Frustrated... home buying...

I don't get it. I thought the housing market was doing terrible, yet house prices are still way too high (house appraisals still going up from 5-10 years ago and people still wanting 10-25% above appraised value and unwilling to negotiate). On top of that, the last two homes I wanted someone is always sitting on the blasted thing, always under contract or contingent, and it's usually these idiots thinking to flip the house around and looking to make a quick buck.

And even more frustrating is that rent prices are skyrocketing. My rent is going to jump over 10% compared to last year if I stay in my apt, and other places nearby aren't much different.

What am I doing wrong?

I think the housing market varies depending on which part of the country you live in. The prices where I live haven't changed much either. Are you willing to look at or purchase a forclosed home?

Foreclosures can be a great deal! A friend bought one in January. they got such a deal that they were able to remodel the inside to suit themselves and the total expense is less than the appraised value.
Be aware that some people don't treat their property well if they know it will go into foreclosure, however some keep it up hoping to sell it before it does end up in foreclosure.

You aren't doing anything wrong. Housing markets are weird right now. The price of houses has skyrocketed, and IMHO they'll never come down in price. The listed price is based on what people are willing to pay for similar houses in the area. So long as people are buying, the price will continue to go up and up.

Where I live the average house is $125,000.00. That same house was $65,000.00 ten years ago. The house across from where my brother lives is in very poor condition according to him...and he would know because he does construction and has remodelled his own house. The listing price of that house was $140,000.00. It sold within 2 days of being on the market for $172,000.00!!!! Thirty-two thousand dollars above the listed price.

It's practically impossible for a single person to buy a house these days. Even condos (the ones in buildings, not town house types) are grossly inflated and few singles can afford to buy one. A condo in the area near where my gym is, smaller than my 1 bedroom rental, but with a garden patio deck, sells for $325,000.00!! I don't know many couples who can qualify or even afford a mortgage in that amount.

At one time the term of a mortgage was 20 or 25 years. My neice and her husband recently built a house outside of Calgary (Calgary was too expensive), and their mortgage is 40 or 50 years! So the banks are even aware that people can't afford the house prices and have extended their lending terms in order to help people buy.

Just keep plugging along. You may have to buy a "fixer upper" and do extensive renovations to get what you want. And be prepared to spend more than what the listed price is.

Its not you. We are buying a House too. We almost had a few then something happened with 15 days on Escrow. We have been trying to see one House for over a week and there is always a excuse why we can not see it. We need to find a House very soon because our lease is up in July. Most of them are short sales. One house we really wanted already had 15 offers.

I've been looking at mostly fixer uppers, almost all of them are about 100 years old. The thing that confuses the heck out of me is that the foreclosures in my area are more expensive than the regular for sale houses! I'll see houses for sale on the listings for sub 100k (but of course they're either under contract or in such a pitiful state it's better to knock it down and build new), but the foreclosures will be listed for 150k+ and they're utterly trashed (windows knocked out, electric ripped out, walls destroyed, holes in the roof). Occasionally I'll find a 60k house on the sheriff sale listings, but I'll later find out it's in like a flood zone.

I'm almost tempted to just buy a piece of land for about 25k and build a small house on the corner of it just to get by, though people keep telling me that's a bad idea.

Those Houses are terrible. I have looked in some that are so bad. Even the Stove and Dishwashers are removed.

People who are not in forclosure are sitting on their houses. They want to sell, but not willing to bargin much even tho they know they won't get what they want. You almost have to find people who are desperate to sell and have to sell.

The neighbors 2 houses from us bought their house last year about this time. Paid just over $100K for it. They have to sell now and move (not sure why) but he's had it for sale since March and wants $130K - he's not gonna get it at that price. It was originally about $120K when first listed and they were reducing it every few months then.

I think part of the problem is that people who didn't get fixed interest mortgages have had their mortgage shoot up so they have to sell for a higher price to pay that off and break even. I work for a retirement plan, and we have had a LOT of people calling in to find out about getting a loan or a withdrawal because their mortgage has doubled. It's amazing what people are paying for houses today. I've seen some purchase agreements that are in the millions of dollars. Average is around $400,000 to $600,000.

A lot also has to deal with the neighborhood. When we contacted a realestate agent about selling my parent's house, all we had to say was the name of the street and she was over in a second. Even before she saw it she was saying the minimum she would be asking for it. I mean, my parent's house was nice, but nothing spectacular, but it was in a "safe" part of town, a block over from the historical district.

There is nothing wrong with buying land and putting your own house up. My MIL deeded us 5 acres, and we put up a double wide a little over a year ago (yeah, I cringed when DH mentioned "double-wide") but you would be amazed at how nice they are now! We didn't have to pay for the land, but our loan for everything was less than what we would have had to pay for a standing house. For the clearing of the land (we had to clear 2 acres, the rest is still woods), digging the hole, the foundation, running water lines, setting the house and the house itself was only $125,000. The house only cost around $75,000 and that was with upgrades, plus we could customize things to the way we wanted it. You may want to look into that. Modulars cost a little more than double wides but they are basically the same thing. The main different is how they are grounded.

We are getting a fixed Rate when we get a House. Everytine we find one it has so many offers.

You will find something, It took me a year to find a house. I am lucky my realtor stuck with me. I think she lost money on the deal, if you count all the time she spent sending me listings and showing me houses.

Originally Posted by mews2much

We are getting a fixed Rate when we get a House. Everytine we find one it has so many offers.

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Yeah! That's the amazing thing, the people I'm competing with can't get fixed rates or aren't even officially approved for loans! I got my official approval with a good fixed rate too not long ago (not pre-approval that anyone with halfways decent credit can get), but I guess the rate gets "unlocked" after 90 days and I have to redo the entire process again and risk a higher rate.

I wish they'd stop showing those dumb "flip your house" shows on TV so people would quit thinking they could make a quick buck flipping houses and end up destroying them. I could understand if you were trying to sell your house, but these guys buy up all the affordable houses and put them back on the market a month later at double the price they bought it for and it's not much better (ceilings still leak, the foundation is still messed up, there is still unbelievable amounts of trash in the crawl spaces, the mulch they used to landscape the yard gave the house termites, replace old windows that work just fine with cheap crappy windows, the list goes on). Basically they go in there and try to hide all the flaws with cheap stuff and try to sell it at a ridiculous markup before their facade wears off. I've seen 5 houses so far in the last 2 months get destroyed like this and I've actually walked in on one that was in the middle of this "transformation" (it was not a good sight).

Originally Posted by calico2222

There is nothing wrong with buying land and putting your own house up. My MIL deeded us 5 acres, and we put up a double wide a little over a year ago (yeah, I cringed when DH mentioned "double-wide") but you would be amazed at how nice they are now! We didn't have to pay for the land, but our loan for everything was less than what we would have had to pay for a standing house. For the clearing of the land (we had to clear 2 acres, the rest is still woods), digging the hole, the foundation, running water lines, setting the house and the house itself was only $125,000. The house only cost around $75,000 and that was with upgrades, plus we could customize things to the way we wanted it. You may want to look into that. Modulars cost a little more than double wides but they are basically the same thing. The main different is how they are grounded.

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That'd be sweet if I could just drop a FEMA trailer on a plod of land, but they have building restrictions. Most of the lots I was looking at are in "nice neighborhoods" and I don't think there's much a restriction on what you can build as long as it "fits in with the neighborhood" but they have in bold print "NO FEMA Trailers, Modular Homes, Manufactured Homes, etc". I could understand as they don't want some eye-sore home in the middle of their neighborhood and make the home values decrease. What I was thinking was just building a tiny house (think like 500 sq ft) by myself and get contractors to do the heavy work (foundation, plumbing, electrical), but apparently that would cost about as much as getting a cheap house where I live, the problem being I can't seem to get into a contract to buy one.