This report was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge
The housing market has not only recovered its pre-recession levels, but some observers are actually starting to worry about yet another housing bubble. Housing prices are on the rise, thanks in large part to extremely tight inventory, so it’s worth asking: are potential home buyers getting priced out of the market? The answer depends on where they live and how much money they make.
HowMuch.net collected average home prices for every state from Zillow which we then plugged into a mortgage calculator to figure out monthly payments. Remember, mortgage payments consist of both the principal and the interest for the loan. The interest rate we used varied from 4 to 5% in each state, depending on the market. The lower the interest rate, the lower the monthly payment. To keep things simple, we assumed buyers could contribute a 10% down payment. Another thing to keep in mind is that financial advisors commonly recommend the total cost of housing take up no more than 30% of gross income (the amount before taxes, retirement savings, etc.). Using this rule as our benchmark, we calculated the minimum salary required to afford the average home in each state.
Top Five Places Where You Need the Highest Salaries to Afford the Average Home
1. Hawaii: $153,520 for a house worth $610,000
2. Washington, DC: $138,440 for a house worth $549,000
3. California: $120,120 for a house worth $499,900
4. Massachusetts: $101,320 for a house worth $419,900
5. Colorado: $100,200 for a house worth $415,000
Top Five Places Where You Need the Lowest Salaries to Afford the Average Home
1. West Virginia: $38,320 for a house worth $149,500
2. Ohio: $38,400 for a house worth $149,900
3. Michigan: $40,800 for a house worth $160,000
4. Arkansas: $41,040 for a house worth $161,000
5. Missouri: $42,200 for a house worth $165,900
Our map creates a quick snapshot of housing affordability across the United States. There are several pockets in which only the upper middle class and above can afford to own even the average home, most notably across the West and in the Northeast. There are only two states west of the Mississippi River where a worker with an annual salary under $40,000 can afford a mid-level home: Missouri and Oklahoma. Colorado stands out as the only landlocked state requiring a significant amount of income ($100,200), thanks in large part to the housing market around Denver.
Homes tend to be more affordable in the eastern half of the country, with a notable pocket of “green” (less expensive) states located in the upper Midwest. The North is generally more affordable than the South and the typical home is significantly easier to buy in places like Michigan or Ohio than in Louisiana or Arkansas. Additionally, our map indicates that workers can more easily afford homes in the East than in the West, which is surprising given how much more land is available out West. It is important to note that there are certainly deep pockets of poverty in all of these places, which suggests that our map obscures the inequality behind averages.
The best takeaway from our map is that housing remains affordable in large swaths of the country, even though there will always be places like California and New York where there is simply too much demand for the available inventory. Thankfully, that doesn’t mean that buying a home is suddenly out of reach for average Americans in Ohio or Mississippi, for example.
Not a good representation. Can’t get a decent home in the Bay Area for less than $600K and you will need $100K to fix it up. Why I left!
While one would expect housing prices to rise when the US economy is near full employment, I have to disagree with the basic premise of the article (which has been parroted on the Net so much that it has become a meme) because if DEMAND was strong as strong as the propaganda suggests, builders would be rushing to create inventory.
They are not.
PRICES may be high, but that is because most Realtors have a nasty habit of pricing homes well above market value understanding that a prospective buyer will not offer listing price. Sometimes the asking price is two to three times their true MARKET VALUES.
I follow real estate markets extensively and could cite many examples of great homes sitting on the market for many many months, even years because they are so overpriced. I can tell you that asking prices continue to drop month after month on these overpriced homes in an attempt to move them. The exception is in some SPECIFIC neighborhoods of the PRK, METRO DC, NYC, etc, and even these have noticed a pause in demand and price appreciation.
Now is a great time to buy if you have cash and negotiation skills, but you need to understand how to work your Realtor (just like you must work your attorney or other professional service provider) because they are all in cahoots together in a zero sum game.
The object of the game is to leave you with a zero sum when the transaction is over. 🙂
If you believe that we are at full employment, you really drank the kool aid.
This is part time nation, my friend. You can’t believe the manipulated numbers. All lies.
Small country towns have cheaper housing. 7K for a 3 bd row home listed the other day, and a cabin 2 bd./2 acres on a nice lake was 89K. Average household income is only 35K, so it fits Northern Minnesota.
Damn preppers have run the prices in ID up!
You shoulda been prepared for it.
This article is pure propaganda. How did these lies get in here?
Fact. 70-percent of all Californians cannot afford to buy a home.
Fact. Half of all Americans cannot afford the home they already have.
What do those stats say about the health of the country and the “recovery” (so-called).
Thank you for this point! I see a time coming when a large section of our population will live in RVs because they can’t afford rent or a house if they are going to eat. Hmmm. Maybe it’s deliberate?( causing people to not be able to afford decent housing)
“If You See Me Rockin” Don’t Bother Knocking”?….?
I recently read 70% of ALL Americans cannot afford to buy a home…things are so royally “F-ed” it is just unreal. Corporate America and the swell ole’ Federal Gov’t have screwed us every which way but loose. Guys, the real costs of Everything under the sun continues to rise and rise and rise, so let me ask you – what is the real situation with an average person’s SALARY – Right!! Criminals, all of them are sneaky, no good Rat Ba$tards.
That list is bullshit! For instance Utah, Maybe salt lake is expensive but everywhere else is cheap. Same with Nevada and Vegas. Shitholes like Idaho and Colorado are expensive only because of the gigantic influx of Kalifornians fooking them up 2 ways from sunday….
Fook is a word?
Government regulations dealing with environmental and seixmic issues make housing prices higher on the west coast. Less space for the same amount of money.
Its not just the mortgage. It would be interesting to see this with real estate taxes included.
THATS the issue.
My mortgage payment (P&I) is next to nothing compared to the overall cost/payment (escrow for tax, insurance, fees etc).
By the numbers, my actual mortgage payment is less than %25 of my house payment.
Even throwing as much as I can afford at the principal, I cant keep up with the devaluation it seems. Its discouraging.
People forget just 50-60 years ago homeowners could/would pay off their loan asap and OWN the home. What we have now is perpetual debt and indentured servitude
it’s not just the housing prices…
it’s all the latest and greatest “stuff” people think they have to have to put in the house.
instant gratification (think credit) instead of waiting, yes sometimes years, to be able to afford the extras you’d like to have…
that new lamp, new couch, fenced yard, TV in every room, Disney vacation, etc…
our home is filled with inheritance pieces. if you took out everything we’ve receive from both sides of the family, there would be very little left in the rooms and kitchen cabinets.
even the bedroom furniture has been inherited 🙂
Gee Whiz batman, I make half of what my state thing says I need to buy a house but… but… I own one free and clear. How did that happen??? Actually including my wife who doesn’t work we have 2 paid for houses and no debt. Golly gee gomer it must be a mistake lol.
Grandee has hit it on the head!! People stopped caring what things cost vs. what things cost a month. Go buy anything of value these days and the sales people focus on what you want to pay a month vs. what the actual item cost. Most places don’t want to deal with cash these days because they have lost their leverage. Who would have ever dreamed we would see the day when vehicles cost half or better of what a home cost. We are slowly but surely pricing ourselves out of existence. Hopefully it won’t cost us much a month. Been coming here for years just reading. Thought I might put my two cents in on this one.
I’m glad you pointed this out, Sheeple. I have very strong suspicion that one the biggest reasons why home prices have exploded – is due to the greed of the local, city, and state governments. There is no limit to their hunger for collecting revenues from their residents.
In my area, for example – I can remember a time where, in order for the city to be able to increase the real estate tax rate per 100 dollars of the assessed value of a home, they had to put a referendum on the ballot and the residents of the city had an opportunity to vote on it. In most cases the voters tended to vote no.
So, what the greedy politicians decided to then do – was to have their tax assessor wave their magic wand and suddenly announce that the dollar value of your home and/or the ground it sat on had miraculously increased in value by 10 or 20 thousand dollars. Since the real estate tax rate was a fixed percentage amount per each 100 dollar value of your home – this became a sneaky way whereby the city could force a tax increase down our throats without the voters having a chance to shoot it down on a referendum.
Hence, I suspect that this practice has swept across the entire nation – and the higher the tax assessors decided to assess the homes in each region, the more real estate taxes they can rip out of people’s paychecks. Naturally, the real estate agents and home owner’s insurance agents all love this – because they benefit from it by getting higher commissions on homes they sell and the insurance companies can charge higher premiums for more expensive houses. The only people in this scam who get screwed are the home owners who are being scammed out of ever increasing amounts of their hard earned money.
This is also a big reason why we see so many news stories about Americans who are in their late 20s and mid 30s – and some in their 40s, and they are forced to live with their parents. They can’t afford these ridiculously priced houses, and apartment rents are often as high or even higher per month than a mortgage payment might be.
Its as if America has a gigantic set of Vampire Fangs buried in it’s neck and this Vampire is determined to suck the last drop of wealth out of the people in this nation.
You don’t actually own your home, unless you actually own your home. Until then, the bank is the real owner. You find this out quickly when unemployed and out of money. After a couple of months, your creditors will swoop in and take everything you have on credit. There is no talking to them. It doesn’t matter how good your credit is at that point. They will take it all, and your credit too. It is an evil game. A game they love, as they lose nothing.
Start small, and buy everything outright. Nothing on credit that you can’t pay at the end of the month. You will find you have a lot more money, and it isn’t long before you can upgrade. Look at the average 30 year loan, and realize how many times you buy that house, in interest to the bank, over that 30 year period. It is beyond evil!
And, yes, paying $2000+ a month for a mortgage gets you no where really fast!
Incidentally, there is another sinister motivation behind the elitist agenda to inflate the prices of houses to ridiculous levels – and I would say that any mortgage payment on a regular middle class style home that is $2,000 or more dollars per month – qualifies as ridiculous.
One of the best tactics a home owner can follow when they are saddled with a mortgage payment – is to add extra dollars each month and specify that it is to be applied to the principle. This allows a homeowner to save thousands of dollars in interest over the life of a 30 year home loan – because you will pay off your house years sooner than you would otherwise, if you were just sending them a check for the normal mortgage payment each month. Obviously, this tactic is far easier to afford to do – when your normal mortgage payment is fairly low, say in the $700-$800 dollar range. But, when the gang of hustlers manage to jack up your monthly payment to 2 or 3 thousand bucks a month – you wind up being squeezed so tight that you can no longer afford to throw an extra $200 bucks or so at the principle. You need that money to buy food or pay other bills.
Do not think for a second that these greedy mortgage lenders have not factored this into their scam to make sure they can rape you for the full 30 years of interest payments. They despise people who toss in extra principle, because that reduces the interest that they will pay – whereby people wind up paying 3 or 4 times the price of the house before they finally pay off their mortgage. Thus, there must have been a sufficient number of homeowners who were using this tactic – so, the bankers decided that the best way to put a stop to it was to increase the size of the monthly mortgage payment to a level that would shut down this practice for most homeowners. Inflating house prices accomplished this objective.
BTW: This is the sort of outrageous ‘Usury’ that a German fellow with a funny mustache sought to put an end to back in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.
The bank or loan holder owns the home until the mortgage is satisfied (paid off). For example; If someone finances their home for 30 years which is 360 months, and makes 359 payments except the very last 360th, the home is taken from them. However, even after the mortgage is fully paid off the house still isn’t really yours. If you don’t pay the literally forever property taxes to the local gov’t they will take it from you.
I do have one question; why is the home you buy still belong to the mortgage holder until completely paid off, but the buyer has to still be the one who pays the property taxes on it? What’s fair about that?
what ever happened to alloidal title to land? has it been legislated out of existence? just curious as I do not know.
I don’t know if it has been legislated out of existence per se, but the fact that we have legislated Property Taxes and they are continuing year on year…well there you have it.
The ancient concept of actually owning your land free and clear answering to no Overlord no longer exists in the US since you can always lose it to the Gov if you can’t pay your Taxes.
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Why ??? For the same reason that health care and car insurance is mandatory in America: the providers of these services, like banks, hire a lobbyist to write legislation that gives their particular industry a benefit at the expense of the consumer, and then they find a POS Politician to introduce that legislation a a bill at the State House.
Banks as an example, do not have to pay property taxes on properties upon which they have foreclosured. Meaning that they can hold a property off the market in a down economy and try to sell it in a more active environment while mitigating the cost to hold.
“ITS A BIG CLUB AND YOU AIN’T IN IT !!!” 🙂
“The bank or loan holder owns the home until the mortgage is satisfied (paid off).”
Ya and then the state owns it until your property taxes are paid off… wait… it goes on forever, you can’t pay them off… DOOOOOOOH!
Are you kidding?
When you buy a home the bank owns the mortgage. You pay rent. When you buy a home the government owns you. You pay property (and other) taxes. You pay more rent.
You are fool if you trust the banks. You are an idiot, and a bigger fool, if you trust the government.
Home ownership has become one of the biggest rackets ever.
It wasn’t always like this. My parents bought their first home in 1962 for $23,000 and change. Property taxes were $282.00.
Am I kidding about what? We are in agreement. No one volunteers for property tax, it is just like income tax. Something the government forces on us because of their absolute corruption. Property taxes here are $2000 a year on a $300 thousand house.
Rent is money 100% lost. Mortgage is money 80% lost.
:::You find this out quickly when unemployed and out of money:::
That’s why I never advise ANYONE to pay on principal of the loan. Save that money for when you need it.
Or, when you have about $10,000 saved, then and only then pay a few thousand on the principal, but keep saving.
Oh, now me–I have no relatives. Why would I want a house paid for??
Hum … Why do you want your money in someone elses pocket?
Sorry to hear you have no one to leave things to. Donate them to a worthy charity.
Get a reverse mortgage and party till ya die! Get some money back out of that house and have fun 😀
I know a realtor who’s been in the business a long time (she one of those who doesn’t give a sh*t about anything but her commissions). I asked her how the housing market is, of course she says now is the time to buy. Anyway, I told her there is a housing bubble and she said I didn’t know what I was talking about. I told her I looked on Zillow.com and the house I sold in ‘97 is back on the market for twice what I sold it, and has been listed for several months, and that there is lots of other similar houses not sold either. She said it’s because it’s early spring. I said no, it’s because houses in town have doubled in price over the last 10 years but in reality wages and salaries have not moved, therefore there are fewer and fewer people who can afford a house. The cost will simply have to drop to sell. She gave me a priceless response – “if someone can’t afford a house they shouldn’t have one.”
Organizations and entities that have vested interests in something always devise their own data, models, statistics, publications, jargon, and so on, and only release information favorable to them. They create phony perceptions and manipulate public opinion, and seek to influence gov’t for laws and regulations favorable to them. The real estate industry is no different. One does not need to be a real estate expert to see it’s all bullsh*t. One only needs to understand one thing – rising costs versus present stagnant income – period.
In general, the people of the US are really only consumer/wage slave subjects. It use to be the average working man could be the sole breadwinner (don’t try to make this out to be some kind of anti-feminist rant on my part) with a stay at home wife with children; they could afford to buy a house, a new car every 4 or 5 years, a yearly vacation, and save money for the future. In other words, a good standard of living and quality of life. That is very rarely the case now. Most wives work now, they have to, for most it takes two incomes to by a house now. Big Business and gov’t have colluded and have finally succeeded in getting two people to work for the price of one. It takes two workers to have the same life as a single wage earner in the 1960’s or 1970’s. The result is the price of all goods and services have gone way up, even after accounting for inflation, and gov’t collects way more taxes. Meanwhile, the quality of family life is deteriorating, this is not incidental.
Buyers have the ultimate power, if it is used. If you want to see prices drop the people must en masse just say no. Unfortunately, society has no personal discipline, only a desire for immediate gratification. Most have reconciled to living in permanent debt.
Bill: You deserve a kiss!! No, I am NOT gay but you are so damn right on this post of yours. I have been saying the same damn things you said for years and years. In fact we were just talking about this stuff at work very recently. The country is so, so, so damn screwed up in about every way possible. Corporate America and this worthless, criminal Gov’t have ruined us period. The real cost of EVERYTHING is through the roof but look at the so called salary/wages – for the average person, they are complete scam, disgrace, joke! Don’t even get me started on the price of housing, be it rent and or “trying to buy” a house. 70% of the population simply cannot afford to do so, come on folks, what does that say? They want it so both people have to work, the family falls apart, kids get into all kinds of crap because both parents are typical corporate slaves for 40+ hours a week. I am so damn disappointed and severely concerned about ALL of it. The overall GREED has ruined us guys. And one final note – all of this mess is coming to ahead very soon and you happen to notice all of the sudden with all of the extreme anti-gun garbage?? Think about that one for a moment. They now things are going to change and change in a big, bad way and they do NOT warned a population that is armed to the teeth…the master plan I tell you ladies and gentleman.
And with two people having to work to essentially hold on, why do economists and others of their ilk wonder why people cannot save? Without being able to save or contribute meaningful amounts to their retirement plan, is it any wonder why those at or even in retirement age are continuing to work?
Bill: Sorry, forgot to say that so called friend of yours is a true witch! People like her and that mentality and vile greed and arrogance should be the first to HANG!!!!
She’s not a friend, only an acquaintance.
“if someone can’t afford a house they shouldn’t have one.”
Thats funny, I remember the realtors organizations being ALL IN for the changes to the loan processes for Fannie and Freddie to get low income minorities (who couldn’t afford a home and should not have bought one) into ARMs back in the 90’s. my my how times have changed /sarc
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=george+bailey+goes+up+against+Potter&&view=detail&mid=B01BE35E3AA09BF1DC4FB01BE35E3AA09BF1DC4F&&FORM=VRDGAR
No matter what when you buy anything on credit it isn’t yours. Until the very last payment is made you are nothing more than a glorified renter.
I’ve stated the truth here before. I’m a home-owner. Florida – the 3rd tier in that color-coded chart above. Free and clear save for the ever-rising property taxes on a home getting older each year. Had I to do it over again, I’d probably not get the loan or be able to pay it off, the price’d be too high and hell…. the insurance alone would be impossible. I got lucky as all git-out when I did build. Hanging on to it now best I can. I feel for those young families anymore. No way on earth any of them will get the chance I did. Not at the income levels they labor at now. That story about the realtor is remarkable in its callousness exhibited by the broad. My hope is someday people (if you call such garbage that) end up homeless selling their bodies to other homeless for the right to stand in line to dig in a MacDonald’s dumpster.
I really think I should be “living in my parent’s basement”.
There are ways to shelter adult children and help them afford to buy property. Living with parents is not shameful unless you don’t contribute.
Older people living with adult children can benefit both. Grandparents can care for children, clean, and cook; do fixer-upper projects, tend the yard and garden,etc.
Americans don’t work together. If they did more people would be able to buy property for themselves or as rentals for added income; as well as start family businesses to supplement salaried positions or replace them entirely.
_
Except that our society and culture is designed to destroy the family; to make each person pay for the same a family of four only needs one of.
The deal is so raw that everybody wants to live alone, and be let alone.
Agreed.
Yuor home is one of those things you can’t take with you.
Buying the home is one thing. In NJ property taxes are likely $8500 / yr and up whereas in Florida they’re $2500 for the same home price. A nice home in Florida can be had for a tad over $100K. If you want new, on the water thats a different subject.
To sum up buying in NJ requires far more income than Florida. The average home price in Florida as used for this analysis is not indicative of affordability. Florida has a disproportionate amount of very expensive homes. There are however a great number of modest very nice homes available.
That is changing. The professional politicians are catching on. Why should the “snow birds” and the old folks get a break?
Florida is like the pick-up truck in the early 1970s. You could buy a whole pick-up for only a quarter of the price of a car. That lasted until the car companies caught on.
You are right about the pickup truck in the 60s and 70s. The difference is that then a truck was a truck, you did not drive it to church or on vacation ect,, it was a simple hard riding basic single cab bare bones work vehicle for the blue collar trades. Todays mass market 1/2 ton pickups, excluding the 3/4 and 1 ton, are more like a luxury car with a box on back to haul your house trash to the dump ect,, light duty short bed stuff. And today they are driven and owned by blue and white collar folks. Times change… KF
“. Why should the “snow birds” and the old folks get a break?”
Actually both are price drivers as they made their money in the higher paying north. Florida natives buy homes that are a bargain relative to the North East. A new masonry rancher, 1400 sq/ft, sewer , water can be had for $165k in Palm Coast 5 or so miles from the beach.
Borrow 150K for 30 years and its roughly $700 month. Toss in taxes and insurance and its $1000. I paid close to that in 1985 buying a $65k home at 11% in the socialist republic of NJ making $40k/yr working all the OT I could get.
I was loking at a house to buy here in Az. Seller wanted 110,000. I counter offered and we agreed on 93,600. Well,the appraisal came in at 85,00. Seller would not budge.Got 100,00 cash from someone else waiting in the wings. So,back to square one. Looking in Hereford area with some land for raising chickens and garden. Land alone is very expensive.
The entire article’s premise is seriously flawed. One can’t do this type of comparison on a state by state basis….
Examples:
Manhattan apts may be 7 figures on average but you can purchase 10x the space for pennies on the dollar if you choose to live in Northwest NY and spend winters buried under feet of lake-effect snow.
Maryland has a “$72k” needed salary to afford a home? If you are in one of the counties that border DC you would need 3x that amount for homes that average in the $700k- $1 million range AVERAGE. Yet if you are in the west of the state, Appalacians and/or Cumberland trail area then there are $50k homes with land up in the hills. Same for the Eastern shore flats between the Bay and Atlantic.
Heck, even Baltimore is too diverse to use an “average salary” chart. There are gated communities and areas by the water inhabited by hipsters and trendies who pay big bucks for their cool, urban digs but they also could buy a whole block of dilapidated row houses in 3/4ths of the city on a $70k salary ( but what would you do with cheaply priced squalor?–it’s still squalor.)
The point is a $70k income may be able to purchase and afford payments on homes in 75% of the nations areas but the AVERAGES are skewed by the upper end of this scale– this is a great example of how statistics lie.
PS: I’m not saying that most people can afford houses of their own–most people also don’t earn $72,000 per year. It only takes one millionaire and 9 people in abject poverty to make an “average income” of $100,000- it then looks like the populace is doing well.
Back when Orville fabus was Arkansas Govenor. You couldn’t borrow money from a bank unless you could prove you didn’t need it. And loans where never made on bare land. So folks would owner finance land. And it was still the depression. So folks saved and bought what they could afford. often a small house that was added on and remodeled over the working life of the owners. And after the children where raised and they retired. The larger home was sold and the moven into a smaller place. The home was often the only investment and funded the retirement.Today I see folks buying $500,000 places when all they can afford is a $50,000 place. I see the prices on used homes. and if you had half that price you could construct a brand new better structure.Even with inflation stealing part of the money’s value. You still are better off saving up and paying cash. You avoid all the finance and insurance cost.and the closing cost are paying a abstractor to do a title search and draw up a warranty deed and purchasing title insurance.
Realtors are parasites–when I get ready to sell this house appraised a few years @ 160K, I will sell it for 150K without a realtor, ‘as is’.
I’d rather give the break to the buyer than support a realtor….parasites.
Plus, eliminating squabbles about a 10 year old carpet, or a hole in the tub(husband’s seizure!!)ain’t gonna happen…as is means as is.
I too loathe realtors. Several years ago I was meeting a realtor at a house I was interested in buying, on the way over there it was raining really hard. As I was going room to room the realtor would follow me. As I went into the master bedroom she walked over to the m/b closet, I noticed something had her attention so I just watched. She then wanted to continue to walk around the house. A few minutes later I mentioned I needed to go back upstairs to look at something. I went to the closet where I had noticed her looking at something, there was water leaking in from the rain and running down the closet wall. I kept waiting for her to mention it but she never did. I called her company’s broker the next day and made a complaint and asked them what they were going to do about, they said they would get back with me – never did.
The practice of owners selling direct to the buyers is being brought to an end. In most states, a realtor is required, along with an attorney, a bank, a title search (hence a title company), home inspections, even a mortgage broker, etc.
Most sellers take out bridge loans just to cover these expenses. Everybody gets paid before the seller does. These expenses are called closing costs.
And you have to make sure that nobody is in anybody else pocket. Conflicts of interest abound. Graft. Corruption. Greed. Avarice.
I owned in Washington State. They don’t require an attorney. But the original owner of the land owns any minerals, gas, oil, precious metals lying underneath your property.
This list only a very basic start,keep in mind property taxes/state taxes ect. when considering buying.
Jay Jay,have sold property buy owner including over a million dollar sale,the way to go UNLESS you suck at selling/dealing with people,then,either sign a document to have a friend /family member do it and notarized tis legal or just pay the realtor.The only realtors that may be worth a damn are relocation specialists for companies moving say a family across country for their work,then they can be useful,that said,I and many others have sold lots of property on our own with excellent results.The other problem with realotors is they will take a small hit to make a quick sale,you have the patience holding out for that say extra 5% can make a difference in final tally to your benefit,just do not get emotionally involved or you are doomed selling your own home,let then someone else handle it.
Paying a realtor 20% to stick a sign out front is stupid. Ive bought and sold many parcels of land. and never used any parasite Realtor.
I have sold land a few times and I just used a warranty deed filed with the recorders office for 10 bux.
After growing up on a farm in the Texas panhandle and farming myself, I worked in Saudi Arabia and Brazil. I learned so many things about being self sufficient during those experiences that my Brazilian wife and I constructed our own home on 20 acres in the piney woods of east Texas. We have lived in that home for 30 years without ever having a mortgage. We raised our kids there with few problems. The place has resisted some serious weather occurrences like an old time fort. The garden grows some kind of food year round. I have been lucky (or blessed?) I hope we can endure for another 30 years. Texas is the finest place I’ve ever lived. We have a Gestopo type law enforcement system, but that is the norm all over…
“Additionally, our map indicates that workers can more easily afford homes in the East than in the West, which is surprising given how much more land is available out West.”
Regarding the ‘availability’ of land in the West. Please note that there are huge swaths of land that belong to the Federal government in one way or another. If that was added as an overlay on the map, there’s really not that much land that remains available to the average citizen.
Yes the BLM supposedly owns like 88% of nevada and a shit ton of land in other western states. The bad thing out west IS the BLM. They need to be ground up in the garbage disposal. Water is a precious commodity in the west and there is a lot of desert. The really nice places are overtaken by rich californians who sold out and moved to other states and drove housing prices out of reach for locals (m-fers!) However gun laws are pretty good and lots of places to go riding and explore. Avoid all coastal states. If your a liberal a-hole, if the shit hits the fan you will die!
We were able to buy a brand-new three bedroom house on a canyon when were 21. $300 down. San Diego. Payments were. $10 a month more than the rent we were paying for a nice, two bedroom apartment. P.I.T.I. included. Those houses are now selling for over $600k. That’s 55 years ago.
Today we could never afford to buy in SoCA. Our present home is over an acre, which is now a detriment, due to lack of water in SoCA. Had to let the orchard die. Everything costs so much in California. Would love to leave this state, but can’t until invalid husband dies.
I really feel for younger generations, because they will be paying for illegals and government debt, and jobs just don’t pay that good, and job security isn’t what it used to be.
When the Clintons decided everyone should be able to qualify for a home loan.. There was a list of chriteria that must be met in order for the property to qualify for a government guaranteed loan. The credit worthyiness of the buyer wasn’t considered a importiant part of the necessary info. So a lot of low lifes received loans that they shouldn’t of . And they bought too large and expensive homes. and its the amount that can be borrowed not the supply and demand that drives home prices.
Most older people know this but for the few that might not. If you are a homeowner over 65 some counties will exempt you from real property taxes if you meet certain criteria. If you haven’t already abd you are over 65, you might check to see if you qualify.