Building costs/hold or sell?

[laurameida]

I totally agree, the prices of real estate are going to the sky nowadays.

[KC]

I totally agree, the prices of real estate are going to the sky nowadays.

I read the other day that Comal county (Texas) property appraisals are going up on average 30-40% over last year... with some commercial properties up to 60%.  I think they put that out ahead of time so people don't faint when the mail comes.  Almost can't imagine what it'll be like in Travis/Williamson county (Austin metro).

[R Clark]

My brother and his wife are empty nesters now.  My brother is NOT AT ALL interested in things like home maintenance, DIY projects, or creating.  He and his wife have long wanted to move from the 'burbs into the city but wanted for the kids to be gone before they did that.  They sold their nice suburban home two weeks ago and probably got double (or more) of what they paid for the place 17 years ago.

They are renting a two-bedroom apartment downtown.  In their case, it made sense to sell out because it aligned with their goals.  I think they'll always be renters from here on out.  My brother will gladly shift the maintenance burden onto the landlord.

I agree that selling now to take advantage of high housing value only makes sense if one has a long term plan and the move is in alignment with the plan.  Selling to "cash out" with no firm idea of how the dwelling gets replaced is a recipe for disaster.

[K. L. McReynolds]

Youngest son/LOHL decided to build. Both work from home mostly and have her mother living with them(GREAT lady!)

Son has a degree in construction management and works on building huge agriculture(corn) facilities(multi acre size.) He researched materials and designs for several months. Decided on plans and asked their chosen builder for an estimate. Came back higher than son felt was applicable and second guess was higher. Now, this was for a CIF constructed house, so son knew costs were going to be higher than stick built. And he understands cost overruns and delays.

So, they bought an existing house they can alter easily to fit their needs. this will be their fourth home in 20 years, so I hope they got a good fit.

Crazy market? They sold, bought, and moved in three weeks.

[DogwoodTales]

The property taxes where I was in Hamilton County OH were outrageous and then got even worse - so I had enough and sold. Plus we wanted to be closer to my wife's family.
While I got above asking price for my house, but if my house had appreciated 2-3% each year (for 24 years I was there) like it should in a healthy economy it would have sold for even more than what I got.

We sold my house a year ago at above asking price. We were fortunate and had someplace to stay with an extended family member while we looked and waited for the market to calm down a bit. Almost every house we saw listed that we had any interest in was under contract before we even saw it and we checked several times a day. 
A year later after selling our house and 4 house tours later we finally have a contract to purchase a private sale as is. The house is not bad, but it is a project - including the pole barn that I'm asking about in another thread.

I heard recently that GCs in my area (SE IN) are getting upwards of $300 psf to build a new house! Of course that's complete turn-key and (hopefully) with brick all the way up the gables, but holy freekin cow. I can't imaging paying some $600k for a standard 2k/sf house in this area.

My .02 is that, depending on your motivations, if you don't have someplace to go and are okay where you are, then you might want to stay put.

[Snipe Hunter]

My .02 is that, depending on your motivations, if you don't have someplace to go and are okay where you are, then you might want to stay put.

Agree 100%

If I had a 2nd home, I'd consider it or if I were retiring and significantly down sizing. But I don't and I'm not.

[FireWood]

Arbitrage

Housing prices have not gone up the same everywhere and for every class of house.

Had a friend that got an offer ‘too good to refuse’ last year, packed up and moved to a more rural part of the state to a bigger house on more land for less money.

-Mark

This.  Some areas are crazy, stupid,  hot right now.  Other areas are just very hot,

We left an area that no longer suited us and relocated to one 40 minutes away that fits us better.   $470/sq ft -->  $250/sq ft.