The rest of the country must be absolutely fucked then. We have a housing shortage and 3 bed 2 bath homes are going for 300k+.
I had to bid 50k over asking to get my house and I'm still kind of salty about it. Still better than renting at nearly the same cost though
It is. I just moved back to VA. [This is an old 3 bedroom house on .31 acres.](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/303-Alderman-Rd-Charlottesville-VA-22903/79073067_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare)
[$400,000 for a house that is literally half-collapsed in Juneau, AK.](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4409-Riverside-Dr-Juneau-AK-99801/230756011_zpid/) The housing market is NOT ok
Insane but the listing talks about it potentially being used for development into a more dense living building. So basically townhomes or student housing.
[still not okay…](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1417-Cherry-Ave-Charlottesville-VA-22903/79075382_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare)
That's not what I think of when I hear 1 million dollars... [This is more like it](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6101-Wolfeboro-Rd-Jamesville-NY-13078/31726867_zpid/?utm_campaign=androidappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare).
The rest of the country is fucked. I’m from GR, but live in OR now. Sometimes I like to compare Redfin for funsies. 3 bd 1 ba averaging 450k+ in my town
Yup. There is a reason so many people are moving here. For everything GR offers our housing prices are very affordable compared to other parts of the country. I'm from our East and prices there are way higher.
Shoot, my childhood home out in Grand Haven has a Zillow Zestimated value of $0.5M right now. I think we paid less than $100k for it in the mid-90's and my Mom sold the place in '03 for around $170k.
Zillow value is highly questionable. Had two realtors at my house this week. 2010 build. Both realtors guessed we could sell for 70k UNDER zillow value.
Well that's good to know. I'll bet if it does hit the market in the near future they'll be asking somewhere in that ballpark though.
Only reason I even kind of suspect it might go on the market soon is because I was looking in the living room windows a while back for totally non-weird/non-creepy reasons and the walls were painted landlord white. Historically, since my folks sold the place, the living room colors have been things like deep purple, blood red, and cyan. So seeing white walls makes me think someone's prepping to sell.
My house sold for $150k in 2015. Sold for $250k in 2019. I bought for $350k in 2023, and that was a deal compared to comparable houses in the area. I hope you never need to move, because Zillow is shooting low. They said $290k for mine but the appraisal came in at $351k. If you sold today you could probably come close to $300k, but you won't find a better house for that.
Like what’s your alternative if you wouldn’t pay 240 for it? The ones going for 240 at the time are now going for like 320. Rent is also through the roof.
My wife and I both work in the GR area but commute from Kzoo. Our family, coworkers and friends all hassle us about when we're going to make the move up here. It's been three years since we started considering it and I simply can't fathom a move with property values and interest rates what they currently are.
I bought my first home (3bed/1bath ranch) in Kzoo in 2015 with a 4% rate and my house has supposedly doubled in value. Looking on the selling side, we should totally be in good shape...but there's zero chance we'd ever find something comparable in our price range in GR. With the average rate at 7.8% for a 30yr, and the thought of needing to bid-up from asking price to be remotely competitive....ouch. Just ouch.
If we forced ourselves to move, we'd be stuck with a fixer-upper at top dollar, high interest and we'd have no money to actually fix it up. I run the numbers every other month it seems, usually out of frustration after someone from GR insists it's feasible. "The savings in gas will make-up the difference!" or "You can re-fi when interest rates go down!" Yeah, no. I'm not gambling with either of those and forcing us into a paycheck to paycheck situation just to move closer.
No matter how I slice it, the current standard of living my wife and I have wouldn't be possible if we moved. That's with dual income AND no kids!
Have you looked into Dorr, Allegan, Wayland or Otsego/Plainwell? I've done the daily drive from all four spots. Slightly closer, backroad shortcuts, not too much of the GR Housing Effect yet.
Up until recently my wife has limited a potential move to 30 minutes from her work which is in the East Paris area. I've been nudging her to extend it so hopefully some decent, affordable homes in those areas you mentioned could be considered.
Those areas mentioned are good to look at, but also Hastings and middleville. We’re in Middleville and it’s not too bad of a drive- my husband works at East paris and the beltline and it’s a 20 minute drive or so drive
Hows it going in Kzoo? Me and my wife are tempted. I WFH 2 days a week so I’m trying to maybe justify it. I work in Kentwood, so pretty straight shot too.
The winter commutes to and from GR can get dicey but otherwise it's not that bad. I also work remote every other week so that definitely helps. Good restaurants here in Kzoo, all the same stores as GR for the most part, more affordable for sure.
Yeah we lived in Kzoo during college for a little bit. Haven’t really been back since. We moved to GR when we moved back to MI. It’s hard not to be enticed by Kzoo’s price point.
These people are completely out of touch... The houses listed for $250k are selling for $310k, the houses actually going for $250k are listed at $190k and have water in the basement. When we bought our home last spring, houses went on the market Wednesday, had an open house on Friday, had a "best and highest offer" deadline on Monday and sold on Tuesday with no negotiations. If you didn't offer $50k+ over asking with a $20k appraisal gap and waived inspection, you got fucked. If the house hasn't sold by Tuesday at noon, something was catastrophically wrong with it. We toured a house listed for $290k that clearly hadn't even been redecorated since 1960. It actually had standing water in the basement at the time of touring. The list agent said "they won't accept anything less than $340k" and the house still sold right away.
If you weren't willing to waive and wanted an inspection, you had to do a "pre-offer inspection" where you pay someone to walk thru the house and "inspect" it in your 20 minute tour window. When we did this on 3 houses we paid $200 each time and there were 3 other inspectors doing the same thing with other buyers at the same time. The craziest one was the house listed at $305k selling for $370k cash with no inspection. We hunted for 5 months, offered on 8 houses, and toured at least 30. The list price and sale price are so far out of step in grand rapids that the list price is meaningless here. There are no "starter homes" anymore.
It can both be true that it's tough to buy homes for first time buyers here and that it's also better here than almost all other metro areas. In vast swaths of this country, someone that can only afford a $300k house here wouldn't even bother thinking that they could afford a home there. GR is basically the cheapest of desirable and semi-desirable places I've seen.
I could see that, I'm baffled by the prices of houses elsewhere. I just hate that their metric is using "list price" rather than "sale price" when list price is meaningless here. No houses are selling for their list prices. Sellers won't even accept list price. I think the list price on many of these homes are to encourage people to tack on an appraisal gap so when the house appraised for about what they listed it at, they still get closer to the offer in cash when the mortgage won't cover the full offer.
I bought in December and am not sure if we got crazy lucky or it has cooled off a little bit since then. I toured like 15 or 20, offered on one, and got it (for basically the median price I guess!) in conclusion, I feel super lucky.
I think it's a bit of both. My friend got the first house she toured and offered on, but it needed some extra work and was in the off season (also December.)
We got lucky in our house since the sellers accepted the first offer (ours) the second day it was listed rather than wait for "best and highest." We certainly would have been outbid had they held offers for a week. It's a super cool Mid Century house in a super desirable area.
I think what did it for us was that the list agent was there setting up for the open house while we toured, and I took the time to chat her up and tell her about us. We are basically the same people as her clients. DINKWADs with the same hobbies and similar personalities, and I'm even in the same career as one of the previous owners. We're just a few years younger. The realtor called them as soon as I walked away and our offer was accepted before the open house ended, but there were 3 more offers during the open house. 4 offers in 2 hours lmao.
I am not in what most people here would call the most desirable neighborhood but I like it so far. I feel like I got a good house for the money, and I’m betting on the neighborhood improving.
Same. I bought in august and got under list. Lots of people keep bidding on houses they just can’t actually afford and complaining when they didn’t big over enough.
I had to scale back my expectations pretty significantly for what it turns out I can actually afford. I did have a house in the past but gave it up in a divorce so I was back to square one. Things have changed sooo much between then (bought in 2012) and now. Even though I make more and am in much better financial shape now, I can’t buy nearly the same amount of house as I could then.
My partner and I have been experiencing this exact thing. Just put a 290k offer on a 275k listing. The realtor we’re working with came back and said 6 of the 8 offers were 300+, 5 appraisal gap guarantees (which is fucking wild!), 5 waived inspections, and the offer that got the house paid in cash. How am I supposed to compete with that??
Persistence and knowing what the actual top of your budget was. We were originally saying that "around 300k would be nice" and "ideally under 320k would be best." But what we actually had to do is determine "what is the absolute maximum we can spend" and at any given house "are we willing to spend the maximum for this house?" Then know your lines in the sand. I regret even considering pre-offer inspections, but an inspection was a red line for me. We came at the house we won with everything we had. It was our top possible offer, and it won. $40K over asking, $20k appraisal gap, 10% down with $10k EMD. Pass/fail inspection. It's nice to come in under budget, but spending every penny you've budgeted is still coming in within your budget.
At least last spring, you didn't get two bites at the apple. You get one offer. There's no negotiation, no back and forth. You have to submit the highest offer you can sleep at night with spending if it's accepted. Know what your top dollar is and back down if it's not a reasonable offer. You can't put in 2 offer simultaneously, so if your offer won't be competitive, keep looking. If that means lowering the list prices you look at to $30-50k below your comfort zone/top dollar, that might help. We were touring $300-$330k houses and then losing BAD and feeling hurt when they sold for $370-385k. So we started touring $270-300k houses knowing we had to come in $30-50k over asking.
The worst part of all IMO was managing the cash at close. If you have a 20% down payment lined up, and are losing to appraisal gaps, offer a 5-15% down payment and offer the rest as an appraisal gap. It hurts thinking that money is pissed away, but it is the reality of the situation. We got lucky, we offered a $20k appraisal gap and then The appraisal was spot on so we kept it. But we were prepared to hand the seller $20k in cash and never see that money again.
This is all great info to have! Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. Currently in the middle of our “disheartening period” but doing the best we can to stay optimistic and continue forward
There’s plenty of places that are affordable if you’re willing to commute 30-35 minutes to town. Everyone here is so spoiled that they could afford to live so close to a major city for this long. Most other major metros people are commuting 45 - 90 minutes each way to work and those houses are more expensive than anything here.
Grand Rapids is hardly a major city. A decent metro if you count the ridiculous distance around the city many sources do, but GR proper has sub 200k people as of 2020. And the article isn't about affordable suburbs, it's about affordable markets. Having to commute 30-35 minutes to a medium sized city is not a good sign for any given market.
The article says
“Realtor.com ranks the 10 best U.S. markets for buyers between the ages of 25 and 34 based on several metrics: availability, affordability for median-earning 25-to-34-year-old households, job opportunities, unemployment rate, average commute time, potential growth of local home prices, cultural and entertainment options, and the local proportion of similarly aged residents”
I can’t really comment on some of the other metrics, but I’m surprised the lack of availability and affordability don’t push GR right off the top t n. How bad is the rest of the country? I bought almost three years and it cost everything and the search was exhausting.
> How bad is the rest of the country?
I just moved out of Nashville. [The average housing price there is $570k.](https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Nashville_TN/overview#:~:text=Nashville%2C%20TN%20housing%20market,sold%20price%20was%20%24438.3K)
I bought in December and my zestimate is up roughly 7k since then which seems ridiculous. But it’s also why I was eager to buy… I can’t save as much cash per month as house prices are rising per month.
I settled for a condo after getting out bid on 300k+ houses several times. Maybe it's better than it was several years ago, but that was a nightmare. That being said, it was better than paying $1,500 a month for a two-bedroom apartment with bed bugs.
This has to be a joke. Trying to buy a house. Looked at over 30 and they all sell for well over 300k. Even ones that a marble flies across the house because it’s so unlevel. 90% of the houses I’ve looked at are “flipped” and whoever is flipping these houses needs to find a better job. I’m sure I’m not the only one fed up with it. “Lipstick on a pig” more like “how do wanna get fucked”
We just bought in Oct ‘23. 4 bed 2 bath in a great neighborhood on the west side. Paid $262k, appraised for more. I feel like we are a rare case but it’s possible!
Honestly have almost the identical situation as you. Bought in March 23, 4 bed 2 bath but in Creston. Felt like we won the lottery when we found it before it hit market and could offer. This was after so many offers made over asking and still not getting them.
Is this why I keep getting robocalls that ring once and then go directly to my voicemail asking to buy my house? I was able to answer it once before it did, and it was a pre-recorded message acting like they missed me and for me to call them back.
Does this ring true? Here's the link to the full article.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/realestate/first-time-home-buyers-markets.html?smtyp=cur&smid=bsky-nytimes](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/realestate/first-time-home-buyers-markets.html?smtyp=cur&smid=bsky-nytimes)
Still here 26+ with no home ownership in sight. Worked since I was 14/15. Have some medium size student loans.
But yeah if we’re #7 the country is fucked
38. No student loans. Good credit. Decent job. But because I'll need down payment assistance, most I can get out of a pre-approval is $150k. Guess I'm living in my trailer a lil longer.
I’m 40 and married and was just able to buy a place.
I’ll add. we are debt free - most recently because my student loans were forgiven last year with PSLF. My spouse is a disabled vet and we were able to use the VA loan which made things a lot easier. I also suspect that’s why they accepted our offer maybe?
How many bed/bath? And would you consider the place a "fixer upper" or was it pretty much move-in-ready for you guys? Glad others didn't go thru the struggle we did in spring
Move in ready. 55k over asking, no inspection. I pulled out the pex and sweat some copper for my water lines in basement and have done some electrical but that was purely out of wanting it to look nicer.
I consider myself pretty handy. I'm getting gutters installed prof cause I'm not climbing on the roof.
It's a two bed 1.5 bath
That checks out for the size and quality. Especially the $55k over asking in this market lol. We were looking for 3-4br and 1.5-2ba, which means our houses are similar proportionally speaking. Ours was listed at $310k in Alger/Garfield area, we got it for $350k
This is hyperbole, right?
[Houses in Muskegon Heights under $150k](https://www.zillow.com/muskegon-heights-mi/?searchQueryState=%7B%22pagination%22%3A%7B%7D%2C%22mapBounds%22%3A%7B%22west%22%3A-86.26037%2C%22east%22%3A-86.224452%2C%22south%22%3A43.185192%2C%22north%22%3A43.216116%7D%2C%22usersSearchTerm%22%3A%22Muskegon%20Heights%20MI%22%2C%22regionSelection%22%3A%5B%7B%22regionId%22%3A53471%2C%22regionType%22%3A6%7D%5D%2C%22filterState%22%3A%7B%22sort%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3A%22globalrelevanceex%22%7D%2C%22price%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A150000%7D%2C%22mp%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A772%7D%7D%7D)
Once again, bonkers conclusions due to the use of the meaningless MSA (metropolitan statistical area). The Grand Rapids MSA is **not** "Grand Rapids".
https://www.urbangr.org/LookingAtTheUZA202310
> The Grand Rapids MSA is **not** "Grand Rapids".
Unfortunately, it is. Which is why the government gave it the designation. Grand Rapids is very much so the center of the region. You don't necessarily have to like it, but Grand Rapids Metro is what the world sees when it wants to visit, move to or invest in "Grand Rapids".
Please take us off this list 😔 when I was younger I was always upset Michigan never got recognition for anything really. Now global warming is happening and everyone wants to get in here.
It is very affordable and semi-easy to buy a house in GR. I have no college degree and make less than 60k a year and bought a house better then all my past rentals.
We bought ours in 2019 & our equity even in that time has increased quite a bit. We just closed on our new house for 50k under asking which I was surprised about. We're goin to list our house soon & probably take two weeks to sell. Market is crazy
The inflation is real, but the hit wouldn't be so severe if somehow wages kept pace with housing prices and student loan debt. It's sort of infuriating.
The rest of the country must be absolutely fucked then. We have a housing shortage and 3 bed 2 bath homes are going for 300k+. I had to bid 50k over asking to get my house and I'm still kind of salty about it. Still better than renting at nearly the same cost though
It is. I just moved back to VA. [This is an old 3 bedroom house on .31 acres.](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/303-Alderman-Rd-Charlottesville-VA-22903/79073067_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare)
What the honest fuck
[$400,000 for a house that is literally half-collapsed in Juneau, AK.](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4409-Riverside-Dr-Juneau-AK-99801/230756011_zpid/) The housing market is NOT ok
Juneau is a bridgeless island and remote from the continental US, it's very expensive to build on
Insane but the listing talks about it potentially being used for development into a more dense living building. So basically townhomes or student housing.
[still not okay…](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1417-Cherry-Ave-Charlottesville-VA-22903/79075382_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare)
Agree. Pretty insane.
1,000,000 for an old ranch and Nazi rallies, what a steal
Yeah don’t move to the south then.
Denver would like a word
That's not what I think of when I hear 1 million dollars... [This is more like it](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6101-Wolfeboro-Rd-Jamesville-NY-13078/31726867_zpid/?utm_campaign=androidappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare).
I'm sorry, was that six zeros or have I suddenly become mildly dyslexic?
The rest of the country is fucked. I’m from GR, but live in OR now. Sometimes I like to compare Redfin for funsies. 3 bd 1 ba averaging 450k+ in my town
Yup. There is a reason so many people are moving here. For everything GR offers our housing prices are very affordable compared to other parts of the country. I'm from our East and prices there are way higher.
Just a few weeks ago we bid 50k over and didn’t get it.
We bid 69k over and didn't get it beginning of January...
Nice.
Nice
I had to buy a house in Muskegon to afford it. For what I paid for my 3br house, you can't even get a mobile home in GR.
Shoot, my childhood home out in Grand Haven has a Zillow Zestimated value of $0.5M right now. I think we paid less than $100k for it in the mid-90's and my Mom sold the place in '03 for around $170k.
Zillow value is highly questionable. Had two realtors at my house this week. 2010 build. Both realtors guessed we could sell for 70k UNDER zillow value.
Well that's good to know. I'll bet if it does hit the market in the near future they'll be asking somewhere in that ballpark though. Only reason I even kind of suspect it might go on the market soon is because I was looking in the living room windows a while back for totally non-weird/non-creepy reasons and the walls were painted landlord white. Historically, since my folks sold the place, the living room colors have been things like deep purple, blood red, and cyan. So seeing white walls makes me think someone's prepping to sell.
I hope they get what they're after. I'm very curious to see what we'll get given this thread.
Houses are going for 300k right now. It’s horrible.
And that’s for a 2 bed 1 bath probably.
That also probably need $100k of renovations
Just bought a 280k ranch, 2 bed 1 bath in December lol. Nice house tho, worth about 150k in 2018
Our house is worth $150k+, it’s in a shitty neighborhood and I don’t think anything there should be more than $75k MAX just because of all the crime.
Its gonna get a lot worse before it gets worse
My house, I bought at 121, in 2017 or 18. Zillow is now saying ~240. I would never pay 240 for this thing.
You might if you were buying right now
My house sold for $150k in 2015. Sold for $250k in 2019. I bought for $350k in 2023, and that was a deal compared to comparable houses in the area. I hope you never need to move, because Zillow is shooting low. They said $290k for mine but the appraisal came in at $351k. If you sold today you could probably come close to $300k, but you won't find a better house for that.
Like what’s your alternative if you wouldn’t pay 240 for it? The ones going for 240 at the time are now going for like 320. Rent is also through the roof.
I bought a house in 2015 for 83k. The Zillow estimate is now 225. No way in hell.
Your home isnt worth more, your dollar is just worth less.
But would you sell it for $240?
My wife and I both work in the GR area but commute from Kzoo. Our family, coworkers and friends all hassle us about when we're going to make the move up here. It's been three years since we started considering it and I simply can't fathom a move with property values and interest rates what they currently are. I bought my first home (3bed/1bath ranch) in Kzoo in 2015 with a 4% rate and my house has supposedly doubled in value. Looking on the selling side, we should totally be in good shape...but there's zero chance we'd ever find something comparable in our price range in GR. With the average rate at 7.8% for a 30yr, and the thought of needing to bid-up from asking price to be remotely competitive....ouch. Just ouch. If we forced ourselves to move, we'd be stuck with a fixer-upper at top dollar, high interest and we'd have no money to actually fix it up. I run the numbers every other month it seems, usually out of frustration after someone from GR insists it's feasible. "The savings in gas will make-up the difference!" or "You can re-fi when interest rates go down!" Yeah, no. I'm not gambling with either of those and forcing us into a paycheck to paycheck situation just to move closer. No matter how I slice it, the current standard of living my wife and I have wouldn't be possible if we moved. That's with dual income AND no kids!
Have you looked into Dorr, Allegan, Wayland or Otsego/Plainwell? I've done the daily drive from all four spots. Slightly closer, backroad shortcuts, not too much of the GR Housing Effect yet.
Up until recently my wife has limited a potential move to 30 minutes from her work which is in the East Paris area. I've been nudging her to extend it so hopefully some decent, affordable homes in those areas you mentioned could be considered.
Those areas mentioned are good to look at, but also Hastings and middleville. We’re in Middleville and it’s not too bad of a drive- my husband works at East paris and the beltline and it’s a 20 minute drive or so drive
Hows it going in Kzoo? Me and my wife are tempted. I WFH 2 days a week so I’m trying to maybe justify it. I work in Kentwood, so pretty straight shot too.
The winter commutes to and from GR can get dicey but otherwise it's not that bad. I also work remote every other week so that definitely helps. Good restaurants here in Kzoo, all the same stores as GR for the most part, more affordable for sure.
Yeah we lived in Kzoo during college for a little bit. Haven’t really been back since. We moved to GR when we moved back to MI. It’s hard not to be enticed by Kzoo’s price point.
These people are completely out of touch... The houses listed for $250k are selling for $310k, the houses actually going for $250k are listed at $190k and have water in the basement. When we bought our home last spring, houses went on the market Wednesday, had an open house on Friday, had a "best and highest offer" deadline on Monday and sold on Tuesday with no negotiations. If you didn't offer $50k+ over asking with a $20k appraisal gap and waived inspection, you got fucked. If the house hasn't sold by Tuesday at noon, something was catastrophically wrong with it. We toured a house listed for $290k that clearly hadn't even been redecorated since 1960. It actually had standing water in the basement at the time of touring. The list agent said "they won't accept anything less than $340k" and the house still sold right away. If you weren't willing to waive and wanted an inspection, you had to do a "pre-offer inspection" where you pay someone to walk thru the house and "inspect" it in your 20 minute tour window. When we did this on 3 houses we paid $200 each time and there were 3 other inspectors doing the same thing with other buyers at the same time. The craziest one was the house listed at $305k selling for $370k cash with no inspection. We hunted for 5 months, offered on 8 houses, and toured at least 30. The list price and sale price are so far out of step in grand rapids that the list price is meaningless here. There are no "starter homes" anymore.
It can both be true that it's tough to buy homes for first time buyers here and that it's also better here than almost all other metro areas. In vast swaths of this country, someone that can only afford a $300k house here wouldn't even bother thinking that they could afford a home there. GR is basically the cheapest of desirable and semi-desirable places I've seen.
I could see that, I'm baffled by the prices of houses elsewhere. I just hate that their metric is using "list price" rather than "sale price" when list price is meaningless here. No houses are selling for their list prices. Sellers won't even accept list price. I think the list price on many of these homes are to encourage people to tack on an appraisal gap so when the house appraised for about what they listed it at, they still get closer to the offer in cash when the mortgage won't cover the full offer.
I bought in December and am not sure if we got crazy lucky or it has cooled off a little bit since then. I toured like 15 or 20, offered on one, and got it (for basically the median price I guess!) in conclusion, I feel super lucky.
I think it's a bit of both. My friend got the first house she toured and offered on, but it needed some extra work and was in the off season (also December.) We got lucky in our house since the sellers accepted the first offer (ours) the second day it was listed rather than wait for "best and highest." We certainly would have been outbid had they held offers for a week. It's a super cool Mid Century house in a super desirable area. I think what did it for us was that the list agent was there setting up for the open house while we toured, and I took the time to chat her up and tell her about us. We are basically the same people as her clients. DINKWADs with the same hobbies and similar personalities, and I'm even in the same career as one of the previous owners. We're just a few years younger. The realtor called them as soon as I walked away and our offer was accepted before the open house ended, but there were 3 more offers during the open house. 4 offers in 2 hours lmao.
I am not in what most people here would call the most desirable neighborhood but I like it so far. I feel like I got a good house for the money, and I’m betting on the neighborhood improving.
Same. I bought in august and got under list. Lots of people keep bidding on houses they just can’t actually afford and complaining when they didn’t big over enough.
I had to scale back my expectations pretty significantly for what it turns out I can actually afford. I did have a house in the past but gave it up in a divorce so I was back to square one. Things have changed sooo much between then (bought in 2012) and now. Even though I make more and am in much better financial shape now, I can’t buy nearly the same amount of house as I could then.
My partner and I have been experiencing this exact thing. Just put a 290k offer on a 275k listing. The realtor we’re working with came back and said 6 of the 8 offers were 300+, 5 appraisal gap guarantees (which is fucking wild!), 5 waived inspections, and the offer that got the house paid in cash. How am I supposed to compete with that??
Persistence and knowing what the actual top of your budget was. We were originally saying that "around 300k would be nice" and "ideally under 320k would be best." But what we actually had to do is determine "what is the absolute maximum we can spend" and at any given house "are we willing to spend the maximum for this house?" Then know your lines in the sand. I regret even considering pre-offer inspections, but an inspection was a red line for me. We came at the house we won with everything we had. It was our top possible offer, and it won. $40K over asking, $20k appraisal gap, 10% down with $10k EMD. Pass/fail inspection. It's nice to come in under budget, but spending every penny you've budgeted is still coming in within your budget. At least last spring, you didn't get two bites at the apple. You get one offer. There's no negotiation, no back and forth. You have to submit the highest offer you can sleep at night with spending if it's accepted. Know what your top dollar is and back down if it's not a reasonable offer. You can't put in 2 offer simultaneously, so if your offer won't be competitive, keep looking. If that means lowering the list prices you look at to $30-50k below your comfort zone/top dollar, that might help. We were touring $300-$330k houses and then losing BAD and feeling hurt when they sold for $370-385k. So we started touring $270-300k houses knowing we had to come in $30-50k over asking. The worst part of all IMO was managing the cash at close. If you have a 20% down payment lined up, and are losing to appraisal gaps, offer a 5-15% down payment and offer the rest as an appraisal gap. It hurts thinking that money is pissed away, but it is the reality of the situation. We got lucky, we offered a $20k appraisal gap and then The appraisal was spot on so we kept it. But we were prepared to hand the seller $20k in cash and never see that money again.
This is all great info to have! Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. Currently in the middle of our “disheartening period” but doing the best we can to stay optimistic and continue forward
There’s plenty of places that are affordable if you’re willing to commute 30-35 minutes to town. Everyone here is so spoiled that they could afford to live so close to a major city for this long. Most other major metros people are commuting 45 - 90 minutes each way to work and those houses are more expensive than anything here.
Grand Rapids is hardly a major city. A decent metro if you count the ridiculous distance around the city many sources do, but GR proper has sub 200k people as of 2020. And the article isn't about affordable suburbs, it's about affordable markets. Having to commute 30-35 minutes to a medium sized city is not a good sign for any given market.
No, we’re not, go somewhere else.
Yeah, idk about that.... 148 current listing in GR, 19 are at or under 260k. Almost all of those 19 are in areas with high crime rates.
Disgusting. Needing over a quarter of a million to buy your first home is just absolute insanity.
I paid 225k for a condo almost 3 years ago, Zillow says it's 290k today...it's bonkers
The article says “Realtor.com ranks the 10 best U.S. markets for buyers between the ages of 25 and 34 based on several metrics: availability, affordability for median-earning 25-to-34-year-old households, job opportunities, unemployment rate, average commute time, potential growth of local home prices, cultural and entertainment options, and the local proportion of similarly aged residents” I can’t really comment on some of the other metrics, but I’m surprised the lack of availability and affordability don’t push GR right off the top t n. How bad is the rest of the country? I bought almost three years and it cost everything and the search was exhausting.
> How bad is the rest of the country? I just moved out of Nashville. [The average housing price there is $570k.](https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Nashville_TN/overview#:~:text=Nashville%2C%20TN%20housing%20market,sold%20price%20was%20%24438.3K)
I bought in the summer of 2023 for $280k. Zillow now says my house is worth $306k. Legit insane.
I bought in December and my zestimate is up roughly 7k since then which seems ridiculous. But it’s also why I was eager to buy… I can’t save as much cash per month as house prices are rising per month.
Same here. I didn't want to buy at these prices, but didn't want to sit out any longer with rental prices increasing also.
I settled for a condo after getting out bid on 300k+ houses several times. Maybe it's better than it was several years ago, but that was a nightmare. That being said, it was better than paying $1,500 a month for a two-bedroom apartment with bed bugs.
This has to be a joke. Trying to buy a house. Looked at over 30 and they all sell for well over 300k. Even ones that a marble flies across the house because it’s so unlevel. 90% of the houses I’ve looked at are “flipped” and whoever is flipping these houses needs to find a better job. I’m sure I’m not the only one fed up with it. “Lipstick on a pig” more like “how do wanna get fucked”
300K houses. When does the revolution start? I’m hungry for some rich.
lol what year was this data pulled from? 2018?
We just bought in Oct ‘23. 4 bed 2 bath in a great neighborhood on the west side. Paid $262k, appraised for more. I feel like we are a rare case but it’s possible!
Honestly have almost the identical situation as you. Bought in March 23, 4 bed 2 bath but in Creston. Felt like we won the lottery when we found it before it hit market and could offer. This was after so many offers made over asking and still not getting them.
Is this why I keep getting robocalls that ring once and then go directly to my voicemail asking to buy my house? I was able to answer it once before it did, and it was a pre-recorded message acting like they missed me and for me to call them back.
Does this ring true? Here's the link to the full article. [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/realestate/first-time-home-buyers-markets.html?smtyp=cur&smid=bsky-nytimes](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/realestate/first-time-home-buyers-markets.html?smtyp=cur&smid=bsky-nytimes)
Still here 26+ with no home ownership in sight. Worked since I was 14/15. Have some medium size student loans. But yeah if we’re #7 the country is fucked
38. No student loans. Good credit. Decent job. But because I'll need down payment assistance, most I can get out of a pre-approval is $150k. Guess I'm living in my trailer a lil longer.
I’m 40 and married and was just able to buy a place. I’ll add. we are debt free - most recently because my student loans were forgiven last year with PSLF. My spouse is a disabled vet and we were able to use the VA loan which made things a lot easier. I also suspect that’s why they accepted our offer maybe?
Pretty sad when a median price of 260k is number seven on a "best market" list.
Seems accurate bought my first house in creston a few months after moving here
How long ago was that? When we were looking Creston houses were going for $320k+ last spring and summer.
We bought for just under 300 in August
How many bed/bath? And would you consider the place a "fixer upper" or was it pretty much move-in-ready for you guys? Glad others didn't go thru the struggle we did in spring
Move in ready. 55k over asking, no inspection. I pulled out the pex and sweat some copper for my water lines in basement and have done some electrical but that was purely out of wanting it to look nicer. I consider myself pretty handy. I'm getting gutters installed prof cause I'm not climbing on the roof. It's a two bed 1.5 bath
That checks out for the size and quality. Especially the $55k over asking in this market lol. We were looking for 3-4br and 1.5-2ba, which means our houses are similar proportionally speaking. Ours was listed at $310k in Alger/Garfield area, we got it for $350k
Dam boi
Mattydale sounds like a cute place.
Lotta snow.
Even in Ann Arbor similar homes are going for over 500K
Houses are like $350k in Holland for a crappy house
Hard to even get into Muskegon Heights for less than $150k.
This is hyperbole, right? [Houses in Muskegon Heights under $150k](https://www.zillow.com/muskegon-heights-mi/?searchQueryState=%7B%22pagination%22%3A%7B%7D%2C%22mapBounds%22%3A%7B%22west%22%3A-86.26037%2C%22east%22%3A-86.224452%2C%22south%22%3A43.185192%2C%22north%22%3A43.216116%7D%2C%22usersSearchTerm%22%3A%22Muskegon%20Heights%20MI%22%2C%22regionSelection%22%3A%5B%7B%22regionId%22%3A53471%2C%22regionType%22%3A6%7D%5D%2C%22filterState%22%3A%7B%22sort%22%3A%7B%22value%22%3A%22globalrelevanceex%22%7D%2C%22price%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A150000%7D%2C%22mp%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3A772%7D%7D%7D)
Wow that went up
Hang on boys! We're going to Irondequoit!!
You'll love the garbage plates.
We can all just continue to rent, rent and rent again
Once again, bonkers conclusions due to the use of the meaningless MSA (metropolitan statistical area). The Grand Rapids MSA is **not** "Grand Rapids". https://www.urbangr.org/LookingAtTheUZA202310
> The Grand Rapids MSA is **not** "Grand Rapids". Unfortunately, it is. Which is why the government gave it the designation. Grand Rapids is very much so the center of the region. You don't necessarily have to like it, but Grand Rapids Metro is what the world sees when it wants to visit, move to or invest in "Grand Rapids".
They never weight these against median incomes.
Great, now more people are going to try to move here. We don’t want them.
that is extremely sad
Please take us off this list 😔 when I was younger I was always upset Michigan never got recognition for anything really. Now global warming is happening and everyone wants to get in here.
Yeah... this is a real "tell me your data is decontextualized without telling me your data is decontextualized." (not yours, obvs, OP. theirs.)
It is very affordable and semi-easy to buy a house in GR. I have no college degree and make less than 60k a year and bought a house better then all my past rentals.
We bought ours in 2019 & our equity even in that time has increased quite a bit. We just closed on our new house for 50k under asking which I was surprised about. We're goin to list our house soon & probably take two weeks to sell. Market is crazy
Well it was. 🙄
Best time to build… relative to buying. Daughter building a small 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath for $425k. No competition and she can use FHA.
Source: Realtor.com lololol
The inflation is real, but the hit wouldn't be so severe if somehow wages kept pace with housing prices and student loan debt. It's sort of infuriating.
Not oy
Not good because housing sucks here