The Economy

There are four houses for sale in my tiny neighborhood. The one next door to me has an inflated price, to the point where the list has been slashed by $45K (and we are not talking about a high-priced neighborhood, so that makes what is already a ghastly figure even moreso). Probably a greedy, not-too-sharp realtor. Oops.

One other is grossly overpriced based on a "gourmet kitchen." Yeah ... and poorly, poorly planned. No garage. An extra building that does nothing. Two rooms upstairs where no furniture of any size can realistically be placed because the staircase is too narrow and winding.

Another house that is overpriced.

The fourth, based on the photos, looks fairly nice and looks like it has been nicely renovated. But its driveway is right off one of the main artery of a city with the worst crash percentages in the state. So, basically, taking life in your own hands every time you leave and try to access the driveway.

In summary, realtors are either greedy, not terribly sharp or are counting on desperate and/or ignorant customers. Maybe one house will get the appraisal needed for the mortgage, barring customers walking in the door with cash.

 

Our neighborhood has about 5 lots people have not built on yet. One house was recently built. Unlike every other concrete block-construction house in our neighborhood, this one was built with wood frame and siding. Unlike the many custom-built homes in the neighborhood, this one looks pure cookie-cutter. They're asking $529,000. That's more than $100K above the value of every other house on the street, ALL of which are better houses. It's been on the market for about 3 months, without a whiff of a buyer that I can tell.

 

I don't think @The Big Ragu is a jackass. I think he has some weird, unnatural man-love fantasies about robber barons, and I don't agree with him most of the time, but I honestly don't think he's a jackass.
I believe that labor or is more important than capital, because without the former, the latter would just be sitting on a pile of old money that is losing value to inflation.
"Job creator" and trickle down economics is a myth.

 

HOA would have protected you from that.

 

They didn't prevent it.

But they won't let me have a fence in my back yard . . . because it faces a golf course. Yeah, so?

 

The realtors around here are ultra sharp. There's little guesswork as they are using algorithms and massive data flows for pricing. If a house sits unsold it's some other issue. On the other hand, more than a few home sales here are to LLCs planning knockdowns and new construction. It's the price of admission for desirable towns.

 

We had a new home on our street get caught building right as building material costs ballooned. It listed in the 400ks when the rest of our houses are in the 200k range. It sat unsold for 18 months and eventually sold for 340k.

 

There are plenty of builders houses here that contractors work on when they're between jobs, to keep their crews busy. They can go unfinished for years and are an eyesore, not to mention attract people like my cousin, who got busted partying in one with her boyfriend.

 

I need a definition of "partying" here.

 

Atlas Air, the largest operator of 747s (mostly freighters) is creating a cadet academy, to train future pilots. It was a given for decades that the vast majority of commercial pilots came from the military. But the Air Force has been recruiting pilots off the streets for some years now. It all tracks with the declining birth rate in this and other developed countries.

 

Also tracks with the Air Force moving to more drone usage.