulu where $500-600 is the average, I have been living with this disconnect for the last two years.

Initially I was thinking that everything in Vegas was crazy cheap, but now looking at kitchen remodel that is going to be $50K or more. I am increasingly finding Honolulu prices to be crazy expensive. My god I could practically buy another place in Vegas to remodel a <200 sq foot kitchen

[mb]

The Silicon Valley market appears to be heating up and/or recovering depending on how you want to look at it. (The far out suburbs were the areas hit hardest in the down turn. Prices in the "heart" of Silicon Valley held up pretty well.)

A 1960s era tract house near me recently received 20+ offers in a couple of days and sold for about $450/sq ft and about $100k over the original asking price. I think that houses in premium areas, e.g. Woodside, Portola Valley, Atherton, etc, are selling for more than that on a sq ft basis.

This may sound crazy to those in the middle of the country but prices have been crazy here (compared to most of the rest of the country) for decades and of course Silicon Valley and the SF Bay area have some unique characteristics driving those prices.

[gardenfun]

Real estate is pretty crazy here in the Bay Area:

Bay Area home prices up 24.6% over 2012 - SFGate

Supply is super low and the buyers are worried prices will go up. And they have.

[DeborahB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by clifp Buying in Vegas (where prices were under $<50 sq foot but have now risen considerably)and living in Honolulu where $500-600 is the average, I have been living with this disconnect for the last two years. Initially I was thinking that everything in Vegas was crazy cheap, but now looking at kitchen remodel that is going to be $50K or more. I am increasingly finding Honolulu prices to be crazy expensive. My god I could practically buy another place in Vegas to remodel a <200 sq foot kitchen

That's a really expensive kitchen remodel - are you sure it's not a rip-off place? Are you ripping the whole thing out? Even so that is expensive. We did some kitchen remodeling a few years ago and we could have ripped the large kitchen out and moved the bathroom too, for that kind of money. We got granite counters put over our hideous 1962 tile - also backsplash...

[photoguy]

A neighbors house in San Jose sold for just under 700k (2bed/1bath,1000sf). I'm still scratching my head on this one as it seems to me like it should have gone for closer to 600k.

[aaronc879]

Quote:

Originally Posted by photoguy A neighbors house in San Jose sold for just under 700k (2bed/1bath,1000sf). I'm still scratching my head on this one as it seems to me like it should have gone for closer to 600k.

I think you accidently added an extra 0 onto your numbers

My 2 bd,1 1/2ba 860sqft condo is worth <$40K. I don't "get" those prices or the incomes that would be required to afford them.

[haha]

Micro-Apartments in the Big City: A Trend Builds - Businessweek

This Bloomberg.com article discusses a trend toward very small urban dwellings-like 250 sq. ft. There have been a few built in dense Seattle neighborhoods, but there is also a lot of opposition to them, mostly from people in these neighborhoods who paid a lot more for their places, and also who have concerns about parking and school taxes on these cheaper dwellings.

Ha

[photoguy]

Unfortunately no. The house really is 700k = $700,000.

I think this is one of the reasons why people can be making really good wages yet still feel like they are on a hamster wheel.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by photoguy Unfortunately no. The house really is 700k = $700,000. I think this is one of the reasons why people can be making really good wages yet still feel like they are on a hamster wheel.

At what monthly rent would this place find good rental demand?

Ha

[clifp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thinker25 That's a really expensive kitchen remodel - are you sure it's not a rip-off place? Are you ripping the whole thing out? Even so that is expensive. We did some kitchen remodeling a few years ago and we could have ripped the large kitchen out and moved the bathroom too, for that kind of money. We got granite counters put over our hideous 1962 tile - also backsplash...

Good to know, that is my budget passed on input from my sister who is also starting her kitchen remodel. I don't have a firm estimate so it could be lower. Still 14K for cabinets from either Home Depot or Lowes, 6K for counter top, 3K for appliances. So that is 23K before flooring, light fixtures, upgrading my 1960 electrical, and includes no labor. In general I'm finding it to be at least twice as expensive to do stuff in Honolulu as Vegas.

[photoguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha At what monthly rent would this place find good rental demand? Ha

I don't have a very good feel for the rental market here. Zillow's rent estimate is $2450 but this seems high to me (of course I haven't looked for a rental for a long time).

A quick look on craigslist has a 2br town home (1000sq ft) close by renting for $2650 so perhaps Zillow's estimate is reasonable.