The house you saw. My Mom's health went downhill fast so I'm staying in Omaha for a while to help out the family here and spending some time with her. It all happened really quickly but I was looking to get out of that house anyway.
With the current state of the market I decided to cash out instead of renting it out and I'm glad I did.
sobe_death said:In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :
I (and my barren yard near the street) can attest that CDOT puts TONS of salts(MgCl2) out these past few years. I hate it, because the snow melts away anyways, but the streets are definitely dusty white until late April/May when it's rained enough to wash it away.
Mag chloride doesn't eat cars the way sodium chloride does, though. Not even close.
As for the housing market - we're seeing that around here right now too. Total sellers market. I think it may be driven by the spike in building material costs, which has driven up the cost of new construction and is dragging the existing housing with it.
In the front range, it's totally lack of inventory. For El Paso county, a healthy market sees 4000 or so active listings not under contract. Currently there are under 200. So when people do list, they go quick. I was the only active listing in my school district between 500K and 700K so if you wanted a house in that school district, mine was the only choice. That's why I listed it and not rented it out.
Even in Omaha, there is a rise but not nearly as bad and that is more driven by what Keith is saying.
My Realtor(TM) friends are begging for listings right now. Like you said, no inventory. It's got to be something country-wide because we don't usually echo the rest of the market this closely. I also wonder how much of it is an increased demand for home offices?
Home values are rising at a crazy pace everywhere that is desirable. Definitely happening where I live.
It feels like an enormous bubble.
Home office means less corporate moves. I was moved to Colorado by the company. So you don't get that turn over. If you already have a house, no need to move. Combine that with the lower interest rates and the buying power was increased till recently. No longer the case as even with the lower interest rates, it would be $200 more a month than what I had my original mortgage at.
My company closed over 20 offices. All went 100% remote. My customers I sell to are doing the same. People now need a workspace in their house as well. So if you have a smaller house, you may need to upsize to have that home office. So not a lot of people leaving and a lot wanting either a place in general or a bigger place.
It's totally a bubble. I got lucky and was able to cash out on it and have another house that is totally paid for to live in. I'd hate to have to buy into this market.
America's new found appreciation for the western states is not a bubble. People will continue moving west until the taps run dry. The humidity in the east, especially the southeast, is only going to get worse. You say "ahh but the politics are so terrible, so liberal!" Well, there are a lot of places in the west that aren't, and even those places are filling up with folks.
What is a bubble could be the supply issues. It's something I've thought about in my small mountain town with quickly appreciating real estate. More people moving here will drive housing prices up. More housing creates a more vibrant community, which furthers drives desirability, but all that public land does create an island effect. California already sees it. Small Rocky Mountain towns will try their best to fight it, but eventually they will be invaded by those who wish to forgo big ranches and estates for tightly packed town centers with high speed internet and Tesla Superchargers.
If employers go to permanent or limited office time, then people won't be as concerned with commute times or traffic.
I know a lot of people who are more concerned about "TTT" or "TTD" - Time To Trail or Time To Dirt. How quickly can I get on a trail from my house? Even in Phoenix, a metro of 4.8 million people, you'd be surprised about how easy trail access is. Even for folks who enjoy motos and ATVs, you can get to places where you can ride all day, no fees, without touching the same trail twice, all within an hour of the center of Phoenix. As long as the public land creates those islands, that ability to maintain a short "TTT" will draw a lot of people for that reason alone.
It's just not going to be cheap.
I read an article this morning that there are more real estate agents in the US than homes for sale.
The answer to how life is in boulder colorado tonight. Not good.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/22/us/boulder-colorado-shooting/index.html
In reply to lnlogauge :
My buddy in Broomfield was talking about this as it was happening yesterday.
Sadly we just had one in my area of Wisconsin too. Fewer dead but that doesn't make it any less depressing. https://www.fox23.com/news/trending/2-dead-shooting-wisconsin-grocery-distribution-warehouse-suspect-dead-by-suicide/BF3AJDNR75G77GNXY375RUQY34/
I have more thoughts than I can share without bordering on flounder territory so I will just say that I am awestruck by the frequency with which these things happen in our country and leave it at that.
Sadly until some politicians family member gets killed or some very wealthy politically connected persons family member gets killed nothing will be done but empty "hopes and prayers"
In reply to docwyte :
We've had a congressman and congresswoman from both parties get shot by loons and nothing has come of it.
pointofdeparture said:As far as the "city life", my understanding is that Boulder is cool but breathtakingly expensive, and Denver is less expensive but not as trendy or whatever. I have a friend who lives in Broomfield who says those kind of suburban areas are the best balance of cost of living/access to the cities proper. I know very little about the area as a whole though so I'm curious what the local perspective is.
From a GRM perspective, I get the impression that it would not be worth the headache to bring my E28 and try to get it to pass smog (zero testing in WI for collector vehicles and my car is a no cats/no evap/no EGR relic of Europe in the 80's), so I would probably just sell it before the move and take on a new project afterward. That said, I'm not sure what the motorsports scene is like out there besides the hill climb; here in Wisconsin I'm surprisingly spoiled with Road America, Autobahn, and Blackhawk a stone's throw away and even more within a day's drive. Not expecting that level of choice but I would imagine there are at least a few road courses?
So, what's there to know about living in the Denver/Boulder area?
Unless you and your SO have a big trust fund or have $250K/yr salaries EACH Boulder is probably a non-starter. $1m I think is where we're at in terms of average home prices now. Unless you're a senior citizen or a college student you don't really want to live in Boulder anyway. Back in my single kid free days in my 30s most of my going out was down in Denver, but I'd never want to live there (it's dirty, lots of bums, traffic etc).
A lot of where you live will depend on where you work. I work in Boulder and commute from near Estes Park in the Mountains. Mountain living isn't for everyone though. The nice thing about being in the Mountains regarding your car though is no HOA, no PITA neighbors and NO EMISSIONS! (if you're deep enough in the MTs) Check out the Air Care map https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/AP_MVE_IM-Program-Area-Map_0.pdf Denver has a damn good BMW shop too https://www.paddockimports.com/
If I were looking to move here and living in a "city" were a requirement my choice would be Fort Collins. It's a good balance between Denver and Boulder. Denver has all the same big city problems as any other city. Fort Collins is much less dirty city and much more like a large College town without the university being the sole focus of the town. It's close proximity to every kind of recreational activity that you could do in the mountains with lift serviced skiing being the exception. I think it's 2hrs to Snowy Mtns or Eldora from FTC and those are far from World Class ski resorts, so if you want to Ski it's going to be backcountry or plan on having to hotel it to do Summit County skiing.
One thing you'll find here on "The Front Range" is there's no shortage of transplants from Wisconsin. So finding fellow Bucky or Packer fans won't be an issue if that's something you're into. If your main hobby is cars and Motorsports ;Colorado overall I find is kinda weak when it comes to the car scene. I'm not saying it's bad, and you could do much worse but I find on a whole there's fewer racing enthusiasts here than in other parts of the country I've lived in (I lived in Daytona for years and in California too, so my perspective is different that say someone from Omaha). A lot of the lack of car guys is because there's so much to do here and this place attracts more hikers/cyclists than it does gear heads and the gear heads that do live here are mostly Jeepers who outnumber the rest of the gear heads probably 10:1.
Someone said we get more snow then Milwaukee and that is probably true. But I can guarantee you MKE doesn't have 300 days of sunshine! March on the Front Range can have 3 feet of snow on Monday and by the weekend it could be in the 70s and all the snow is melted. It's also not uncommon to see 60 degree days in Jan or Feb occasionally either.
If you find the cities are out of your price range, some of the former towns that used to be real crummy have made improvements of leaps and bounds. Longmont, Loveland are a couple that come to mind even some of the towns East of I-25 have improved significantly in the last few years.
Keith Tanner said:My Realtor(TM) friends are begging for listings right now. Like you said, no inventory. It's got to be something country-wide because we don't usually echo the rest of the market this closely. I also wonder how much of it is an increased demand for home offices?
I know a realtor in Wilmington, NC and it's a similar situation. She recently told a story of a house her client tried to buy. Sold to the current owners for around $250K about 3 years ago. Listed at $390K. Her clients bid $410K. They were out-bid by "at least $25K" by a buyer from NY who never even set foot in the house before placing an offer.
The market is insane all over right now.
Keith Tanner said:My Realtor(TM) friends are begging for listings right now. Like you said, no inventory. It's got to be something country-wide because we don't usually echo the rest of the market this closely. I also wonder how much of it is an increased demand for home offices?
Tell me about it. I get four calls a week from people making cash offers on my house. I can't sell. I have no other place to go that I can afford.
I don't get it. My house is NOT for sale. It is not listed. There is no sign in front. How do these people even find me?
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