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Have been looking for a house for a year now. Lost a dozen houses where even quoting 60k over asking did not win us a house. Changed the zip code to central jersey (Bridgewater/Raritan) and looked again.
Finally won a house by bidding 55k over asking. Now feeling sad and anxious that I may have unnecessarily bid a lot over asking.
So..what are your stories? Or stories that you have heard? How much was the list price and how much did it finally sell for? A general idea of the town/zip code or county would also be appreciated.
I've been looking in the Hasbrouck Heights / Wood-Ridge area. Some properties going over asking, some at asking, some below asking. Anything desirable is selling fast, i.e. sellers aren't waiting for better offers. Seems to me it's mostly older folks relocating, as almost all of the properties are already vacant.
Too many variables to come to firm consensus. Did the seller put a competitive price? Did the seller ask too much? Condition of the house?
You really have to look at the local comps from the previous few months to find something that closely matches. Some homes are desirable, others are just not.
A realtor sends a newsletter to us monthly of all the houses that sell in our neighborhood over the previous year, some houses I've seen go 30% over asking, some house might go 8% under asking.
In this market, anything that is on the market more than a week is likely overpriced, or there is something wrong with the house.
In Morris County, one of my neighbors' houses went up for sale last weekend, they bought it in 2021 and at the time I thought it was a crazy price they bought it for. They are now asking 25% more than they bought it for (no remodels or anything), and from what I heard on the first day on the market they had 9 offers from a Saturday open house. I have no idea what the accepted price was, but its a hot market for single-family homes in desirable areas.
I had a friend who put an offer on a house (asking was $400k), a few weeks ago, $70k over asking, cash, no inspection (and if they withdrew the offer, they would pay the seller $10k), and that offer wasn't accepted. When I saw the pictures of the home, really outdated, ugly and I was surprised.
Prices are up over 50% in the last 5 years in Northern NJ. Add in the mortgage rate increases and payments are probably double over the same period for the same house. In the meantime, inventory is effectively 0, forcing people into emotional and desperate decisions.
Normally I would say you should wait, but this has been getting worse and worse since the pandemic. So if you find something you like, I say go for it. No one can say what prices will be next year, but unless something changes on a fundamental level and inventory starts coming online again, the prices will most likely be higher.
50% is about accurate. Inflation is still happening too, the Government has a lot of printed money that they are planning still to spend. The markets are still hoping for a rate cut later in the year, but I don't see it happening.
The dollar lost 27% of its value between 2021 - current. Inflation was 1.8% through 2020. I would add in another 25% due to market cost related to market shortages.
Prices are up over 50% in the last 5 years in Northern NJ. Add in the mortgage rate increases and payments are probably double over the same period for the same house. In the meantime, inventory is effectively 0, forcing people into emotional and desperate decisions.
Normally I would say you should wait, but this has been getting worse and worse since the pandemic. So if you find something you like, I say go for it. No one can say what prices will be next year, but unless something changes on a fundamental level and inventory starts coming online again, the prices will most likely be higher.
OP states clearly in post they bid on a property and won. There's no going back at this point.
Have been looking for a house for a year now. Lost a dozen houses where even quoting 60k over asking did not win us a house. Changed the zip code to central jersey (Bridgewater/Raritan) and looked again.
Finally won a house by bidding 55k over asking. Now feeling sad and anxious that I may have unnecessarily bid a lot over asking.
So..what are your stories? Or stories that you have heard? How much was the list price and how much did it finally sell for? A general idea of the town/zip code or county would also be appreciated.
I had a similar experience when I bought in 2021. Lost out on 6 or 7 bids before having an offer accepted. My offer that was accepted was 8% over asking. The house didn’t present well. A lot of wallpaper and ugly paint colors throughout the house. I liked the layout of the house and knew I could slow change the things I didn’t like so we made what felt like an aggressive offer considering it wasn’t priced low for that time. Went to the closing table wondering if I had made a mistake. 3 years later prices and interest rates kept going up so I’m MUCH happier with my decision now. It’s hard to predict what the future holds so the only advice I give to buyers is don’t try to time things. Buy a house when you need it and when you can afford it.
We hit the lottery moving when we did and not being hung up on the “most desirable” towns. After playing that game with 3 houses I told my agent I wanted a house in Sayreville and paid considerably under market for a house in one of the best parts of town.
I think it really depends on the price range you’re looking in which will determine what is going over, at, or under. As others have said, inventory is very low, prices have skyrocketed over the past 5 years( and rates are high. Homes in the $500k-950k go quickly and often over asking. Depending on the town homes in that price range are pretty dreary as well. From what I see there is a lot of inventory in the $1-$1.5 million range and those homes don’t sell instantaneously (except for Montclair and to a lesser extent Glen Ridge) and are seeing price cuts.
The reality is that a $1.2mm or $1.3mm home will have an astronomical PITI payment unless you are bringing just a ton of cash to close.
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