We live in a smaller Southern US city, but its one that has been getting a lot of attention because it is a technology center for space, missile and rocket technology
Huntsville? Had a fun weekend racing bikes there a couple of years ago.
That is what I figured. Alternatively, I live in a southern US city known for space, energy,and medicine. In the suburbs where most people live, houses are anywhere from sub $100/sqft to ariund $150/sqft. We have it good.
Silicon Valley, eye of the housing storm. Our 1300 sq.ft. house is rentable for ~$5000. We just converted our garage, and can probably rent it for ~$2,000. Housing costs play out in a dozen different ways here. Rising prices have created enormous wealth for some and enormous unaffordability for others. The result is completely predictable: some folks move to less pricey areas, some retirees bequeath their homes to their kids, Some long-time owners cash out to cheaper locations, some folks keep pumping money into the market, many folks triple or quadruple up in apartments (trading in less space for more economic opportunity). It has been happening for decades now, the present extreme will no doubt reset in some manner, but it is very hard to predict when and how that will happen, and what would happen to the larger economy.
The apartment I rented in 1999 for $850 a month just went up for $2750. 2br 1ba no laundry in Boulder. Cute old brick house - I really enjoyed living there in grad school. But it’s the attic of an old house where the ceiling is too low to stand under near the walls.
There’s a big difference between the $400 a month I paid for the smaller room and splitting $2750 so say $1300 a month. It looks like they updated a lot and moved a wall out to make the bedroom where you could stand up in it.
What are housing prices doing where you live?
How do you see this playing out on the economy?
Something to remember, In although not perfectly accurate, at 7% interest an investment will double every 10yrs. Soooo at 3.5% inflation prices would double about every 20yr… so your 1999 $850 would be 2019 $1700.
So its up but not as much as you think.
on the flip side of this… its why the tell you to start your retirement investment early… start when your 22 vs 32… if you started at 32 and have $500k at 60, had you started at 22 you would have $1million.
Oh I bought my house in 93 for $115k, in 2004 did a $125k addition, this winter spent $70k on a remodel… so in for over $300k house is worth about oh $300k maybe…
The apartment I rented in 1999 for $850 a month just went up for $2750. 2br 1ba no laundry in Boulder. Cute old brick house - I really enjoyed living there in grad school. But it’s the attic of an old house where the ceiling is too low to stand under near the walls.
There’s a big difference between the $400 a month I paid for the smaller room and splitting $2750 so say $1300 a month. It looks like they updated a lot and moved a wall out to make the bedroom where you could stand up in it.
What are housing prices doing where you live?
How do you see this playing out on the economy?
Something to remember, In although not perfectly accurate, at 7% interest an investment will double every 10yrs. Soooo at 3.5% inflation prices would double about every 20yr… so your 1999 $850 would be 2019 $1700.
So its up but not as much as you think.
on the flip side of this… its why the tell you to start your retirement investment early… start when your 22 vs 32… if you started at 32 and have $500k at 60, had you started at 22 you would have $1million.
Oh I bought my house in 93 for $115k, in 2004 did a $125k addition, this winter spent $70k on a remodel… so in for over $300k house is worth about oh $300k maybe…
I lived in that apartment while getting a graduate degree in economics- so I might know a little more than you’re giving me credit for.
After that apartment I bought a condo down the street with an FHA loan and put down 3k. Did some upgrades but not more than 5-6k and lots of sweat, blood and tears and walked with $70k when I sold it less than 3 years later. (My realtor did tell me -I wouldn’t show this to my other clients but I know you like to camp- when we went to look at it- it was rough). I’ve owned three other places since - they all were good investments. Even the ski condo that barely broke even- since I owned it when the market crashed and it did a lot better than my portfolio.
But while real estate has been really good to me- I think it’s crazy for the economy and implications on people who were born at less lucky times than I.
I was curious so I looked at a crazy market nearby
195 Erie, Cambridge, MA sold for $82,375 in 95. It’s currently listed at $3.2M. That’s a 3884% increase in 24 years
Cambridge has been expensive for a while now. The more recent booms around Boston are Southie, Charlestown, Roxbury - all the blue collar working class neighborhoods where people could buy affordable homes within 15 minute commutes from downtown. Just pulled up a listing on Zillow that’s a perfect example: house sold for $390K in 2009 (yeah, at the bottom of the crash but still), listed recently for $1.7MM. Another I just pulled up: sold for $1.2MM recently, was sold in 2015 for $560K - 200+% in four years! Or my home growing up, low-middle class neighborhood, big homes built at the turn of the 20th century that went for $140k in the 90’s. They’re all fetching right around a million now, and just recently I was talking to my father-in-law about the boom and Medford and he said ‘yeah that’s where the young families are going’. I have two friends who moved there a few years ago, $900K for their homes…only way they could afford them (again, in one of the shittier Boston suburbs)? They sold homes in Southie that appreciated 200+% in five years.
Boston real estate is INSANE - not Silicone Valley for sure, but good luck making $100K or less and finding a home unless you want to live in a shack in Dorchester.
I was curious so I looked at a crazy market nearby
195 Erie, Cambridge, MA sold for $82,375 in 95. It’s currently listed at $3.2M. That’s a 3884% increase in 24 years
Cambridge has been expensive for a while now. The more recent booms around Boston are Southie, Charlestown, Roxbury - all the blue collar working class neighborhoods where people could buy affordable homes within 15 minute commutes from downtown. Just pulled up a listing on Zillow that’s a perfect example: house sold for $390K in 2009 (yeah, at the bottom of the crash but still), listed recently for $1.7MM. Another I just pulled up: sold for $1.2MM recently, was sold in 2015 for $560K - 200+% in four years! Or my home growing up, low-middle class neighborhood, big homes built at the turn of the 20th century that went for $140k in the 90’s. They’re all fetching right around a million now, and just recently I was talking to my father-in-law about the boom and Medford and he said ‘yeah that’s where the young families are going’. I have two friends who moved there a few years ago, $900K for their homes…only way they could afford them (again, in one of the shittier Boston suburbs)? They sold homes in Southie that appreciated 200+% in five years.
Boston real estate is INSANE - not Silicone Valley for sure, but good luck making $100K or less and finding a home unless you want to live in a shack in Dorchester.
I rent a not-quite-a-shack but still pretty small house in Dorchester and I’d probably have trouble affording it if I wanted to buy it.
Question for you, which is really the question for my wife and me - what towns in Eastern MA would you look at to buy in if you were trying to solve the trifecta of reasonable housing price, decent public school system and workable commute into the city? I’m despairing of finding that particular unicorn.
I was curious so I looked at a crazy market nearby
195 Erie, Cambridge, MA sold for $82,375 in 95. It’s currently listed at $3.2M. That’s a 3884% increase in 24 years
Cambridge has been expensive for a while now. The more recent booms around Boston are Southie, Charlestown, Roxbury - all the blue collar working class neighborhoods where people could buy affordable homes within 15 minute commutes from downtown. Just pulled up a listing on Zillow that’s a perfect example: house sold for $390K in 2009 (yeah, at the bottom of the crash but still), listed recently for $1.7MM. Another I just pulled up: sold for $1.2MM recently, was sold in 2015 for $560K - 200+% in four years! Or my home growing up, low-middle class neighborhood, big homes built at the turn of the 20th century that went for $140k in the 90’s. They’re all fetching right around a million now, and just recently I was talking to my father-in-law about the boom and Medford and he said ‘yeah that’s where the young families are going’. I have two friends who moved there a few years ago, $900K for their homes…only way they could afford them (again, in one of the shittier Boston suburbs)? They sold homes in Southie that appreciated 200+% in five years.
Boston real estate is INSANE - not Silicone Valley for sure, but good luck making $100K or less and finding a home unless you want to live in a shack in Dorchester.
I rent a not-quite-a-shack but still pretty small house in Dorchester and I’d probably have trouble affording it if I wanted to buy it.
Question for you, which is really the question for my wife and me - what towns in Eastern MA would you look at to buy in if you were trying to solve the trifecta of reasonable housing price, decent public school system and workable commute into the city? I’m despairing of finding that particular unicorn.
What’s a workable commute? 
. Reasonable price?
Franklin in the south.
I don’t know if your going to Cambridge/North station though, but somewhere on 495 
My last office in Seaport, most of the people lived in central Mass - Worcester, Millbury, Shrewsbury, Oxford all had people that drove/train-ed there, and the office only had 20 people!
You can still get a nice house for $350-500 in Shrewsbury with a great school and cheap taxes (town won’t say no to retail on route 9), but it’s an hour on the train to South Station…
I was curious so I looked at a crazy market nearby
195 Erie, Cambridge, MA sold for $82,375 in 95. It’s currently listed at $3.2M. That’s a 3884% increase in 24 years
Cambridge has been expensive for a while now. The more recent booms around Boston are Southie, Charlestown, Roxbury - all the blue collar working class neighborhoods where people could buy affordable homes within 15 minute commutes from downtown. Just pulled up a listing on Zillow that’s a perfect example: house sold for $390K in 2009 (yeah, at the bottom of the crash but still), listed recently for $1.7MM. Another I just pulled up: sold for $1.2MM recently, was sold in 2015 for $560K - 200+% in four years! Or my home growing up, low-middle class neighborhood, big homes built at the turn of the 20th century that went for $140k in the 90’s. They’re all fetching right around a million now, and just recently I was talking to my father-in-law about the boom and Medford and he said ‘yeah that’s where the young families are going’. I have two friends who moved there a few years ago, $900K for their homes…only way they could afford them (again, in one of the shittier Boston suburbs)? They sold homes in Southie that appreciated 200+% in five years.
Boston real estate is INSANE - not Silicone Valley for sure, but good luck making $100K or less and finding a home unless you want to live in a shack in Dorchester.
I rent a not-quite-a-shack but still pretty small house in Dorchester and I’d probably have trouble affording it if I wanted to buy it.
Question for you, which is really the question for my wife and me - what towns in Eastern MA would you look at to buy in if you were trying to solve the trifecta of reasonable housing price, decent public school system and workable commute into the city? I’m despairing of finding that particular unicorn.
What’s a workable commute? . Reasonable price?
Franklin in the south.
I don’t know if your going to Cambridge/North station though, but somewhere on 495
My last office in Seaport, most of the people lived in central Mass - Worcester, Millbury, Shrewsbury, Oxford all had people that drove/train-ed there, and the office only had 20 people!
You can still get a nice house for $350-500 in Shrewsbury with a great school and cheap taxes (town won’t say no to retail on route 9), but it’s an hour on the train to South Station…
Thanks. Work in Kendall Sq right now so north station could probably work. I also don’t need to be in the office every day if I don’t want to, so it could be a 3 day a week thing.
And yah, 495 seems like the answer which is just insane to me. Been considering Acton area but don’t know what the commuter rail connection looks like (if there even is one). Franklin at least has a commuter line.
Basically I think we are screwed.
We live in a smaller Southern US city, but its one that has been getting a lot of attention because it is a technology center for space, missile and rocket technology
Huntsville? Had a fun weekend racing bikes there a couple of years ago.
Yes, the Rocket City. You should visit again when you get a chance, the place is changing faster than anywhere I have ever seen. A school turned into a drinking/playing/eating center (Campus 805) , a factory turned into the same (Stovehouse), the Madison Mall has been torn down and is being replaced with an amphitheater/music complex, stores, rock climbing, golf driving and eateries. A few miles away a new minor league baseball stadium is being built. Oh, and they are just getting started, downtown H’ville is getting into the act in a couple of locations, trying to keep up with west H’ville and Madison.
I grew up two stops from Acton on the Fitchburg line. My dad took the train to work every day. https://www.mbta.com/…-Fitchburg/timetable
Seemed to work great back then.
ETA You can switch to the red line at Porter Station (edited this as memory said it was alewife - but you can also drive to alewife to get on the redline). We did this a lot to not have to worry about train schedules when going out.
Back then starting in middle school we were allowed to take the train to Cambridge and mill about as a pack of kids. Doubt that would fly these days.
If you’re looking in that area have you looked at Wayland or Sudbury? Tons of my friends who grew up all over the metro area all seem to have ended up in Sudbury. No rail line that I know of though.
I was curious so I looked at a crazy market nearby
195 Erie, Cambridge, MA sold for $82,375 in 95. It’s currently listed at $3.2M. That’s a 3884% increase in 24 years
Cambridge has been expensive for a while now. The more recent booms around Boston are Southie, Charlestown, Roxbury - all the blue collar working class neighborhoods where people could buy affordable homes within 15 minute commutes from downtown. Just pulled up a listing on Zillow that’s a perfect example: house sold for $390K in 2009 (yeah, at the bottom of the crash but still), listed recently for $1.7MM. Another I just pulled up: sold for $1.2MM recently, was sold in 2015 for $560K - 200+% in four years! Or my home growing up, low-middle class neighborhood, big homes built at the turn of the 20th century that went for $140k in the 90’s. They’re all fetching right around a million now, and just recently I was talking to my father-in-law about the boom and Medford and he said ‘yeah that’s where the young families are going’. I have two friends who moved there a few years ago, $900K for their homes…only way they could afford them (again, in one of the shittier Boston suburbs)? They sold homes in Southie that appreciated 200+% in five years.
Boston real estate is INSANE - not Silicone Valley for sure, but good luck making $100K or less and finding a home unless you want to live in a shack in Dorchester.
I rent a not-quite-a-shack but still pretty small house in Dorchester and I’d probably have trouble affording it if I wanted to buy it.
Question for you, which is really the question for my wife and me - what towns in Eastern MA would you look at to buy in if you were trying to solve the trifecta of reasonable housing price, decent public school system and workable commute into the city? I’m despairing of finding that particular unicorn.
What’s a workable commute? . Reasonable price?
Franklin in the south.
I don’t know if your going to Cambridge/North station though, but somewhere on 495
My last office in Seaport, most of the people lived in central Mass - Worcester, Millbury, Shrewsbury, Oxford all had people that drove/train-ed there, and the office only had 20 people!
You can still get a nice house for $350-500 in Shrewsbury with a great school and cheap taxes (town won’t say no to retail on route 9), but it’s an hour on the train to South Station…
Thanks. Work in Kendall Sq right now so north station could probably work. I also don’t need to be in the office every day if I don’t want to, so it could be a 3 day a week thing.
And yah, 495 seems like the answer which is just insane to me. Been considering Acton area but don’t know what the commuter rail connection looks like (if there even is one). Franklin at least has a commuter line.
Basically I think we are screwed.
The Fitchburg line stops in Acton and twice in Concord. Littleton is a nice town too, with a station at 495 & route 2.
The one time I drove 2 and parked at Alewife, it took 3 hours to get to work! The roundabout in Concord gets backed up, and 2 inside 128 can be a parking lot…
people were saying Acton was the place to move for young families a couple years ago
I grew up two stops from Acton on the Fitchburg line. My dad took the train to work every day. https://www.mbta.com/…-Fitchburg/timetable
Seemed to work great back then.
ETA You can switch to the red line at Porter Station (edited this as memory said it was alewife - but you can also drive to alewife to get on the redline). We did this a lot to not have to worry about train schedules when going out.
Back then starting in middle school we were allowed to take the train to Cambridge and mill about as a pack of kids. Doubt that would fly these days.
If you’re looking in that area have you looked at Wayland or Sudbury? Tons of my friends who grew up all over the metro area all seem to have ended up in Sudbury. No rail line that I know of though.
Yes, have thought about those a bit. Have a friend with small kids who moved to Wayland a few years ago. He likes it, but he works on the west side of the 128 so the commute makes more sense for him.
Winter has it’s moments for sure, but long days the rest of the year are great.
Yeah, we’ve had a good tenant for a few years so we’ll just leave it renting unless they move on and then we might try to sell again.
Do they even film the series Shetland in the islands? I imagine its expensive to build there as everything has to come in on a barge.
Where is your house in the north east? Hasn’t there been some concern over some large employers in the NE such as Nissan closing some factories?
Fresno, California
.
Yes, lots of the Shetland series is filmed in Shetland, but not all. A lot of people get in it as the various extras they need.
And, yes, everything is more expensive due to location and transport. They reckon the cost of living is 30-60% higher than the rest of the UK. Presumably the 60% being the more remote isles like Fetlar or Foula.
I’m actually from south of that part of the north east, but the downward spiral started with the closure of iron stone mines before I was born, then British steel and ICI and other industry on Teesside.
My particular house selling issue is due to the traditional market for first time buyers moving from being older terraced houses (which i have) to new build developments where developers will do shared mortgages and offer other incentives like free furnishings to sell houses.
After years of stagnant prices in the last few years prices gone up a lot. Two guys across the street bought a house for 450k 3-4 years ago. It was on the market for 510. They have it up for 775K now. I am told prices up 23 percent for single family homes in the last year.
We are small town about 3 hours from Toronto. It appears people are cashing out from the Toronto area and buying what is cheaper here driving prices up.
A collegue who is leaving to work in the GTA sold her house to somebody from Toronto who is going to use it as a vacation home. It is beside a golf course and a muddy river. She has been in practice for 8 years post graduation and thought she would have her mortgage paid off in a few years. She now says jokingly that she is not sure when in the future she will pay off her new mortgage.
If we ever have significant interest rate hike in Canada or a significant decrease in employment we are in for major meltdown.
I rent a not-quite-a-shack but still pretty small house in Dorchester and I’d probably have trouble affording it if I wanted to buy it.
Question for you, which is really the question for my wife and me - what towns in Eastern MA would you look at to buy in if you were trying to solve the trifecta of reasonable housing price, decent public school system and workable commute into the city? I’m despairing of finding that particular unicorn.
What’s a workable commute? . Reasonable price?
Franklin in the south.
I don’t know if your going to Cambridge/North station though, but somewhere on 495
My last office in Seaport, most of the people lived in central Mass - Worcester, Millbury, Shrewsbury, Oxford all had people that drove/train-ed there, and the office only had 20 people!
You can still get a nice house for $350-500 in Shrewsbury with a great school and cheap taxes (town won’t say no to retail on route 9), but it’s an hour on the train to South Station…
Thanks. Work in Kendall Sq right now so north station could probably work. I also don’t need to be in the office every day if I don’t want to, so it could be a 3 day a week thing.
And yah, 495 seems like the answer which is just insane to me. Been considering Acton area but don’t know what the commuter rail connection looks like (if there even is one). Franklin at least has a commuter line.
Basically I think we are screwed.
To get downtown in a reasonable commute you have to sacrifice somewhere: price, schools, quality of home/neighborhood…which are you most flexible on?
I’d hunt around realtor.com, they have decent town data on market trends, average home price/sq. ft. price/school info. A couple towns to take a look at:
Saugus - https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Saugus_MA/overview
Billerica - https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Billerica_MA/overview
Norwood - https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Norwood_MA/overview
All of these are meh in terms of schools, but keep in mind they’re compared against some of the best school districts in the country.
Quincy - https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Quincy_MA/overview
I had a few friends who lived in Quincy, it’s pretty traffic-y and houses are right on top of each other but the schools are actually supposed to be pretty good there.
Beyond those you’re either looking at crap neighborhoods/schools (Everett, Malden, Revere, Dorchester) or too expensive (from the Medford’s and Woburn’s on up to the Cambridge’s, Brookline’s and Newton’s), and the next ring of suburbs (Weston, Sudbury, Milton, etc) good luck finding anything under a million. It’s bonkers, I’m so glad my wife and I aren’t tied to Boston for work…good luck finding that unicorn!
I’m in Toronto, and it’s absolutely crazy. We bought our 900 sq ft semi five years ago for $630k and comparables in the area are selling now for a million dollars.
The central bank is very aware of how over leveraged most people are in their homes, so I really can’t see a situation of interest rates rising any time soon.
Isn’t that like 14 bucks in real money, not loonies and toonies? Jk, but really that’s nuts. The home market in Denver is bad but not anything near that.
We bought in Highlands Ranch, about 15 miles south of Denver, 3 years ago for 525k. I wouldn’t list for less than 675k today based on comps and maybe a little higher depending on when we were selling.
The house we sold when we moved my wife bought 3 years before. It needed to be gutted it had the original floors from 1890 and you could see through them, and it was only 1500sq ft. But she bought for like 265k, sold for 425k and now it’s probably mid 500s although looking in that area it looks like those have really slowed down on price increases.
Like in the college threads, I feel sorry for people that are trying to buy right now. For the average person saving a downpayment for that is going to be next to impossible because the rent is miserable here too.
My parents bought 2 years ago and just for a decent condo it was 310k. Not anything special just something nice in a decent area. 60k even if you’re making 50-60k a year, is going to be a pain to save for. Rents are nuts here.