Another Housing Bubble?

[roundhouse]

Smyrna traffic, Already horrible... is about to get 400x worse

Yep. Gonna have to learn some new driving habits. Be using paces ferry exit instead of 41 / spring road

Sucks that the Braves are moving to Smyrna and that the Cobb taxpayers have to foot the bill
County is going to own the stadium itself and the Braves will own everything that's around it

The stadium will lose
Money and all the restraints and hotels will make money. Just wait and see


Still the best place to have an affordable house with actual trees around it and a reasonable commute and not have Fulton or dekalb county property taxes

 

[TheAreopagite]

Still the best place to have an affordable house with actual trees around it and a reasonable commute and not have Fulton or dekalb county property taxes

Shhhhh....don't let word get out. I moved to the Smyrna area two years ago and home prices have gone bonkers. There are still a lot of neighbors underwater (given the crazy pre-crash prices), but they're almost back to even. I have a nice fenced yard and easy access to where I work in town. Those reasons alone are driving a good bit of the upward movement.

As to the OP, if we're in a bubble or not, I suspect it is a bubble. Low to zero interest rates set by the Fed have had the unintended consequence of driving down the rate of return on a lot of corporate investment, and banks and corporations have taken that cheap money (in the form of loans) and turned it into cash-flow producing rentals. For them, it's a better return on their money than investing in new business ventures when consumer demand is soft and GDP growth is slowing. Our economy is likely on the verge of stagflation, a la 1970s. When inflation starts creeping up, they're going to have to raise the Federal funds rate which is going to (at least temporarily) push us into recession. I think that's a big reason why they keep trying to raise rates even though the market data is mixed and often bearish.

 

[Trader805]

right now, it is simple supply and demand. No bubble per se, just people moving into the area that need housing, and not many people putting their house up for sale or new construction ready for them to buy.

 

[Piglatinhater]

right now, it is simple supply and demand. No bubble per se, just people moving into the area that need housing, and not many people putting their house up for sale or new construction ready for them to buy.

Yep,Its pretty much supply and demand, plus location.

 

[MajorTom]

The last bubble did not happen over night. Credit restrictions will ever so gradually loosen over time, this has already begun. No one went to jail, the same white collar criminals are still there like wolves guarding the chicken coops. There were absolutely no safe guards, regulations, penalties (other than monetary slaps on the wrists) put in place to keep this from happening again. Prices and pseudo values will continue to rise as materials and labor do. Once this happens the credit restrictions will loosen as loan amounts increase and become out of reach. We learned nothing from the last time, there was something about being doomed to repeat when..........Oh, I can't remember

 

[spencer60]

Not a bubble... it's just taken almost a decade to get back to where we were when everything crashed. Housing is no more expensive now than it was in 2008, it's just that mortgages are much, much harder to get which limits the turnover.

I'm watching the new building they are putting up across the street from my job in Midtown. All apartments... no condos at all, but the rents are almost $4,000 a month for a 1,800 sq ft apartment.

That's way more than a mortgage payment would be. Given our current rates that would be a million dollar loan. However rentals are hot because there lots of people who might have money, but don't have the credit scores anymore after a bankruptcy, foreclosure or short sale.

If you can buy a house there's a limited number of them for sale. The hot rental market means lots of absentee landlords renting properties rather than selling. And anyone who owns is probably just barely back to break-even, and besides, then they have to go hunting up new houses.

It used to be a house was a place to live that might slowly gain value over time. This housing 'inflation' we're stuck with is actually kind of an aberration. We may simply go back to the old 1-2% appreciation each year and not swap houses every 2-3 years.

 

[Miatadude]

I guess the housing on the north side is booming. I live just outside of Griffin and got a smoking deal 4 years ago. There are 2 custom built houses close to me that are in the $300k range. Beautiful houses, 2 acre lots, but they have been on the market for over 6 months. I bought down here because I work in Hampton and have a nice 9 mile commute. I have wondered why people who work in downtown Atlanta purchase homes on the north side. Too much traffic, high prices etc.

 

[chucklenut]

But people DID lie. And the bank loan officers went, "whatever" even though it was obvious what was going on. Due Dilligence went out the window. That was what should have killed a whole bunch of banks.... but... yeah we know the rest of the story.

the bank officers said "whatever" because they receive a commission or a bonus for the amount of loans they turn out

longevity of the security be damned and no skin off their teeth if they default a few years down the road

 

[JamesG]

dont hate the playa, hate the moron who screwed up the game.

 

[chucklenut]

dont hate the playa, hate the moron who screwed up the game.

acorn? or HUD? or civil rights act and LBJs great society?

cause this **** all started decades ago. like a tumor

everyone is to blame and it is no one's fault. this belief is why the gov had to bail out

of course, pure market forces are far less forgiving, and will always come about eventually. the myth the FED pushes is they can fix it