Real Estate, Really?
The last real estate crash was in 2008. This was caused by lax oversight on mortgage lenders and bundling tranches of sketchy mortgages and trading them as securities. Laws were enacted to limit the worst of these practices. Prices were mostly flat during the pandemic but began rising as the end of quarantine was in sight. People realized that with work possible from home one could live where one wanted rather than in proximity to one’s work.
Since the Federal Reserve sees little or no inflation (!!!!) interest rates have been kept low, which in the past year has fueled a buying panic. Median price in the first quarter in the USA is $347,500. Reports from Kossacks across the country describe rising prices and multiple cash offers on homes above asking price. For those of us in the greater Bay Area this median sounds unreal. Sonoma County is one of the least pricey counties, and yet our median last month was $780,000. And as I’ve mentioned here before, all kinds of luxury properties are listed for multi-millions of dollars. Easy money is everywhere.
Concomitantly the country is seeing more and more homelessness. Drugs and mental illness fuels some of this, but plenty of folks have just been priced out of conventional dwellings. Around here RVs are parked on many streets. By observation some of these folks go to work by day and live on the street at night, This is a step up from those in tents and under bridges.
Folks are leaving our area for locations with lower housing costs. Yes, but most of us here love where we live. We have a gentle climate, the ocean, mountains, redwoods, world class restaurants, and spectacular entertainment venues. By and large our political values echo mine. And... we have drought, fire danger, and the aforementioned homeless population, so perfection eludes us, as it does everywhere.
What’s good about where you live? Would you move if you could? Where would you move to? Are there intractable problems where you live, or could they be solved? What’s the real estate scene like in your area?
Of course this is not a quiz, it’s an open thread, so anything goes…..well, almost.
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