2022 Real Estate Observations (Springfield, Newton, Framingham: sales, insurance, buying a home)

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

Admittedly, I don't keep a close eye on Hingham. However, $1.8M seems like a lot of money to spend on a 3,000 sq ft THREE bedroom house in that town. It's really nice and the yard is great but . . . really? The listing agent used a horrible first photo too because I took one look at it and thought "this price must be a mistake!" Definitely could have gotten a better photo of the front than that.

I agree, the agent should have taken the photo of the front from across the street. This would have shown the additions on the left and right( breezeway/entry) and made it look more grand as well as shown off more of the landscaped front yard. Also, $1.8M to be on a solid double yellow street too...no thanks! The house is nice though.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

They won the bidding war and paid $200K+ over list price a year ago and now it is listed for sale already. It will be interesting to see if the sellers get their money back or end up taking a loss on it. Impulse buying, never usually a good thing! https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...56640101_zpid/

Someone probably saw Hingham High was #3 in the greater boston area and thought it might be worth it.

Hingham sure seems to be a place people want to live. Main st used to be nice and quiet, but the other day around 5:30 it felt like a highway.. so much traffic. For me all those cars and traffic really makes a place lose it's charm fast.

[bricka]

i feel bad for people who were not able to purchase a house or refinance their existing house prior to 2022. seems like this will be a major wealth gap moving forward. those who locked in mortgage rates 2020-2021 now have a great cash flow situation, and can continue to buy other assets cheaply. these people are never going to sell their houses.

[WestieWhitie]

Originally Posted by bricka

i feel bad for people who were not able to purchase a house or refinance their existing house prior to 2022. seems like this will be a major wealth gap moving forward. those who locked in mortgage rates 2020-2021 now have a great cash flow situation, and can continue to buy other assets cheaply. these people are never going to sell their houses.

Those who bought at the top of the market are royally screwed if they ever need to sell - their current rate might be low but they won’t even touch the principal for at least 10 years and needless to say no one will give them $750K they paid for their FOMO unrenovated 1600sqft Weymouth cape. And those who were dumb enough to do it via ARM are irreversibly bootf*cked.

[matrix5k]

Originally Posted by WestieWhitie

Those who bought at the top of the market are royally screwed if they ever need to sell - their current rate might be low but they won’t even touch the principal for at least 10 years and needless to say no one will give them $750K they paid for their FOMO unrenovated 1600sqft Weymouth cape. And those who were dumb enough to do it via ARM are irreversibly bootf*cked.

Would you say we are still close to the top right now?

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

Yuck! I'm not a fan of splits to begin with but that garage addition sure makes it an aesthetically unpleasing house from the exterior! I'm sure with paint, kitchen and bath renos one could make the inside much nicer.

Splits are SO easy to add on to without f'ing them up aesthetically (not that they're the most architecturally amazing houses to begin with). Everything in them is SO rectangular/square and there are minimal hallways. It's shocking how many people still somehow manage to put stupid looking additions on their splits. The hardest type of additions to do on a split are either adding on to the front or adding a third floor. Adding on to the back or sides of a split is usually super easy to make look nice.

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

I agree, the agent should have taken the photo of the front from across the street. This would have shown the additions on the left and right( breezeway/entry) and made it look more grand as well as shown off more of the landscaped front yard. Also, $1.8M to be on a solid double yellow street too...no thanks! The house is nice though.

First, the agent should use a professional photographer (and that applies to ALL listings at ALL price points). Second, with a super wide angle lens you don't need to stand across the street to get a nice photo. The larger issue is that they took the photo straight on. Photos of the front of a house taken straight on like this always look terrible. They don't show any "depth." It is also the field of view on the photo as you mentioned is too narrow and it makes the house appear much smaller than it is.

Originally Posted by msRB311

Someone probably saw Hingham High was #3 in the greater boston area and thought it might be worth it.

Hingham sure seems to be a place people want to live. Main st used to be nice and quiet, but the other day around 5:30 it felt like a highway.. so much traffic. For me all those cars and traffic really makes a place lose it's charm fast.

Now that so many more people are able to work from home or work from home the majority of the week, places that are harder to commute from like Hingham have increased in popularity. Before COVID, someone commuting to say Cambridge would NEVER consider a place like Hingham. However, maybe now their job is fully remote or they just need to go in once a week and they love the ocean. So, they moved to Hingham during COVID.

Originally Posted by bricka

i feel bad for people who were not able to purchase a house or refinance their existing house prior to 2022. seems like this will be a major wealth gap moving forward. those who locked in mortgage rates 2020-2021 now have a great cash flow situation, and can continue to buy other assets cheaply. these people are never going to sell their houses.

People were saying the exact same thing 15 years ago at the last market peak. Yet here we are with real estate values probably double what they were then in some areas and the market last year was the hottest in history.

Originally Posted by WestieWhitie

Those who bought at the top of the market are royally screwed if they ever need to sell - their current rate might be low but they won’t even touch the principal for at least 10 years and needless to say no one will give them $750K they paid for their FOMO unrenovated 1600sqft Weymouth cape. And those who were dumb enough to do it via ARM are irreversibly bootf*cked.

Some people will be screwed as some people absolutely were incredibly irresponsible with their offers. Sadly, the rich will probably get richer in this scenario as locations that are less desirable will likely suffer more than locations that are more desirable should the market turn down significantly.

Keep in mind, interest rates have significantly increased but in the range of history these are pretty average lending rates. So far, the bottom has not fallen out anywhere in the country despite the huge increase in borrowing costs. Markets everywhere have slowed but in the greater Boston area we're still solidly in a seller's market and prices are still increasing although not at the break neck rate we saw a year ago.

The Chicken Little-esque reporting that goes on in our media when it comes to the real estate market is inflammatory and misleading. If you actually read what most of these articles say things aren't bad at all. It's like we've gone from going 200 mph to 100 mph. We're still going really fast and breaking the speed limit but compared to going 200 mph it seems like we're moving a lot slower.

Originally Posted by matrix5k

Would you say we are still close to the top right now?

Depends on what you mean by "the top." Are we passed the peak when it comes to the level of demand? YES!! Have we passed the peak of values? Depends on where you live. Some areas are still on the rise whereas some other locations have flattened out or may be slightly decreasing.

[Higherho]

I do not think house prices will fall to pre COVID numbers for a long time. Rates will drop first if anything.

[bricka]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

People were saying the exact same thing 15 years ago at the last market peak. Yet here we are with real estate values probably double what they were then in some areas and the market last year was the hottest in history.

peak to trough in '08 was a 20% drawdown and that was the worst housing crash in modern history.

from a monthly payment perspective we would need something like a 40% drawdown in prices to make up for the increase in rates from 2.7% to 6%. do you think housing prices will crash 40%? good luck with that let me know how it goes

people who financed a mortgage at below 3% basically took advantage of a historical anomaly, it is what it is.

[msRB311]

so in 15 years will homes be worth double what they are now??!

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by WestieWhitie

Those who bought at the top of the market are royally screwed if they ever need to sell - their current rate might be low but they won’t even touch the principal for at least 10 years and needless to say no one will give them $750K they paid for their FOMO unrenovated 1600sqft Weymouth cape. And those who were dumb enough to do it via ARM are irreversibly bootf*cked.

Would $750K even get you a 1600 sq ft cape in Weymouth?! Someone paid $600K for this 1100sq ft starter ranch. I wouldn't pay any more than in the $300K range for something like this. Looks like the sellers doubled their money in 12 years of ownership though so kudos to them! https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...9_M47607-74579