It's possible this may be a housing bubble...

[Chairboy]

[lasersailor184]

Or it's possible it could be the de-urbanization of the cities as they corrupt themselves into non-existance.

[john9001]

flip that house.

[Shuckins]

There are several indicators that the booming house market is about to go bust.

Not surprising since many people have been building homes in the hopes of making ungodly profits when they resell in a few years....modern-day speculation.  The bubble is about to burst.

While part of me doesn't want to see such a strong part of the economy tank, another part would like to see the developers and MacMansion builders and housing speculators get their comeuppance.  

Land prices, building supplies, and construction costs have been driven so artificially high that it is rapidly becoming impossible for families in the lower income groups to be able to build themselves a decent home.  

Real-estate developers are totally bereft of culture and aesthetic sense.  Their idea of proper development is to acquire a beautiful piece of undeveloped land, complete with a magnificent stand of hardwood trees, and then bulldoze it and scrape it completely bare of vegetation, build cookie cutter condoes or no-taste vulgar mansions or...


....aw skip it.   I gotta go take my blood-pressure medicine.

[lazs2]

location...  Housing costs are a combination of the cost of the lot(s) and the cost of hooking up to the utilities of the host city and the actual materials and labor.

The location determines all of those costs.   As the demand for housing in desirable places goes up more houses are built until they can't be sold eaisily... at this point less develepments are speculated on and the homes built gradualy sell... till there are none left and then the homes in desirable areas begin to skyrocket in price fueling the developers to buy more land and then overbuild and then.....

So long as people wish to avoid the horror of sardine can living in large dangerous blue cities.... there will be a growing housing market that will fluctuate.

In a sellers market... any crap you own will sell for more that it is worth no matter what condition it is in...  In a buyers market... an imaculate home will go for bargin basement prices.

lazs

[lasersailor184]

Lazs actually got it right.  It's all about supply and demand, from the deurbanization of america.  I could say something really racist as to why deurbanization is happening, but I don't feel like getting banned today.

Anyway, the places in highest demand are places right outside of already developed suburbs.   I have been watching it for the past several years in the Philly area.  It has been growing outwards like the blob.  The suburbs in the mainline are really hot, but those that are 10 miles out will be really hot in a couple of years.

[thrila]

There is a housing crisis where i live and from what i've read it's going to get worse.  House prices are xpected to increase 7% a year.  The average income of someone in the southwest of england is £14,000/yr, the average house costs £225,000.  This is primarily because 10% of all homes are second/holiday homes   which are used for a couple of weeks of the year when their owners stay for their holidays.  A village called kingsand a couple miles away is a ghost town most of the year.  At the pub the barmaid told me only about 1 in 3 who own a house actually live there.

After i graduate if i want to move back to my home town i'll have to move into my parents house.   Looks like i'll be staying in leeds unless i get a decent job- which is unlikely.

[Jackal1]

Originally posted by lasersailor184
Anyway, the places in highest demand are places right outside of already developed suburbs.   I have been watching it for the past several years in the Philly area.  It has been growing outwards like the blob.  The suburbs in the mainline are really hot, but those that are 10 miles out will be really hot in a couple of years.

Hehe. Yep. I call it leapfroggers. They buy or build in the burbs. Put ungodly amounts of money into a crib that is spitting distances from the one next door. Settle in ...then.....the very thing they were trying to get away from consumes the area. Time to move down the road another 10 miles.

[lasersailor184]

Interesting way to put it Jackal, but here in Philly, there is very little or no leapfrogging going on.

[storch]

the prices for housing in this market have risen irrespective of location.  it is very difficult to find an 1800 sqft. house regardless of condition for under $200,000.  the prices for homes in "desireable" neighborhoods is about $300,000.  but the trend seems to be heading for a buyer's market.  I think the bust is on the way but I doubt that our house will ever be worth less that what we paid for it in 1999 and I thought it was high priced then.