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1234nameuser t1_j5td0rg wrote

People, do NOT buy a house right now. Is anyone listening to the Fed? They've literally guaranteed they will keep rates high until asset prices continue to fall.

This is the lowest point of the season for inventory in New England. Couple that with the lowest recorded volume of both homes being sold / homes being listed = no go. There is no trust in the recent price / sqft at this low of inventory, it's smoke and mirrors.

Other states are already seeing drops up to 15% in 8mo times from the mid-2022 peaks. That's simply unheard of historically. As other states cheapen more people can spread out frm the New England area and inventory will increase. Sit on your lease and wait for inventory.

"Date the rate, marry the house" means your entry price is what matters for long term asset growth.

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Delicious_Score_551 t1_j5tq5zv wrote

This is also a good reason TO buy now. If you do decide to try a purchase .. bargain hard, be ready to walk. Use the crap market as a weapon.

Use all of the arguments that ^ you've used above to tell the seller: "I know how bad the market is. You make me a deal or I'm walking. As one of the few people willing to risk it in this market. Prices are expected to fall 15% - and I'm willing to take all the risk at a X% discount on your price or I walk. I'll come back when your home falls 20% in value .. and buy it from you then for less than I just offered today. Your call."

Sometimes doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing can be used to your advantage.

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TheOtherMark t1_j5ty49l wrote

Those are valid negotiation strategies, and they can protect you from walking into bad deals. But in the meantime, the other buyers are offering above asking price, waiving inspections, or they're corporate landlords/flippers making all-cash offers.

The sellers will still go after the easy money. So playing hardball and walking is fine, but you're still basically waiting for an irrational market to calm TF down.

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b_writes t1_j5yu7x3 wrote

100%. Even though the market sucks, there’s still a fucking ton of other people that are also interested in buying and they don’t care.

We bought earlier in the year but I’ll always remember a house we looked at in a “less than desirable” town that backed a lot owned by the town and was being remedied for contaminated soil (which of course was not listed anywhere in the listing). The lot sloped into this house’s backyard and we were concerned that the house’s soil was contaminated too, so asked the realtor if the owners were willing to do a soil test to ensure the backyard was safe (as it also had a well). The realtor laughed and said that they already had multiple offers waiving any inspections so a soil test was the last thing on their mind. A few days later, the house sells and a family with four young kids is posted by the realtor congratulating them on their purchase.

So yeah, unfortunately, even asking for basic safety net things is still out the window in this market.

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KindaEgotistical OP t1_j5tdrzq wrote

This is to be fair the only time I’ve heard of a good reason to not buy.

But for the most part if I don’t buy now, when I buy when everyone says it’s a good time to buy I’ll have to bid against 4 different people again. At least in this market people are taking at offer price or less or simply dropping their asking price.

But because of how terrible inventory is and the pricing I might wait at this point. If prices fall great but houses tend to appreciate if only by a little lol I’d feel more confident if a bunch of good neighborhoods sold their house 2/3rds less than comps in the area I’d love that so that it can just reset prices all around.

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Yenttirb_I_am t1_j5tesa0 wrote

I suspect you’ll have more inventory popping up in the spring. You’re near a military family area, too, which helps. People will put their houses up for sale in spring and summer and move before next school year starts up.

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KindaEgotistical OP t1_j5tf0ra wrote

This gives me some hope of course maybe I should just be patient about it. Last year I originally didn’t expect things to be better till 3rd quarter this year haha but it’s just annoying just waiting when you don’t know what will come

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secretmuffinsauce t1_j5tj97f wrote

Just wondering what makes you think people will want to move? Most people refuse to sell because there is nothing to buy.

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nikedude t1_j5tpkdv wrote

People die. Jobs change. People get sick of the climate or move closer to help out family. Life happens

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CatsNSquirrels t1_j5tp9za wrote

And also because many people have sub-3% interest rates. Nobody is going to sell until rates come down, because it makes zero sense to lose a cheap loan just to trade spaces (and there are very few homes to even choose from). The only people who will be selling are those who have to.

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Yenttirb_I_am t1_j5u6rpw wrote

There are lots of reasons people end up HAVING to move- I specifically stated it’s a big military area and unfortunately when you get a new station, you can’t say no “due to lack of housing.”

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1234nameuser t1_j5tfg8s wrote

Inventory is really all that matters. The pandemic was easily the largest demand pull our economy has seen in history (unsustainable low rates) so we know recent prices are entirely unsustainable on demand alone.......which has now cratered to all time record lows, naturally.

With money literally raining down from the sky (PPP loans being the scam of the century) everything escalated quickly and it's literally guaranteed there will be a long painful hangover. Let's all enjoy the ride.

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