Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

San Francisco Home Prices Fell for the First Time in Four Years in March

redfin.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 238 posts

Re: San Francisco Home Prices Fell for the First Time in Four Years in March

#31

Post by epimetheus »

sharkweek wrote: post #17
epimetheus wrote: post #14

A bit of an anecdote because the article mentions my town specifically - Tacoma: We put our house on the market Friday, April 8th, a bit below the "redfin estimate" - I saw it had gone live by 11am and we already had an interested party set up a viewing by 12pm. We showed the house 11 times by Monday morning and had 5 offers, some 12k above asking price. We accepted an offer by Tuesday (April 12). My head is still sp…

The entire Puget Sound is absolutely nuts right now - Friends put an offer on a 2BR1BA listed at 470, they were willing to escalate to 540, the house, now pending, went for 675 with three offers going above 600 and had a total of 20 written offers on it.

Yeah, much of the area is benefiting because of the growth in Seattle, Ferry Port towns specifically benefit, Port Orchard, Bremerton, Bainbridge, and Kingston all seem to be doing rather well in growth. I know on Port Orchard's Facebook there's a lot of concern and anger about the "big city folk" coming over and ruining their small town feel. I hate to be contributing to that, but it's where my wife's new job is and I can telework a few days a week so the extended drive doesn't bother me.

Re: San Francisco Home Prices Fell for the First Time in Four Years in March

#32

Post by fiatmoney »

reverend_gonzo wrote: post #24
KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a foreigner, I don't understand this attitude. Why would you want all your wealth to be invested in a single leveraged asset that's also depreciating, requires your constant attention and ties you to a single locale?

A number of reasons: 1) You don't pay rent. Once you own the place free and clear, it's yours and you always have a home. 2) While the house depreciates, property may may still appreciate, especially if you live in a nice area, and even more so if you own the land beneath you. 3) There are tax benefits to owning your own house. 4) When you start out, it's usually not that much wealth, since you're taking a loan on it…

You pay rent to the government, around here about 1.25% of the purchase price / year.

Re: San Francisco Home Prices Fell for the First Time in Four Years in March

#33

Post by nattaylor »

KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #18
chadlavi wrote: post #13

As a Brooklyn resident (who rents), I hope this trend picks up steam and continues. Maybe I could be a homeowner some day after all!

As a foreigner, I don't understand this attitude. Why would you want all your wealth to be invested in a single leveraged asset that's also depreciating, requires your constant attention and ties you to a single locale?

In addition to what reverend_gonzo said, there is the simple fact that rents (mostly) go up and mortgage payments don't.

Re: San Francisco Home Prices Fell for the First Time in Four Years in March

#34

Post by kspaans »

reverend_gonzo wrote: post #24
KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a foreigner, I don't understand this attitude. Why would you want all your wealth to be invested in a single leveraged asset that's also depreciating, requires your constant attention and ties you to a single locale?

A number of reasons: 1) You don't pay rent. Once you own the place free and clear, it's yours and you always have a home. 2) While the house depreciates, property may may still appreciate, especially if you live in a nice area, and even more so if you own the land beneath you. 3) There are tax benefits to owning your own house. 4) When you start out, it's usually not that much wealth, since you're taking a loan on it…

> 1) You don't pay rent. Once you own the place free and clear, it's yours and you always have a home.

Assuming you can keep up with property taxes! :P Though I understand they can vary a lot from place to place.

Re: San Francisco Home Prices Fell for the First Time in Four Years in March

#36

Post by underdown »

ilostmykeys wrote: post #12
yardie wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not exactly true. A lot of REIs are built on complex structures. The SF estate market might be fueling other investments. Once one starts to collapse it can have a domino effect. Basically if investors were expecting 10% annual return and you tell them this year might be 1-2% they'll take that money and move it elsewhere. Now you have to raise money or sell. When I used to live in downtown Miami there were hig…

> How can they take that money and move it somewhere? Most such investment contracts don't allow it. Am I missing something?

They stop adding more money in. Less future investment?

Re: San Francisco Home Prices Fell for the First Time in Four Years in March

#37

Post by kspaans »

reverend_gonzo wrote: post #26
refurb wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you're not paying rent because you have hundreds of thousands of dollars locked up in tye house? The real question is, how much money would you have made if all that equity was in the stock market? Sometimes that can be more than what rent would be.

And sometimes the stock market crashes and takes everything with it. See: every ten years. At least with a house, even if the value goes down, you still have a home.

You say "stock market crashes", I say "dividend yields go way up!". The losses are usually paper losses (hello tax-loss harvesting!), which don't bother long-term investors (whether they are home owners or stock investors). (I don't think you can tax-loss harvest a home though...)

Re: San Francisco Home Prices Fell for the First Time in Four Years in March

#38

Post by drudru11 »

reverend_gonzo wrote: post #26
refurb wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you're not paying rent because you have hundreds of thousands of dollars locked up in tye house? The real question is, how much money would you have made if all that equity was in the stock market? Sometimes that can be more than what rent would be.

And sometimes the stock market crashes and takes everything with it. See: every ten years. At least with a house, even if the value goes down, you still have a home.

... If you can still swing the mortgage

Re: San Francisco Home Prices Fell for the First Time in Four Years in March

#39

Post by kspaans »

nattaylor wrote: post #33
KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a foreigner, I don't understand this attitude. Why would you want all your wealth to be invested in a single leveraged asset that's also depreciating, requires your constant attention and ties you to a single locale?

In addition to what reverend_gonzo said, there is the simple fact that rents (mostly) go up and mortgage payments don't.

Interest rates aren't guaranteed to stay low. Here are the historic rates: http://b-i.forbesimg.com/phildemuth/files/2013/07/image001.p...

Though if you have a long-term fixed-rate mortgage, you are probably OK.

Re: San Francisco Home Prices Fell for the First Time in Four Years in March

#40

Post by LargeWu »

epimetheus wrote: post #14

A bit of an anecdote because the article mentions my town specifically - Tacoma: We put our house on the market Friday, April 8th, a bit below the "redfin estimate" - I saw it had gone live by 11am and we already had an interested party set up a viewing by 12pm. We showed the house 11 times by Monday morning and had 5 offers, some 12k above asking price. We accepted an offer by Tuesday (April 12). My head is still sp…

Kind of the same for us, in a first ring suburb of Minneapolis. Tried selling it two years back, had it on the market 5 months, not a single offer despite dropping the price $20k from our initial asking price. This year, put it on the market on a Thursday in middle of March, had an offer within 36 hours for our asking price, above what we ended up pricing it at before. It's pretty much like that all over the city.
Post reply on HN