Housing market

Sigmapolis calls it a "flight to the real." I call it "owning things you can touch and feel." In that environment, the main goal is preservation of capital. To do so, paper gains must exceed currency erosion. Cash in the bank has always had a certain level of erosion. But it picks up speed during such periods of high inflation. So if you're going to be in the stock market, own stocks that invest in real estate, oil, gold, etc.

Good summary and description using more plain language than mine, but I wanted to provide the additional context the "flight to the real" is a bit of jargon used by economic historians.

The phrase was first coined to describe Europe of the 18th Century where rapid population growth and high levels of public expenditures (mostly to fight the major wars of empire of the era*) combined to put very high pressure on land and commodity prices, especially wood and grain. The inflation of the era combined with the "flight to the real" by speculative investors pushed the price of houses, buildings, and food way up and was one of the major contributing factors to the social unrest behind the French Revolution.

*including the Great Northern War, the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Polish Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession (detecting a pattern here), the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War (which had major theaters in the Caribbean and Europe, not just fighting in North America for the eventual independence of the 13 colonies), and goodness me so many uprising and rebellions

Historians started calling this era's economic history the "flight to the real" because it described the behavior of (mostly and especially French) economies of the era. It has since been applied to similar situations in other centuries, like the late Roman Empire or semi-failed states in Latin America like Argentina. They also note the "flight to the real" reduces the amount of investable capital available for new projects that might increase real economic output (e.g., building a new factory), which would help relieve some of the pressure of the inflation, so the whole thing becomes a vicious and self-fulfilling cycle when investors pour their money into things rather than supporting the investments emerging from financial markets (mostly equities and bonds).
 
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In an era where people are moving turner away to larger houses, we moved into a smaller house to be closer to work. I realized bigger houses means more stuff,more heating, more maintenance, etc. I'd rather spend my time doing things than sitting in my house. The only thing I miss is the larger garage we left behind.

Until COVID I would have been perfectly happy in a smaller house. With my wife and I both working from home for the last year and a half it would have been an absolute nightmare if we didn't have the space we do. There are some very good real world reasons now for people to live in bigger homes now that many of us are there a lot more.
 
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I honestly could care less if people's homes don't grow in value. Everyone wants to be like their parents where they bought a house for $50k in 1987 and now it's worth $600k.

**** them. I just want to buy a house.

**** them or you wish you were them?
 
Anyone self-employed who bought a home or refi’d the last couple years will tell you that lending standards are not “loose” right now.
There are things being done now that were not allowed in the past. So lenders/borrowers are still finding ways around things.
 
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Can't answer that, but if you do go with a realtor make sure you look around. There are several realtors around here offering commission discounts just to get houses.
What would be a fair commission in this market? When we sold our last house we had to give them 7%. No way I'm giving that much this time around.
 
What would be a fair commission in this market? When we sold our last house we had to give them 7%. No way I'm giving that much this time around.
Charter does like 2500 to list and 3% on back half. 18 months ago I sold my moms house and had to do 6%. Realtor was my wife’s closest friend so I could not negotiate.
 
What would be a fair commission in this market? When we sold our last house we had to give them 7%. No way I'm giving that much this time around.

Where are you selling, what are you thinking of asking, and how much is it worth to you to let someone else deal with the minor headaches? 6% seems to be standard for DSM/Ames, but my understanding is that it’s still 7 some places. If you’re in the Charter House footprint, as another poster mentioned, it’s hard to beat the bang for your buck, particularly as the home price increases.