The Home Ownership Thread

[jbarwick]

Ours should be on the market in July and in the area we are looking the houses get contracts in under a week. It has been hard to look and see what is available when the turnover will occur by the time we are ready.

 

[otc]

Pending home sales spike a record 44.3% in May, as homebuyers rush back into the market

Pending home sales spiked a stunning 44.3% in May compared with April, according to the National Association of Realtors. That beat expectations of a 15% rise. Sales were still 5.1% lower compared with May 2019.

www.cnbc.com

Yeah, my friend has been condo shopping and I think she's giving up for the time being. Sellers market around here and the prices are high. Know some people who made early buys from what were probably COVID panic sellers, but those deals are long gone. Maybe they will rematerlialize later as people deplete their reserves, foreclosures start landing, etc.

Not that that's a terrible thing for her. She's got a killer deal on her rental so I'm not entirely sure why she's suddenly in a hurry to buy. I think she's just sitting on a huge pile of money and feels that's "the right thing to do"...she makes $$$ but has no expensive habits (no car, no fine furniture, no luxury fashion, no fancy bars/restaurants, inexpesnive hobbies...lot of travel, but at budget prices).

 

[brokencycle]

Yeah, my friend has been condo shopping and I think she's giving up for the time being. Sellers market around here and the prices are high. Know some people who made early buys from what were probably COVID panic sellers, but those deals are long gone. Maybe they will rematerlialize later as people deplete their reserves, foreclosures start landing, etc.

Not that that's a terrible thing for her. She's got a killer deal on her rental so I'm not entirely sure why she's suddenly in a hurry to buy. I think she's just sitting on a huge pile of money and feels that's "the right thing to do"...she makes $$$ but has no expensive habits (no car, no fine furniture, no luxury fashion, no fancy bars/restaurants, inexpesnive hobbies...lot of travel, but at budget prices).

What is up with HOA fees in Chicago? I was looking at places up there the other day, and they could easily be thousands a month. Maybe that's the case everywhere with high rises, but it was a significant portion of the monthly payment.

 

[otc]

What is up with HOA fees in Chicago? I was looking at places up there the other day, and they could easily be thousands a month. Maybe that's the case everywhere with high rises, but it was a significant portion of the monthly payment.

Generally that's older high-rises.

I've seen some particularly egregious ones where you see the price and you are like damn that's cheap until you realize that your monthly expense is equal to a place 5x the price.

I can't find any crazy ones in a quick search, but something like this:

3730 N Lake Shore Dr Unit 2B, Chicago, IL 60613 - 2 beds/2.5 baths

(MRED) 2 beds, 2.5 baths condo located at 3730 N Lake Shore Dr Unit 2B, Chicago, IL 60613 sold for $325,000 on Jul 13, 2021. MLS# 11092145. Great Opportunity! Beautiful 2100 sq ft home in prestigious Lake...

www.redfin.com

$350k for a nice 2Bed/2.5Bath (although why you would want to waste floor space on an extra half bath in a 2 bedroom condo...). 2100sq.ft., Nice big kitchen with double wall ovens, great space and separation between living areas, parking spot, 24 hour door man, etc. Maybe some people will knock it for not having an open plan kitchen, but that's A-OK in my book. Especially with the scale of the foyer/living room/dining room.

Seems like a crazy deal until you get to the $1,434/mo in HOA dues. And despite the door man, this seems like a low-amenity building. No swimming pool, no gym. Nice landscaped area on top of the parking garage, but not some luxury rooftop deck with grills and lake views. A similar building built in the 60s or later would generally have all of those things, and the HOA dues for a 2-bed

Those old high rises have a lot of maintenance and upkeep expense...those beautiful all-marble lobbies don't take care of themselves. A lot of them also struggled with their reserves during the financial crisis and drive up dues. You might also find places that got hit with a special assessment and pro-rated it over time because they couldn't come up with it in cash.

Newer buildings should be lower even for more ammenities...for a similar size unit you'd be looking at more like $600k+ but half the HOA dues.

 

[Piobaire]

Nah. Pellet pooper. I’m too lazy to tend a fire.

The only correct answer is both a KJ and a pellet pooper.

 

[jeradjames]

Posted awhile ago about my search for a home and did find end up finding one for myself in a prime area.
Unfortunately, the owner who bought the house in 2012 added a bunch of abominations including a weird pseudo front porch deck, removing a lot of the original landscape including the hedges, recessed commercial ceiling lighting, vinyl siding over the clapboard, and many others that will be removed. 3 BD 1 bath 1300 SQFT
Before

 

[brokencycle]

Posted awhile ago about my search for a home and did find end up finding one for myself in a prime area.
Unfortunately, the owner who bought the house in 2012 added a bunch of abominations including a weird pseudo front porch deck, removing a lot of the original landscape including the hedges, recessed commercial ceiling lighting, vinyl siding over the clapboard, and many others that will be removed. 3 BD 1 bath 1300 SQFT
Before
View attachment 1415237

View attachment 1415241

Are those posts actually holding anything up? They look like they could just fall over at any time.

 

[jeradjames]

Are those posts actually holding anything up? They look like they could just fall over at any time.

If a plastic covering counts then yes, nothing structurally integral about the "deck" though. He DIY'd everything and yeah it's bad. The original stairs are underneath and it's all held together poorly so it should be an easy removal.

 

[RedLantern]

Congrats!

 

[Omega Male]

Likewise! Enjoy fixing it up the way you like it. All part of the journey.

Here, we are back to doing random **** after the crew COVID halt. Today was laying a bluestone pathway around the rear side of the house. It was always a bit of a forgotten area, although there are some nice hydrangeas and the honeysuckle hedge you can see in the picture. Gets muddy in winter and we avoid going around that way, so hopefully this will be an improvement.

 

[Numbernine]

Have you considered sprucing up that place of yours.

 

[Omega Male]

I've literally got nothing else to do.

 

[Numbernine]

I haven't HAD to do anything for almost 15 years. I'm getting pretty good at it.

 

[Omega Male]

Kinda interesting.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-30/a-case-for-turning-empty-malls-into-housing?

 

[sugarbutch]

MOAR housing