D Griff wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 12:11 pm
Detroit wrote: ↑Wed Mar 03, 2021 11:58 am
seem to be obsessed with amassing properties...like you said, holding onto the "starter" house as a rental and moving up. Seems like a great way to overleverage yourself and set yourself up for a lot of hassle in the long run maintaining multiple properties for minimal gain. I've done the math, it doesn't work out. In the super long run once the debts are clear, I guess it starts to pay off, but that's a while and there's still the maintenance hassle.
My SIL and BIL have like 5 properties throughout Huntington Beach, they buy one, live in it, then buy the next and rent out the other. Easy because my BIL's father gives them the down payment for each property. But all we have to hear about is how hard it is and how they have to scrimp and save and
I'm also a bit bothered by this because it decimates the "starter" home inventory. People that just want to get into a simple house can't because so many are turning into rentals so those people are forced to rent houses they'd otherwise buy. I think a lot of people are going to lose their asses with buying all these properties and renting them eventually, and that's a great time to buy IMO.
Yeah I mean, I understand it can really be a great investment, particularly with the values climbing the way they have been. You are basically leveraging a banks money at 3ish% APR and the values have gone up by like 10+% annually here since 2010ish.
I am somewhat fundamentally against it for reasons you describe. No offense to those in the game, but personally I feel it goes against my liberal cuck sensibilities. I could see maybe owning a beach property or something that we actually wanted to use one day maybe, and like airBNBing it on the side, but to decimate the already low and overpriced inventory in my city isn't my thing. I also don't really want to be on the hook for another $2-3K/month.
I am not saying it's some sort of bubble that's about to pop or anything, but I'm legitimately curious to see how it all unfolds. There are also areas of the US that are cheap as hell and I wonder if now that things are remote, people will just avoid moving to places like Charlotte where this house is now $775K
And this is $464K
People are kidding themselves to think that most of real estate isn't in a bubble and that these real estate gains are sustainable. Right now, low interest rates and people being forced to sit at home are driving some pretty stupid housing purchase decisions, and once those factors start to ease (interest rate increases are happening now, more people being called back to the office, etc) I think the market will soften in some areas. Now isn't a time to invest in real estate, it's a time to find a place you want to live long term and take advantage of
interest rates for the long run.
For me personally, the biggest unknown is the remote work thing. So many people I talk to at my office claim they would move in a second if the company announced permanent WFH. Friends we have in the Detroit area say the same. Nobody likes living there, they just do it out of necessity. I think the over-heated areas of metro Detroit (like where we moved from) could see some pretty fantastic drops in value if people can move wherever they want. But it's up to the car OEMs, and the jury is still out on the long term WFH direction there.
Charlotte is a bit different because I imagine it's more desirable overall, and if people from traditionally richer areas move in, the higher prices could be sustainable. Our immediate area has been propped up big time by money from NY and Chicago who are
at how "cheap" a $1M house on the water is.