Posted on 08/29/2022 7:16:57 AM PDT by millenial4freedom
A majority of new American homeowners say they’re “house rich and cash poor,” according to a new U.S. News & World Report survey.
The survey, conducted by the third-party survey platform Pollfish, asked 2,000 new homeowners in the U.S., who purchased their first home between 2021 and 2022, how they currently feel about their financial situation.
More than half of them — 59% — answered that “house rich and cash poor describes my situation.” It’s a sentiment that “reflects both the rising sales prices of homes across the country as well as some of the unexpected costs of homeownership that first-time homebuyers encounter,” according to the U.S. News and World report.
“new-style 220 volt outlet.”
New? Are you referring to 4-prong versus 3-prong?
Best Absolute Real Estate Auction story EVER.
Back in the 1990’s the Wang Computer building complex went up for Absolute Auction in Lowell, MA. Hardly anyone showed up including the Bank Representative. The auction started and someone made a bid. It ended up selling for about $675K.
The complex of three large buildings had cost over $7 million to build. The bank rep was not there to make sure the minimum bid price was attained. He ended up losing his job. It made the front page of all the Boston papers.
I bought right at the start of a 5-year real estate crash in 1984. Didn’t matter, since I had just bought I had no interest in selling. Sold in ‘92 for a tax-free profit and moved to a nicer home and area.
” Only a fool would ‘own’ a home now, especially concerning the need to move for work, local tax collectors, etc.”
Not nice to call fellow creepers fools.
I have said this numerous times to my wife. I could make a living just doing home repairs for people who post on our local Facebook page. This is for a town of 12k residents.
There are people who literally have no clue how to do anything around the house. There was a lady recently asking for a “handyman” to remove the cabinet in kitchen above the fridge. Apparently, she had ordered a new fridge that was too tall to fit in the spot. She obviously had not measured the height before purchasing. I explained to her that there was probably at most four screws holding it in place.
Especially in high property tax states.
“I think he was talking about a new pig tail for the dryer. I believe replacing the pig tail everything is color coded.”
Follow the conversation:
” ... their new house had the new-style 220 volt outlet.”
Yep. Exactly what I was referring to.
My recollection of figures were off a little:
$80-Million Wang Complex Sells for $525,000
Feb. 17, 1994 12 AM PT
From Associated Press
BURLINGTON, Mass. —
Wang Laboratories Inc.’s $80-million office complex in Lowell has been sold at auction for a mere $525,000.
Buyer Lou Pellegrine refused to say whom he represented or what is planned for the three 14-story buildings.
Four bidders registered for the sale, plunking down $100,000 for the right to take part.
“We’re not disappointed. This was how much the property was worth today. The market establishes the value,” said Frank J. Ryan, vice president for corporation communications for Wang.
The complex cost about $80 million to build but is now assessed at $20 million, Lowell Assessor Sean McFadden said.
Also from the Lowell Sun article:
Remember when – Wang Towers were built?
By Chris Tierney |
PUBLISHED: January 26, 2018 at 12:00 a.m. | UPDATED: July 11, 2019 at 12:00 a.m.
In case you missed it, the Cross Point Towers were sold again this week, this time for $227 million to CrossHarbor Capital Partners, a commercial real-estate firm with an office in Boston. The local landmark, which was once world corporate headquarters of Wang Laboratories, is the third-tallest building in Lowell, after Three River Place and the Kenneth R. Fox Student Union. The property is made up of one 13-story tower and two 12-story structures, totaling more than 1,200,000 square feet, and is situated on 15 acres on Chelmsford Street at Industrial Avenue, and dominates the skyline at the juncture of the Lowell Connector, Route 3 and Interstate 495.
Originally built under the direction of Wang Laboratories founder An Wang, the towers were constructed in stages during the 1980s at a cost of $60 million (about $152 million in current dollars), and were once the crown jewel of Wang. But by 1991, Wang’s fortunes had declined, and the company declared bankruptcy, with its lender taking over and selling the property in 1994 at auction for just $525,000 (about $867,000 in today’s dollars) to the firm Insight Partners. That year, the city gave Cross Point a property-tax break and a $4 million line of credit, but Insight Partners sold the property in 1998, after renovating it, for $110 million, according to The Sun archives. Over the years, the premier property has changed hands multiple times, each time being a concern to the city because of potential tax revenue and jobs.
Yep. They had an older drier with the three-prong.
Age old story played out over and over again...
At the outset of the pandemic realtors quit selling houses and started selling FOMO, much to their advantage and skillset, since most realtors have little to no understanding of basic construction, maintenance and condition concepts of houses.
Their clientele grew up in a consumer culture with no economic understanding, no sense of comparative value, loads of entitlement and unprecedented access to other people’s money.
In that environment it didn’t take much for an agent to convince a less-than-astute buyer to bid thousands over list, waive contingencies and inspections, blindly go along with the agent’s preferred lenders and sign on the dotted lines without reading so much as a paragraph of contracts and lending agreements. And about as much attention was paid to personal due diligence throughout the process.
Now the FOMO buyers are coming out of their stupor after the fact and have discovered the meaning of “caveat emptor” just like they’re about to discover the meaning of “negative equity”.
They were offering $100K over asking price and still not getting the sale in Arizona. But people kept insisting (even some on this forum) that this was not 2008 2.0.
As a home inspector I’d always advise first time home buyers to buy in a price range that would allow them to save the equivalent of 1 month’s mortgage payment per quarter for home repairs. I’d also tell them that they may not use that in any given quarter, but would certainly use that amount in a year.
Now, as in 2007/2008, none of them listened.
That’s not really the way it went down… it was the 5 year ARMs. So those who bought at overinflated prices between 2004-2008 suddenly saw their $800 mortgage double. Not many people can afford a doubling of their mortgage payment. If they could, they would not have been in an ARM to start with.
I know one in exactly this situation. She bought a nice older ranch style house built in 1968. I too much prefer the ranch style brick houses on generous lots that I grew up with rather than the 2 story, aluminum siding houses on postage stamp lots which seems to be all the build now.
The problem is her house had not had anything new done to it since it was built. She already had to have the septic system overhauled, a new roof put on, some wood rot on the back deck repaired, new windows put on and she’s committed to having the pipes all re-done. Still waiting is the electrical wiring which she’ll have to have done after next year. She’s already sunk about $80,000 into that house in repairs/maintenance in just the first 6 months and now she’s really strapped for cash.
Don’t forget those who are locked into a new build wont get presented with their new mortgage rate until the build is completed. It’s going to be sticker shock and many will walk.
I could have written that word for word. Every time I think I’ve seen peak greed, I’m proven wrong.
In 2016 I was called to inspect a 3,500 sqft waterfront (mostly swamp) house that was a flood rebuild from 2015. The 26-year-old buyer was paying cash and bragging that “he got a deal”. During the inspection I took him outside and pointed out that the slab had barely a foot of elevation above the backyard bayou. His response was that the previous flood was a 100 year event and we’d never see one like that again in his lifetime.
The post-Hurricane Harvey floods hit 10 months later.
As of last week the house is still sitting gutted and vacant.
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