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U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

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Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#221

Post by ProllyInfamous »

drewrbaker wrote: post #151
htag wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If homes are to be affordable that means more need to be built. Try pricing what it would take to buy a plot of land and build a home on it. In some places there are very expensive local regulations that must be satisfied. However, just the base value of some land with utility access, physical materials, and labor to assemble the home is "unaffordable." If the difference between the cost to produce a home and the s…

In 2019 I purchased land in Mt Washington, about 15mins outside downtown Los Angeles for $200k. My father is a builder back home in Australia so we know more about building that most. Even the after 3+ years, we finally received permits. The city is making us widen the road ($75k), extend a water main 12 feet ($75k), move 3 power poles (can’t get LADWP to tell us what that’s going to cost yet as they have to design i…

I have built a personal house with two brothers — one my own Twin — and wow ya'll are in for an undertaking.

I've built, all-together, about similar budget (for two houses with brothers) and I don't even think I have enough energy to build my own house, now. But gonna try, on some land in a county with minimal regulations.

House Twin and I built was in a Historic District, which was the biggest nightmare of the entire construction. We literally did the rebar and formwork and roof and plumbing and electrical. And they made us re-do windows and other such bullshit to "be in conformity with the neighborhood, but without giving the impression of being historic itself." JFC, make up your minds [worse than any HOA nightmare].

Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#222

Post by ProllyInfamous »

elihu wrote: post #198
drewrbaker wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2019 I purchased land in Mt Washington, about 15mins outside downtown Los Angeles for $200k. My father is a builder back home in Australia so we know more about building that most. Even the after 3+ years, we finally received permits. The city is making us widen the road ($75k), extend a water main 12 feet ($75k), move 3 power poles (can’t get LADWP to tell us what that’s going to cost yet as they have to design i…

I've looked into building in Portland OR. I don't think we're quite as bad as what you describe (except for the bureaucracy which is spot on), but I came to the conclusion that there'd be about $100k in fees. Just the fees to be allowed to hook up to the city sewer I think came out around $30k if I understand them correctly. (It's possible I'm missing something. I'm not an expert.) For some people that's probably a b…

In my AHJ, if the sewer line passes by your property YOU HAVE TO PAY DISPOSAL/SEWAGE FEES (based on water usage), even if you have your own functional and safe septic system.

Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#223

Post by tstrimple »

operatingthetan wrote: post #128
tstrimple wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case, the insulation was mostly just air. There is zero insulation at all in my garage in a place with harsh winters and there is no insulation between my garage and the house. My attic also did not have insulation, but that one was cheaper and easier to resolve than all the wall cavities.

Have you checked what the building code in the area requires? If the builder was negligent and you're they first owner they may be liable.

Unfortunately we aren’t the first owners. I know some of the issues we are seeing is from shitty diy or contracting from the previous owner, but most of them are from the original construction. One example of shitty DIY is the hardwood floor on the main level that we are currently replacing. The newly installed floors were a bit lower than the original floors so they just covered all the gaps with corner round all around the baseboards. Looks super tacky. But is a fairly minor issue all things considered. We are replacing that with another layer of sub flooring and engineered wood floors to try to reduce the amount of movement you can feel in the floors.

Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#224

Post by ac29 »

icelancer wrote: post #168
ec109685 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sitting on a home with 2-3% interest is all well and good, until the value drops and you’re sitting on a much worse asset. I.e. if you own a second home with a 3% interest rate, should you sell now or collect rent on it?

> Sitting on a home with 2-3% interest is all well and good, until the value drops and you’re sitting on a much worse asset. What is the mechanism of action that causes the value to drop?

Higher interest rates mean lower house values.

Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#225

Post by havblue »

tstrimple wrote: post #220
havblue wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate on what problems occur on those houses versus normally sized ones? Framing? The foundation?

Every bathroom was finished with normal drywall instead of the water resistant stuff. The vents in the upstairs bathrooms just vented into the attic space leading to moisture issues in up there. There must also be an issue with either the framing or the foundation because we have the ceiling separating from the drywall in almost every room in the house in addition to cracks developing in the drywall. I know some amou…

Thanks for sharing, I'm sorry to hear about all the problems you're having.

I think a major issue is just water being the root of all evil for house problems and the bigger your house is, the more recent it was built, the more corners were cut. It's all compounded by contractors wanting to overcharge you if you're in an expensive neighborhood and not give you the time of day otherwise.

It's like you could just say, "let's just get rid of all this extra furniture and stuff and live within our means. The kids don't need that many toys." But then the argument falls on deaf ears and you wind up with the neverending complexities of redecorating, contractors, insurance claims and stress.

Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#226

Post by BeetleB »

crooked-v wrote: post #189
BeetleB wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gp said home but the article he links to is talking about houses.

No, it's talking about housing units, which includes both single- and multi-family construction.

The 6.5 million number number the original poster mentioned is for single family houses, as per the article.

It does say when you include multifamily, the gap drops to 2.3 million.

Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#227

Post by fsckboy »

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #197
fsckboy wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans use wood because they have wood, it's an excellent building material. The parts of the world where they don't use wood, it's because they don't have wood, they've used it all up. America is covered in forests, Canada even more.

The cost of the frame today is a very low percentage of the total house cost, the issue is more cultural: that there are few people in America who know how to build from any other material, there are few cement or brick factories etc.

nothing you pointed out makes wood less of a great building material in comparison

Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#228

Post by drewrbaker »

ac29 wrote: post #215
LocalH wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you miss where they stated the city is making them do that stuff?

Choosing to build a giant home in the LA hills with a budget of $2M just for construction is the out of touch rich people thing, not the additional issues with the city.

I think you missed my point. Our land is super cheap for LA (hence all the infrastructure work). Even if we built a garden shack on it, we’d have spent $600k. How could a working class family ever afford to build a house like this?

If the goal is more houses, make them faster and easier to build. Less red tape, less infrastructure requirements. Otherwise it’s only well of people like me that can (barely) afford them.

Now I’m sure you’ll say “don’t live in a coastal city then”. That where the work is. And it’s also where 40k homeless people live. Connect the dots. We need more houses. There is land to build them, it’s just insane to do that under current rules.

Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#229

Post by Balgair »

blurbleblurble wrote: post #93
superkuh wrote: post #10

From 1950 to 2008 the USA built ~25 million homes per (edit, not year) decade. From 2008 to 2018 it was about 7 million. In recent years building rates have mostly recovered but there's still that gap in production combined with everything else the last handful of years. This isn't to discount the shift of ownership from human persons to corporate persons, that's a factor too. But just numbers of available houses ver…

There are ~30 vacant homes per homeless person in the US. Tell me how that makes any sense.

Some of the school districts near-ish me are so desperate for teachers that they will up and just give teachers a house and a car. It's not prime real estate and not a new car, but you get the gist.

There are hardly any takers.

As has always been true in real estate: location, location, location

Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#230

Post by OrvalWintermute »

dalyons wrote: post #66
OrvalWintermute wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my HCOL area we are already seeing prices nosedive after they sit on the market for a few months. The discounts are around 15% off peak, and this is just the start.

Which area is that?

Northern VA

We generally see closing in a week in our neighborhood of 1M to 2.2M homes with multiple competing offers, or sold before actually for sale.

My take is that this is driven by listings coming out at peak prices, but with some softness in the market and increasing rates, tepid demand.

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