That sucks, but I also think the era of the single family home is ending. No regular person can afford these home prices. Even if you can afford a one time renovation on your $650,000 house does not mean you can afford a $90,000/year tax bill. Single family home values have gone off the charts and regular people cannot afford them. We need to increase housing supply.
They’re artificially high because concentrated wealth is buying up the supply. As of 2024 as much as 25% of the supply is being purchased by institutional investors in some markets
Tbh, concentrated wealth wouldn’t be able to squeeze the market if there was a healthy supply. There’s a lot of issues with single family homes, but the tl;Dr is that they’re expensive because they are by FAR the least efficient way to house people, and it’s basically the only kind of housing that most cities allow by zoning area.
This is it, and it’s been happening for years. I had a new home built in 2021 and it’s already appreciated by 25%, and periodically been valued even higher than that. I’m not selling, but that still seems crazy to me.
Bonus points for the fact the newly built home and land purchase were about the same cost as it would have been to buy an old run down home in the area that would have needed a ton of work and updates. Few people seem to be building new housing, which in conjunction with the corporate housing acquisitions is driving prices way up.
Spot on. Houses are cheap, though, but you’ll have to get something like sub 800 square feet and in the shitty part of town. A broken-down house for 120k isn’t the greatest investment unless you have a warchest or great job to improve it. Even then, you’ll be fighting comps around your house that aren’t improved.
Single income isn’t cutting it with anything of quality or merit. You’ll have a roof over your head, but the timer starts. Improve or take a loss down the road.
That’s just scapegoating bullshit temporarily-embarrassed NIMBYs like to tell themselves to avoid the hard truth that we have to fix the zoning code.
The fact is, plenty of houses exist at reasonable prices in rural areas and small towns. But you don’t want to live in those places, do you? You want to live in a big metro area, just like everybody else. Well, when everybody wants to live in the same place you have to build enough housing units for them all to fucking fit in the same place, or you end up playing musical chairs and the ones who aren’t rich lose. That’s just a fact of geometry and basic supply and demand, not the diabolical machinations of some villain.
I actually do live in a somewhat rural area down the street from a dairy farm. I’m not in the Midwest though, I’m a dirty coastal elite in PA
Institutional investors invest in rural real estate as well. It’s calmed down a bit since 2021 when they were really aggressive but they see farmland as a stable investment
That sucks, but I also think the era of the single family home is ending. No regular person can afford these home prices. Even if you can afford a one time renovation on your $650,000 house does not mean you can afford a $90,000/year tax bill. Single family home values have gone off the charts and regular people cannot afford them. We need to increase housing supply.
They’re artificially high because concentrated wealth is buying up the supply. As of 2024 as much as 25% of the supply is being purchased by institutional investors in some markets
Tbh, concentrated wealth wouldn’t be able to squeeze the market if there was a healthy supply. There’s a lot of issues with single family homes, but the tl;Dr is that they’re expensive because they are by FAR the least efficient way to house people, and it’s basically the only kind of housing that most cities allow by zoning area.
This is it, and it’s been happening for years. I had a new home built in 2021 and it’s already appreciated by 25%, and periodically been valued even higher than that. I’m not selling, but that still seems crazy to me.
Bonus points for the fact the newly built home and land purchase were about the same cost as it would have been to buy an old run down home in the area that would have needed a ton of work and updates. Few people seem to be building new housing, which in conjunction with the corporate housing acquisitions is driving prices way up.
Spot on. Houses are cheap, though, but you’ll have to get something like sub 800 square feet and in the shitty part of town. A broken-down house for 120k isn’t the greatest investment unless you have a warchest or great job to improve it. Even then, you’ll be fighting comps around your house that aren’t improved.
Single income isn’t cutting it with anything of quality or merit. You’ll have a roof over your head, but the timer starts. Improve or take a loss down the road.
That’s just scapegoating bullshit temporarily-embarrassed NIMBYs like to tell themselves to avoid the hard truth that we have to fix the zoning code.
The fact is, plenty of houses exist at reasonable prices in rural areas and small towns. But you don’t want to live in those places, do you? You want to live in a big metro area, just like everybody else. Well, when everybody wants to live in the same place you have to build enough housing units for them all to fucking fit in the same place, or you end up playing musical chairs and the ones who aren’t rich lose. That’s just a fact of geometry and basic supply and demand, not the diabolical machinations of some villain.
I actually do live in a somewhat rural area down the street from a dairy farm. I’m not in the Midwest though, I’m a dirty coastal elite in PA
Institutional investors invest in rural real estate as well. It’s calmed down a bit since 2021 when they were really aggressive but they see farmland as a stable investment
https://investigatemidwest.org/2025/03/12/farmland-values-lose-steam-after-years-of-rapid-growth/
I do agree that zoning needs to be fixed and suburbia needs to end though
So many people are cheering but these are exactly the sort of costs that will lock them out of housing or prevent them from improving a property.