The $400K home game

[kork13]

Oh, this is fun. Wanna see how insane (read: stupid) the housing market is around us?

Two homes below, less than 1 mile away from eachother in our VERY small town a few miles outside the military base in south-central Idaho, an hour from the nearest real cities (between Boise & Twin Falls). This town has never grown quickly & was extremely insular (still tries to be), until Californians started running for the surrounding states in the last 1-2 years, bringing with them all of their wildly inflated house prices. AVERAGE value growth the last two years has been around 30% annually. It's the very definition of insane, and if I didn't own my home outright, I would be TERRIFIED of the bubble bursting (or simply deflating) while I still own the thing, regardless of it that'll actually happen or not. (ETA: We bought in Jul'20 for $300k, 4bd/2ba, 3 car, ~2,100 sqft, average lot -- we could probably sell it today for an easy $350k, if not higher.)

Price valuations are simply unreasonable and illogical. Details below, but these two houses should not be even remotely comparable. And yet... here we are. Looking around, this contrast is not even an exception -- it's common.
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House #1: https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...7_M25401-23696
Listed at ~$400k, Built 2013, 4 bed/2.5 bath, 3 car garage, 2,304 sqft, 7,405 sqft lot. Listed yesterday. Nice, good sized house that could maybe just use some nicer bathrooms.

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House #2: https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...7_M93978-74054
Listed at ~$398k, Build 2021, 3 bed/2 bath, 2 car garage, 1,522 sqft, 7,841 sqft lot. Small cookie cutter house that's literally identical to at least a half dozen new homes on the same new street. When we bought in the town last summer, I passed on one of those duplicates at a $275k list price. I wonder why it's been sitting idle in this wicked hot market for almost 3 months now? And yet, it's somehow under contract...

[SavingBucks]

Only one property in our area is less than $400K and it is a mobile home in a small senior park........... Space rent is not listed. https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...0_M23108-36134

[srblanco7]

$400k still goes pretty far in upstate NY...

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/8502-Chippendale-Cir_Manlius_NY_13104_M37378-36289

[disneysteve]

I'm glad I live in a sane part of the country. Every house on our block is under 400K.

I didn’t respond with an actual listing earlier. Here’s one not far from us.

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...4_M55513-37244

In my immediate neighborhood, houses are more in the 250-350 range as they’re 20 years older.

[bjl584]

Here is a new construction home for a little over 400K
This market is INSANE
400K for a 1500sqft home in my area is unheard of.
This would be a 200K house in normal times.

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/140-Summer-Ln_Mc-Donald_PA_15057_M93085-81409

[riverwed070707]

It can vary dramatically in our small metro. Both of these sold for $400k in the last couple weeks. Suburbs fall somewhere in between these two - you can get 5 bed, 4 ba 2,500 sq ft with a yard and 3-4 car garage but your taxes are 3x what you pay for the acreage in the country
3 bed, 3 ba 1,500 sq ft new construction townhouse in the city
3 bed, 3 ba 3,700 sq ft on 25 acres in the country (30 minutes from downtown) built in 96

[riverwed070707]

I didn’t respond with an actual listing earlier. Here’s one not far from us.

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...4_M55513-37244

In my immediate neighborhood, houses are more in the 250-350 range as they’re 20 years older.

Oof but $10k in taxes on a $250k assessment! Hope your area doesn't do what mine did and bring tax assessments up to market value!

[LivingAlmostLarge]

So where we live it right now it will be $400k a 1 bd condo.

Price $400,000
1 Bed 1 Bath 667 sq ft

Not a bad deal. I've never lived anywhere cheap. Everywhere has always been expensive.

OMG by the way I am LUSTING after pretty much every house posted. I cannot tell you how much I want any of these homes as amazing and pretty much all of them are much nicer than mine. Mine is insanely pricey.

[Like2Plan]

So where we live it right now it will be $400k a 1 bd condo.

Price $400,000
1 Bed 1 Bath 667 sq ft

Not a bad deal. I've never lived anywhere cheap. Everywhere has always been expensive.

OMG by the way I am LUSTING after pretty much every house posted. I cannot tell you how much I want any of these homes as amazing and pretty much all of them are much nicer than mine. Mine is insanely pricey.

LOL--I was wondering what you could get in your neighborhood at 400K. We live in a much less expensive location and I can't even find town homes at 400k. I don't know how long this will last, though. For many years, the growth has been pretty flat: maybe a 2-3% increase. This spring: up 11% Usually, the peak housing prices (in our area) are in May or June and then the prices settle back down later on in the summer. We'll see if the higher prices stick or if they settle back down to something a little more normal.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I'd pretty much live in any home on the thread. i would love a $400k home. My house would be paid for. I'm not sure i could even want to borrow more.