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hawtdawtz t1_je2zjxg wrote

I honestly don’t understand how an average Joe can afford a home in RI right now. I’d understand if you bought last year, but the mortgages on are insane for these prices.

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Wide_Television_7074 t1_je36rdz wrote

bought a house in January 2022 and people told me I was crazy… house is up 20% in value and I’m locked in at 3% — don’t listen to anyone, just buy it and figure it out later

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hawtdawtz t1_je3dedm wrote

That’s dependent on so many variables. Not everyone is buying a house to keep it for 10+ years. Some people want to move 4-5 years later and that mindset could hurt them.

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boulevardofdef t1_je6c2e6 wrote

I've heard that as a general rule, seven years is the sweet spot. You should be planning to stay for at least seven years if you want it to work in your favor financially.

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Wide_Television_7074 t1_je3e7wd wrote

they’ll be fine over a 5 year time frame…. Could have bought in 2007 (all time high) and sold 5 years later at a profit

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Mountain_Bill5743 t1_je3nv6c wrote

This isn't true. I've seen plenty of houses that only recovered in value 10+ years later here from underwater mortgages. RI was one of the worst hit states in unemployment, which was around 7% at the worst period.

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Wide_Television_7074 t1_je3ozax wrote

advising people to wait to buy a home hasn’t been good advice in 80+ years

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Mountain_Bill5743 t1_je3s46w wrote

I'm not telling people to wait, this isn't 2007. I'm simply stating that your comment about what happened during the Great Recession here is at best misinformed and at worst completely dismissive of the suffering that people went through here in 2007 well into the 2010s.

Here's from when RI was in the top 10 worst list for underwater mortgages (published in 2012): https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/5-states-drowning-underwater-mortgages-flna436089

The original article is no longer available but this snippet covers a bit of the challenge "Some of the states with a high percentage of underwater mortgages had economic problems long before the recent recession. States such as Michigan and Rhode Island have experienced long-term industrial declines for some time. In these areas, drops in home values were only accelerated by the recession."

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Wide_Television_7074 t1_je4v6bl wrote

I wish I bought in 2007 — I would have tripled the value of my home. I don’t understand what your trying to get at but you are over complicating this.

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Mountain_Bill5743 t1_je546rg wrote

Yes, by now you would have succeded, but your statement earlier about 2012 being profitable after 2007 is misleading. Many people were still selling at a loss back then if they needed to move/divorce/etc and I'm just showing you that the data says otherwise.

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fishythepete t1_je7ecnq wrote

But for the disruption of the pandemic, you’d have been lucky to break even. Average price in the national housing market doesn’t fall often. When it starts to fall for the first time in 10+ years, that’s probably not the time to buy.

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Wide_Television_7074 t1_je7p34m wrote

when Joe Biden was elected, that was the signal to buy hard assets. You just knew shit would fall apart.

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boulevardofdef t1_je6bqmh wrote

I bought in February 2022. I didn't quite get the historic low rates, but they sure were a whole hell of a lot lower than they are now (about 3.5%). I probably got a deal at the time (incredibly enough, as the market was still really competitive), but Zillow says I'm up about 9%.

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Styx_Renegade t1_je4nkep wrote

But do most people really buy a home in hopes that the value will go up?

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DrGeraldBaskums t1_je4qenw wrote

Yes. It is one of the biggest benefits of home ownership. It’s always been one of the biggest creators of wealth in America, especially for older people in retirement.

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howsyourlife t1_jea3d8g wrote

Transplants, typically from MA CA NY TX, who wfh and don't bat an eye paying above asking or engaging in bidding wars. These are usually the same people who would shit on RI constantly before Covid as being boring, uneducated, nothing to do, not progressive or diverse enough, etc. Now they're gushing about OMG how much they love living in cute artsy RI (especially the East Side) and avoiding the "rat race" and commute of the HCOL city they were infatuated with just a few years prior.

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