6 ms·
My wife and I will be moving to Chicago soon and we intend on buying a house when we get there. How screwed are we by the current housing situation and interest
by doctoboggan 5y ago
My wife and I will be moving to Chicago soon and we intend on buying a house when we get there. How screwed are we by the current housing situation and interest rates?
- onlyrealcuzzo 5y agoHow soon? If trends continue, prices will start falling. You might be able to offer under asking, too. I bought 15% under asking in October of last year. Chicago didn't really go crazy like Phoenix or Palm Springs...
- bitexploder 5y agoMost of Denver region had been hot as well.
- onlyrealcuzzo 5y agoBasically everywhere beside Chicago and NYC went up >10%.
- bitexploder 5y agoWe sold a house for 2x what we paid for it in a desirable suburb. Bought in 18’, sold 22’.
- Sohcahtoa82 5y agoI've heard Denver is extremely popular because you have all the amenities of a big city (They even have a Six Flags!), yet is right next to beautiful mountains and nature. Some parts even still have a small town feel. Of course, I've also heard that a significant fraction of those moving in are single men, to the point where the city has gotten the nickname "Menver".
- onlyrealcuzzo 5y agoAside from Six Flags, how is this different from the west of the US?
- bombcar 5y agoDenver has an international airport of some prominence, and since that became "active" it has become a bit of a westish-coast city. Some areas around it had a very "Portland" or "Seattle" feel a few decades ago, and for a time they were a "well-kept secret". Not so much now, so the next big city may be somewhere else soon.
- onlyrealcuzzo 5y agoSo does Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. Albuquerque, too.
- eunoia 5y agoSome random local context: Menver was a running joke 10/15 years ago, probably even before that too.
- bitexploder 5y agoWe love in Golden. Beautiful small town area. 25-30 from most of down town. 25-30 from myriad nature access. A couple hours gets you almost anywhere. We are in the suburbs so I don’t know about the. Menver meme
- jasonladuke0311 5y agoAccording to this [0], Denver metro area - 1.626M males and 1.641M females. [0] https://www.metrodenver.org/regional-data/data-central?category=34 https://www.metrodenver.org/regional-data/data-central?categ...
- Sohcahtoa82 5y agoI guess the "Menver" meme is outdated and no longer accurate. Someone else had mentioned that the meme started at least 10-15 years ago.
- doctoboggan 5y agoHoping to buy in the next few months.
- reg_dunlop 5y ago15% under asking?! That is a wild revelation to someone comparing greater Denver housing market, where adding 30% is required just to be considered.... I've been watching Zillow pretty consistently over the past few weeks, and have noticed price drops as well as longer days on the market in the Chicago area. Knowing values don't increase much isn't really a deterrent considering the desirability of the location.
- bombcar 5y agoDifferent areas have vastly different "cultures" around house buying. Some regions they've always gone for "more than asking" for decades, it's just how the game is played. And other places consistently go for "less than asking" - but the end result is the same, really.
- onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago3 things. 1) I used their seller's agent, and he gave me ~3% to get the deal done. So really only 12% under asking. 2) The asking price was too high to begin with. 3) The market had started to cool, and they wanted to sell since Winter was coming and Winter isn't a great time to sell a $1M+ condo in Chicago.
- patentatt 5y agoVery anecdotally from my Chicago (close) suburb: a little bit screwed. The available inventory in my neighborhood is the lowest I've ever seen for early spring, there's just very little up for sale.
- dsm4ck 5y agoGenerally speaking as interest rates go up peoples purchasing power goes down as they try to keep the monthly payment manageable, which in theory could decrease demand and prices could go down.
- mbesto 5y agoI grew up in Chicago and love Chicago, so I'll try to say this as politely as possible - don't expect your property to hold any value in IL. Anecdata - I have friends that lived there for 8+ years, then moved to the south in the last 2 years and their property value barely budged.
- mrep 5y agoYep, when I was shopping for a condo 2 years ago, basically every place I looked at was selling for the same price as when they were brand new 10 years ago. Good thing though is it is way more affordable than the west coast.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- neaanopri 5y agoThese are the same thing! Property can't BOTH be affordable AND a good investment!
- bombcar 5y agoIt can if you count it from a cost-savings viewpoint. E.g, if buying costs $x, you pay $y a year for loan, insurance, maintenance, etc, and sell for $x later, and $y per year was less than the cost of renting, you win. But most people would call that a "good deal" vs a "good investment".
- doctoboggan 5y agoI honestly won’t be too upset if that happens especially if it means people aren’t treating housing as high return investment vehicles. Hopefully that means house prices will be more reasonable.
- bilbo0s 5y agoYeah. I'm trying to figure out why a sane housing market is a "bad" thing?
- halfmatthalfcat 5y agoMe and my spouse just bought in Chi. There's decent condo inventory in the city proper (West Loop, River North, LP, Lake View, even into Wicker/Logan) but SFHs in the burbs are slim pickins, especially in desirable neighborhoods (North Shore/Evanston, along the BNSF and UPW). You've got to be ready to overbid (our first SFH got overbid by 70k), "best and last", and deal with 5+ bids per house. You can find stuff away from public transit/no walkability but then why move to Chicago at that point?
- AviationAtom 5y agoInterest rates? Better get prequalified and see if you can't lock in. Getting an accepted offer? Getting better by the day, in many areas.