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House Values

March 3rd, 2013 at 10:50 pm

The market is pretty strong in my county right now. I started looking at houses and prices about two weeks ago. A friend is house shopping and my co-worker and I have been perusing the listings. It's been interesting because prices are climbing steadily and inventory is tight. If a house is nice and priced right it isn't for sale long.

I looked at my neighborhood (about a five block radius) and in the past four months there have been four sales all about $300k. Currently there is a house listed for $325k one street over from ours. It is a slightly smaller house, smaller lot and only a single car garage.

Zillow has our house estimated at $285k. If comparable houses are selling at $300k I think it is more reasonable to say our market value is $300k. It's rather exciting to gain value even when it really doesn't matter for us right now.

There are still plenty of foreclosures. I know some people just walked away because they didn't *want* to pay the inflated mortgage when the house lost value. Of course there are also people who couldn't afford such a huge payment anymore. At the height of the bubble our house sold for $506k.

Is the market gaining steam in your area too?

Posted in Personal Finance, House and Home | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “House Values”

  1. MonkeyMama Says:
    March 4th, 2013 at 01:46 am 1362361608
    1362361608

    Oh my gosh - I just saw a tiny-lot home down the street sold for $225k in January. I had been seeing them in the 100s, so I did a double take. I figured spring would be large inflated values. Most the people I know buying right now aren't really putting any money down, and with these low interest rates... I call it Bubble 2.0. I also just got an e-mail of someone pre-advertising a house listing because "inventory is tight" and wanted to give the local school's parents first choice. It will be an interesting spring and summer.

  2. CB in the City Says:
    March 4th, 2013 at 02:33 pm 1362407625
    1362407625

    Housing prices are said to be recovering in the Chicago area. However, I just got a notice from the Assessor (?) that my condo has been revalued at $111,000. The appraiser said $125,000 a few months ago. $111,000 is exactly what I paid, so I wonder if they are using sales figures? Anyway, I'm here for the long haul, so it doesn't matter.

  3. JulieAlbright Says:
    March 4th, 2013 at 05:17 pm 1362417423
    1362417423

    Zillow reports that prices in our immediate area should decrease another 1 to 2% over the next year but I'm not sure how they come up with that number. It's not like Zillow is anywhere near correct on their estimate of my house so I take that number with a grain of salt too.

    I admit that scouring Zillow to see what is out there is one of my favorite past-times. My impression is that the number of short sales and foreclosures seem to be decreasing.

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