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Home Value Improving?

November 18th, 2012 at 05:59 pm

I mentioned that the house next door to me recently sold. Zillow says it is worth 106k. It just sold for 120k. This seems like good news to me.

The man who bought the house is an investor who owns several rental homes in the area already. He seems rather astute.

The family who had owned the house previously had 4 young children. The house is a 3/2 with 1296 sq. ft. The family had made an extra room out of the garage. They had walled off, so that the garage door was no longer an entrance into the home, but the garage door was still in place. In other words, you couldn't tell from the outside that the garage was no longer a garage, yet the family had some additional living space. They did this without any permits. So the buyer knew he would have the expense of converting that extra room back to a garage. He was still willing to pay 120k.

So, I am hopeful that my home value may not be quite as bad as Zillow says. It doesn't really change anything, but does make me feel better.

My house is a 4/2 with 1441 sq. ft.

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

5 Responses to “Home Value Improving?”

  1. Monkey Mama Says:
    November 18th, 2012 at 06:10 pm 1353262251
    1353262251

    I notice real estate values improving dramatically (to year 2002 levels, anyway), BUT the only people buying are investors with cash. So it's an interesting dynamic. I've mentioned it's been kind of frequent home changeovers because all homes in our neighborhood tend to go to bank, to flipper, and then to a landlord. We have two homes (neighbors) that recently sold, and so I am curious to see if they end up flipped or rentals. Since they seem to be sitting empty, I am thinking "flippers" which is the trend. I find it funny because these home are so new and I can't imagine what improvement there is to be made.

    I believe these two homes were also sold by the owners - who had been apparently waiting for prices to rebound a bit. One had been a rental for a while and they just sold it - they must be thrilled to unload the property!

  2. Monkey Mama Says:
    November 18th, 2012 at 06:12 pm 1353262366
    1353262366

    I was going to say, I am not surprised in the least your values are going up AND an investor bought up your neighbor's house. But hopefully this is good news for the long run.

  3. Monkey Mama Says:
    November 18th, 2012 at 06:14 pm 1353262463
    1353262463

    P.S.S. I think the speculation is the only reason homes are in a positive direction. Will be interesting when people actually buy homes to live in again...

  4. Petunia 100 Says:
    November 18th, 2012 at 06:45 pm 1353264348
    1353264348

    I cannot get over the fact that it is less expensive to buy than to rent right now, yet so many people continue to rent. I suppose they have personal reasons for not wanting to buy, or else cannot qualify for a mortgage.

    It certainly has been a wild ride. Smile

  5. Wino Says:
    November 18th, 2012 at 11:28 pm 1353281282
    1353281282

    Too bad you're not in the Houston area. Though I'm not (yet) a cash buyer, I plan to purchase a few investment properties when I get back to the US. The house just purchased sounds exactly like the kind of investment property that I'd want: $120K or below, a bit below 1500 sq ft, and I'd guess rents in the area are just at or above $1000 per month.

    I only wish I'd been better off in the 1980's when the bust hit Houston last time.

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