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Originally Posted by desire
Thank you for the very sound advice. Was set on living in Summerlin but now a 3 bed 1400 sq ft. house is 400K and up, without a pool, priced higher than pre-pandemic. Crazy. What drives those increases? I guess supply & demand and low interest rates.
I'm not 100% sure since it's perplexing to me too. On an anecdotal basis I can tell you that I was in contract to buy a new home from a builder in early February. I backed out after they wouldn't work with me on the price after it was clear that this thing was becoming more than just "a flu in China" on the news.
They told me they had two programs (1) was for people who actually caught covid and (2) the other was for people that were laid off from covid. In both cases, they were only deferring the closing date of the homes without penalty and nothing else. No price reductions, no changing loan terms, nothing. Keep in mind that I had a full-doc loan, more than enough income to support the loan and I was gainfully employed (I have no exposure to the Vegas job market and I work for a "too big to fail" type of company). So, in essence, they told me they were more willing to work with someone laid off than with someone that had a full-doc loan and paychecks coming in the door. How does that make sense?
To this point, there is another explanation I have heard that kinda makes sense. In the post-2008 economy, a ton of homes were bought up by corporations (think Berkshire Hathaway, et. al). So in many cases you are no longer buying from individuals and those companies would rather wait out the market than take a loss on any individual property. You want an opportunity to buy (what should be) a cheaper home, but they view it as a long term asset that is just going through a rough market. I think that explanation holds some water with some of the prices you see right now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by desire
I think often of all the poker employees and their families across the country, knowing they have no income and no prospects in the immediate future. I pray a vaccine is forthcoming quickly, not just for the future of live poker, but for all the families suffering through this pandemic.
+1, very well said. Lots of suffering going on in the world right now (more than usual!) and some families are in a rough spot. I'm grateful for my current situation, it's a blessing, and I sympathize with all of the people hurting right now.