Buying a Home in 2025
I realize the average age on WSO is a bit younger, but I am curious, for those of you who have been looking for a home in 2025, how is it going? I thought it would be interesting if folks could answer the following questions, and if theres enough responses, I could compile the responses and publish the findings:
- Are you thinking of buying a home in the near future? If no, what is the main reason you aren't
- Where are you looking (regionally, e.g., Northeast)?
- How long have you been looking?
- Have you secured a home?
- How many offers did you submit prior to finding one?
- If you purchased a home, did you pay over, under, or ask? By how much? If you are submitting offers, what is your general bid strategy?
- If you have not bought a house, are you still actively looking?
Have you secured a home, and if so, how many offers did it take?
OP here, for those who are curious here are my answers:
No, no, no. This thinking almost never works. We read it here on WSO in 2019/2020 that people were going to wait out the real estate market to let prices come down. That just doesn't happen outside of black swan events in high-demand locations. If anything, if rates start coming down, prices will continue going up at an even faster rate. This thinking only makes sense in places like where I live that are less demanded areas--in those cases, you can--though rarely--see prices edge lower with market cyclicality. But if you're looking in high-demand locations, just buy, man, if you can win a contract. Assuming you have a reasonable time horizon (3+ years), you'll be fine.
Rates aren’t coming down. Mortgages track the 10yr and no way that’s going below 4% anytime soon.
Either way, prices aren't going down in in-demand markets, regardless of the direction in interest rates unless you see a real spike in rates (unlikely Black Swan event, though possible).
Mods, I realize this thread make more sense in the Off Topic section, but I think keeping it in RE to allow users to post anonymously might incentivize additional comments, given that there is some level of sensitivity behind the information being shared. Just a thought
The secret to winning the real estate game for a primary residence (without getting totally lucky) is to get a tier 1 job in a tier 2 market. I have a "Wall Street" job located in the company's satellite office in a totally random--but nice--tier 2/3 city. As a result, I have a beautiful 3,300 square foot house in an upscale neighborhood on a 1/2 acre lot (the house was on the market for something like 50 days and I was the only offer). On the other hand, I've been trying to unload my townhouse in that same tier 2 city since mid-January, and it just won't sell. So your real estate becomes much less liquid in a rando city than in, say, greater NYC, DC, Boston, etc.
I’d say it’s Tier 2 City dependent, some have very hot markets and some (FL at the moment comes to mind don’t). Townhouses and condos tend to move more slowly and usually are worse buys than SFH in most markets. From an appreciation standpoint you only own a fraction of the real estate it’s sitting on and a lot of people don’t want them if they have other options.
I absolutely agree it’s a hack to owning more and better. Also, some of these Tier 2 cities are on an absolute tear with a lot of structural tailwinds.
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