Surging demand and shrinking supply are combining to make home buying more difficult, as affordability worsens for many during the pandemic.
www.wsj.com
The housing market is just insane right now and home ownership is becoming less and less likely for the younger generations.
Inventory of homes on the market are way down, prices are way up and the middle class is being priced out. The majority of home sales in today's market it's not all that uncommon for inspections to be waived, all cash offers be given and bidding wars that result in homes selling above the listing price.
The middle class, especially first time home buyers who have not built up equity in previous home ownership are being completely priced out of being able to purchase a home in many areas.
The feds increasing the interest rates only further worsens the problem. House prices are not going to come down due to higher interest rates of the people buying are buying with all cash offers.
The Covid-19 housing market has also seen prices of houses in the suburbs and country skyrocket as people leave the cities now that they can work remotely
For example, look at this insanity!
288 Veterans Rd, Mercer PA, is a Single Family home.It contains 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom.This home last sold for $6,000 in February 2023. The Zestimate for this Single Family is $284,600, which has decreased by $2,274 in the last 30 days.The Rent Zestimate for this Single Family is $2,036/mo...
www.zillow.com
This house was listed 325k at the end of 2020. Today it's listed at a little over 1.2M.
And according to the person who shared this listing looking to buy a home in PA, this property is not the only one which has seen a 4x increase over the last year. Several of listings in the surrounding area show the same thing! For example, I just found this one in less than 15 seconds.
596 Old Ash Rd, Volant, PA 16156 | MLS #1528313 | Zillow
Tight housing inventory has also lead to a spike in something called "Quiet Title" cases.
Quiet title laws are very common in the Midwest. Quiet title laws basically allow people to make a claim to a property if they show interest in said property.
However, the language is very vague and what an interest is is not defined.
In the example listed in the article below, a prominent property owner in the area tool possession of a house under quiet title law and listed it on Zillow for sale. Her interest in the house was she said it was abandoned and that she had a tax sale certificate for the house.
Only the house was not abandoned and she did not have a tax sale certificate, rather only applied for one and was rejected.
But won the property in court by default because the property owners were unaware of the court date and did not show.
People are at a severe disadvantage when it comes to quiet title. Most people don't know about it or how to navigate the system when it becomes an issue. People who don't speak english are at a much larger disadvantage and it is feared quiet title disputes prey on them.
When it comes to the court dates. The person trying to take the property needs to notify the owner. However, law allows them to just say they couldn't get in touch with the owner they are in dispute with and just post a legal notice in a local paper. An English paper that people who don't speak english wouldn't be subscribed too. Not to mention newspaper subscriptions are way way down since the time the law was passed.
In the case of the article below, the homeowner lived in the house in the summer and in California in the winter and was not around to see the notice that was only posted in a local newspaper.
Her daugher looking to buy a home saw the listing for her mother's house on Zillow and asked her about why she didn't tell her it was for sale, she would buy it from her. The mother of course was like, what do you mean? The house isn't for sale.
Luckily they were able to get this sorted. But for many people they find themselves without a home.
Quiet title laws across the Midwest can disproportionately affect homeowners who don’t speak English, like Natalia Esteban, who emigrated from Mexico over 20 years ago.
www.kcur.org
To make matters worse, records are not kept for how many homes change ownership through quiet title. They only can count those where the clerk made note of it and even that is now required by law.
The lady who took the house in the story above took at least 18 properties though quiet title in the area over the last few years that they can find on record.
The advice given to owners to protect themselves from quiet title action is to get title insurance. But wouldn't that mean you just get compensated after losing your house?
