What is it with some NE Florida home Sales?

[Masquernom]

We are interested in a 55+ retirement community in South Carolina. I spoke to a local real estate person there. She said the community in 2019 would have between 40 and 60 houses for sale at any given time. Right now they have 8 for sale. Houses selling in 1 day, with multiple bidders.
She said owners usually left to either move into assisted living, or to be closer to family. With the Covid situation, nobody is moving.

 

[pjigar]

OP: Same here in Dallas, Texas. We tried to sell our home last year for $615K and there were no takers. Now the similar houses are listing for $730K. I don't understand but I won't complain. We are listing again this spring with whatever market price is current. I think the low interest rate and the upper K of the recovery explains the frenzy.

PS: And the building material prices are going through the roof so there is that.

 

[cbo111]

Our DS lives about an hour east of Atlanta in a rural community. He listed his house two days ago and has already shown it 8 times and has 3 offers above his asking price.
This has that whacky feel of the last real estate bubble.

 

[Accidental Retiree]

Residential real estate is crazy in my area of TX as well. Something I've never experienced before is a house selling for above asking price, which happened to a neighbor last week. The house was built in 2008, a 2,600 SF, 4 br, 2.5 bath on 8 acres. The seller said they had four offers the first day and signed a contract the following day for $25,000 above list. And their asking price was already $75 - $100,000 more than I thought it should have sold for.

Thinking we might like to move closer to family, last week we did a Zoom tour and put an unsuccessful offer in for a house in north San Antonio.

Our over-asking-price offer was one of 24. I’m not sure how many total offers there were, but it went pending in 2 days.

Our realtor and SA family were gobsmacked. We knew Austin was pretty competitive, but none of us knew about SA.

We are just standing pat for now.

 

[MuirWannabe]

What it it with some NE Florida home Sales?

DD upgrading houses in Dallas area suburbs. Sold their house after one w/e on market. Had 14 offers. Over asking price.

Now they are searching for their new home. Saw a house and really loved it. Put an offer in by the stated deadline the next day. Offer was 25K over asking. Also were pre-approved for loan amount, which is a requirement these days I guess. Also, offered up $2000 for something called an option fee, which amounts to a promise of seriousness in your offer. You lose it if you get the bid and then back out within 7 days. None of it mattered. They didn’t get the bid and found out there were 38 other bidders.

This seems insane to me. Different world than when I last bought a home, that’s for sure. I don’t think I could stomach it. Not sure I’d even want to win a bid against 37 others for a house. The seller agent was apparently telling their buyer agent he really didn’t want to bother showing the home to anyone else. They could just view it online. Holy smokes.

 

[Montecfo]

DD upgrading houses in Dallas area suburbs. Sold their house after one w/e on market. Had 14 offers. Over asking price.

Now they are searching for their new home. Saw a house and really loved it. Put an offer in by the stated deadline the next day. Offer was 25K over asking. Also were pre-approved for loan amount, which is a requirement these days I guess. Also, offered up $2000 for something called an option fee, which amounts to a promise of seriousness in your offer. You lose it if you get the bid and then back out within 7 days. None of it mattered. They didn’t get the bid and found out there were 38 other bidders.

This seems insane to me. Different world than when I last bought a home, that’s for sure. I don’t think I could stomach it. Not sure I’d even want to win a bid against 37 others for a house. The seller agent was apparently telling their buyer agent he really didn’t want to bother showing the home to anyone else. They could just view it online. Holy smokes.

The market giveth and the market taketh away.

It IS an unusual market. Low supply combined with high affordability, and of course that is a booming area.

Perfect storm.

 

[ivinsfan]

DD upgrading houses in Dallas area suburbs. Sold their house after one w/e on market. Had 14 offers. Over asking price.

Now they are searching for their new home. Saw a house and really loved it. Put an offer in by the stated deadline the next day. Offer was 25K over asking. Also were pre-approved for loan amount, which is a requirement these days I guess. Also, offered up $2000 for something called an option fee, which amounts to a promise of seriousness in your offer. You lose it if you get the bid and then back out within 7 days. None of it mattered. They didn’t get the bid and found out there were 38 other bidders.

This seems insane to me. Different world than when I last bought a home, that’s for sure. I don’t think I could stomach it. Not sure I’d even want to win a bid against 37 others for a house. The seller agent was apparently telling their buyer agent he really didn’t want to bother showing the home to anyone else. They could just view it online. Holy smokes.

I would not want to be in your DD's shoes at the moment. Not sure why they wanted to upgrade, but's going to cost them more in money and aggravation then they expected.

 

[bada bing]

One obnoxious aspect of the housing frenzy is the number of unsolicited offers I get by email and text for my Arizona house. I have no idea how they find my personal email address and cell phone number. Houses in my HOA have recently been selling at/before official listing. The flip side is that when I bought, in 2009, over 1/3 of the neighborhood was in foreclosure and I bought by short sale through the bank.

I'm not a bubble spotter, but it does look a little frothy to me.

 

[MuirWannabe]

I would not want to be in your DD's shoes at the moment. Not sure why they wanted to upgrade, but's going to cost them more in money and aggravation then they expected.

Just normal reasons. Growing family, old, small starter house in a less desirable neighborhood. Income has grown and they’d like a larger and nicer home. Same thing I did. Seems reasonable. What’s not reasonable is the housing market. But waiting that out, might be akin to waiting on interest rates to vault up or stocks to crash. Might be awhile. But there’s no question the market is red hot and nutty.

 

[davebarnes]

Could it have something to do with the slow-down on new construction (lumber and labor disruption to varying degrees)?

Huh? Slowdown?

 

[Sunset]

I'm going to tell DW that we should sell our house, and pitch a tent somewhere. Sell while the market is hot

 

[ivinsfan]

Just normal reasons. Growing family, old, small starter house in a less desirable neighborhood. Income has grown and they’d like a larger and nicer home. Same thing I did. Seems reasonable. What’s not reasonable is the housing market. But waiting that out, might be akin to waiting on interest rates to vault up or stocks to crash. Might be awhile. But there’s no question the market is red hot and nutty.

Seems like a domino effect going on, it's certainly OK for a family to want those things, what will they do if they can't find a home that works for them?

 

[Gumby]

Here in coastal Connecticut, we are seeing an influx of people who are leaving NYC. If you can work from home, it is far easier to weather the pandemic out here.

 

[street]

It is happening all over the US. Very low interest and slow down in construction of new homes has a large effect on this explosion. Building materials are at a all time high which makes buying an existing home cheaper.

 

[finnski1]

Something that is driving up prices in California is the cost to start construction. Construction permit for El Dorado County where I live is around $100,000 to $125,000. This does not include a water meter, which runs around $30,000 for a 3/4" inch line. Water costs about $100 a month depending on landscaping and # of occupants.
In Yavapai County, AZ (Prescott area) the same construction permits are around $12,000 to $15,000.
The price of raw land can also be pretty expensive in California. Where I live it's 5 acre parcels and sell for around $250,000 but may include a water meter.
So, for new construction single family custom home, not a subdivision, a owner/builder has to plunk down $350,000 to $375,000 before pounding even one nail into a board.
Also, property taxes may drive where people are moving and why. California property tax rate is 1% of the home's value and capped to 2% annual increase by law. There are other fees added to the tax bill as well as the basic property taxes; emergency ambulance fees, school bond fees, etc will add up. This is not the place for a first time home buyer. Many first time home buyers are leaving California due to these costs and I'd bet a good amount are heading to Florida, Arizona, Nevada, etc.

Yeah my brother lives in San Jose and he says it is ridiculous the # of permits he needs.
In small town NH I built my house(1950sq ft, 1000 sq ft detached garage, 8.5 acres etc) albeit in 1998 for $200k total for everything including land site work etc. $300k in permits would be a non starter for me.

 

[DenverGuy42]

My wife and I started looking for a place in Colorado Springs (my username is going to be not relevant in the near future ) last month.

Literally everything that goes on the market is pending within 2-3 days - at most. In Denver it is very much the same - https://www.westword.com/news/denver-area-home-showings-going-crazy-11885862 Can you imagine over 200 people going through your house right now in one weekend.

We put an offer in on a condo, that had competing offers on it already. We got it - but it was crazy fast. You'd call the realtor to see a place and they'd have to tell you it was off the market already and it had just gone on that morning or the day before.

I think a lot of people are thinking that "work from home" is going to be around for a while and are upgrading. Also, people moving from H/MCOL to a lower cost area - since they can be remote. Lots of people moving into Denver from outside the state. Lots of Denverites moving out of Denver due to the relatively high cost (a lot lower for the out of state people, but high for people that have been here forever).

 

[MuirWannabe]

Seems like a domino effect going on, it's certainly OK for a family to want those things, what will they do if they can't find a home that works for them?

Well, hopefully they will eventually find something. They are temporarily living with us between houses. I love my grandies, but this can’t be permanent. [emoji15]

 

[ponyboy]

Its not just Florida. I live in east bumble PA and any decent home that goes on the market is contingent or pending within a week...and I live in a poorer area. Interest rates are at an all time low. Everyone can get a loan.

Hmm...my memory isnt the best but havent we seen something similar to this in the past? lol...get ready...people never learn their lesson.

 

[Sunset]

Its not just Florida. I live in east bumble PA and any decent home that goes on the market is contingent or pending within a week...and I live in a poorer area. Interest rates are at an all time low. Everyone can get a loan.

Hmm...my memory isnt the best but havent we seen something similar to this in the past? lol...get ready...people never learn their lesson.

I think the difference is that interest rates are actually a few percent lower than in the past housing crisis.

So yeah, buying is/could be cheaper than renting. Especially if the buyer does not think about maintenance costs.

 

[razztazz]

Seems virtually every home in our general area, that are in decent developments, that were for sale are now pending or contingent. A lot of these homes are > $750k and >$1m, at least in our subdivision.

Some have not been on the market for more than 1 - 4 weeks. Is this the start of another RE bubble?

Seems odd that during a Pandemic home buying would increase. What is your area like?

My recent experience. Like a half hour ago. Got a call. answered it thinking it was the neighbor checking on me. It was some guy from a real estate outfit basically running a list and cold calling people asking if they want to sell. Now. We'll make you a good offer. I have never gotten a call like this before. The property he had me listed as owning was the mobile home park I moved out of about 10 years ago.

Sounds like there might be some kind of organized (loosely or tightly) group of players (nationally or regionally) shaking-the-tree for real estate. Possibly for some kind of quick kill / fast buck operation, or possibly just storing up available assets for an advantageous time in the intermediate future.

 

[W2R]

+1

It's happening here in my neighborhood, too. Houses are priced insanely high, and getting snapped up almost immediately. I guess about half are sold before they even reach the MLS. There isn't much inventory since houses are selling so fast.

But, as Frank says, "We've got to live SOMEPLACE!" So true. No point in selling when we'd just have to spend the profit buying another home at an insanely high price. Besides, we like where we live.

It's fun, though, to watch the local real estate market these days.

It's getting even worse! OMG this is so entertaining (for us). Definitely shadenfreude in a huge way, I freely admit it. But then, we have all BTDT and it's not like anyone is immune to serious house-buying woes at some point in their lives. I feel so sorry for buyers these days! Anyway, here's what's happening locally this week:

We usually have more than a dozen houses for sale in my neighborhood, and right now there are just six. Amazingly, 5 of the 6 are pending at insanely high prices.

The only one that isn't pending, is tiny with no front yard and in the worst imaginable location (jammed up right next to a 50mph street with no street parking, and no other access, plus right next to a canal which makes it flood prone). Horrendous. Also it is way overpriced but I doubt it would ever sell at any price.

Another one came on the market 3 days ago and is pending already at well over twice what we think it is worth. It does have a better location, but it is going to need $100K of work to make it remotely livable, IMO. Maybe it will be a tear down.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Rentals are whack as well. DW is in the rental management business and her "territory" covers 6 states...and almost everything is being rented within 48 hours of the listings going up. They had to change the "pocket listing" rules for homes that are being vacated to NOT list them until they are out, it's cleaned and READY TO RENT...it's crazy. Oddly enough, the slowest area for her is Charlotte, NC which had been as busy as ATL until the last month or so.

 

[Paulz]

The ability to work remotely and desire to have "safe" spaces to go to during pandemic is creating higher demand in suburban and desirable coastal areas.

Housing starts have been depressed also, only recently hitting levels of more than a decade ago. So inventories are low.

We live in one of the more distant DC suburbs and have seen prices rising at 2-3 times the normal rate.

I have to agree. I live in a DC suburb and houses in my neighborhood are selling for $80k-$100k more than they were last year. All the realtors point to the future of working from home and the realization of the need for space. We're 5-7 years from retirement, but the prices are getting to the point we are considering listing the home and just renting for the remainder of our time. Rental prices are higher than normal, but we would miss a bubble bust and be able to buy our retirement home when we found it.

 

[jeffmete]

Our paper just had an article about record house sales here in SW Michigan. Seems it’s being driven by Chicago people moving here now that they can work from home! On a note of caution, we bought a ocean condo last March and talking with a neighbor, he said he bought his back in 06 and is still underwater in value!

 

[LV_Travel]

Tax Flight

Guessing Florida is a lot like Las Vegas. For FLA high tax Eastern states. For LV it is a flood of high income/net worth Californians. Especially the high end homes. Historically we would have 3-5 years of high end home inventory. Now it is upside down. High end homes are 2-4 months and in the most desirable communities they sell within a week unless really stretching on price or something is wrong with the home. FLA versus NY, NJ and CT ALSO HAS THE WEATHER. If people have a choice, especially retirees and remote work force (thank you Covid) they will move if able and don’t have family reasons tieing them down.