trapped in homes that are too big to sell - tastes have shifted away from large elaborate homes

[Demovictory9]

https://moneymaven.io/mishtalk/economics/too-big-to-sell-C9LM57-3i06ve1scg9x_ww/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-growing-problem-in-real-estate-too-many-too-big-houses-11553181782?mod=e2tw

Wealthy baby boomers are trapped in homes that are too big to sell. They want to downsize but can't get what they paid.

This was guaranteed to happen, and did. Baby boomers and retirees built large, elaborate dream homes only to find that few people want to buy them.

Please consider a Growing Problem in Real Estate: Too Many Too Big Houses.

Large, high-end homes across the Sunbelt are sitting on the market, enduring deep price cuts to sell.

That is a far different picture than 15 years ago, when retirees were rushing to build elaborate, five or six-bedroom houses in warm climates, fueled in part by the easy credit of the real estate boom. Many baby boomers poured millions into these spacious homes, planning to live out their golden years in houses with all the bells and whistles.

Now, many boomers are discovering that these large, high-maintenance houses no longer fit their needs as they grow older, but younger people aren’t buying them.

Tastes—and access to credit—have shifted dramatically since the early 2000s. These days, buyers of all ages eschew the large, ornate houses built in those years in favor of smaller, more-modern looking alternatives, and prefer walkable areas to living miles from retail.

The problem is especially acute in areas with large clusters of retirees. In North Carolina’s Buncombe County, which draws retirees with its mild climate and Blue Ridge Mountain scenery, there are 34 homes priced over $2 million on the market, but only 16 sold in that price range in the past year, said Marilyn Wright, an agent at Premier Sotheby’s International Realty in Asheville.

The area around Scottsdale, Ariz., also popular with wealthy retirees, had 349 homes on the market at or above $3 million as of February 1—an all-time high, according to a Walt Danley Realty report. Homes built before 2012 are selling at steep discounts—sometimes almost 50%, and many owners end up selling for less than they paid to build their homes, said Walt Danley’s Dub Dellis.

Kiawah Island, a South Carolina beach community, currently has around 225 houses for sale, which amounts to a three- or four-year supply. Of those, the larger and more expensive homes are the hardest to sell, especially if they haven’t been renovated recently, according to local real-estate agent Pam Harrington.

​

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. "fools and their money are soon parted..."

[Demovictory9]

2. how things have changed. House Hunters from a decade ago: craftroom, 5 bedrooms, man cave,

this list of bells and whistles was endless

[NRaleighLiberal]

7. I think of our species as impossibly foolish much of the time.

[DURHAM D]

3. So true.

I have three friends stuck with big houses they can not sell.

[Blue_true]

12. Don't buy a big house unless it comes with plenty of farmland. nt

[Wellstone ruled]

4. Here in the Vegas Valley

there was eleven Hundred 4-5 plus Bedroom Homes on the Listings as of June 15th. If you have a 2-3 bedroom house of less than 1800 feet,just hang a sign out and it will be gone in about six weeks.

Our local Realtors have not or are not willing to bit the big one when it comes to the McMasion's and the Rabbit Hutches.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

20. Up in the northwest valley

Up in the northwest part of the Vegas Valley, builders are still pushing 2500 square foot homes. Some are going for as much as 600k, and I’m wondering who the heck would want to buy those monstrosities. I wonder how well they’re selling.

[Wellstone ruled]

21. How well I know,

and it amazes one with all those KB 2500+ things they are building. Some north of Ann are advertised at 3800 +. Right now the New Stuff is being pickup for Cash from those coming out of the Burn Areas.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

24. It's also happening closer in

A friend tried to convince me to buy a house in a new subdivision at W. Sahara & Lindell, base price around 300k for 2200 sq ft.

I eventually settled on a new house near MLK in North Las Vegas. Yeah, that area has a reputation, but it’s not like it was 10 years ago. 230k for 1400 sq ft. Maybe a little pricey but it’s also new construction.

[Wellstone ruled]

25. You did pretty good.

That Zip Code seems to be hot from the way things are looking. Funny how North Vegas is a plum when nine years ago it had a very different name.

Looks like you bought below market,way to go.

[muntrv]

5. The younger people are busy paying student loan debt,

so of course they aren't interested in big houses.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. I wouldn't be surprised...some friends of mine and I as well got rid of our big homes...

I had six bedrooms for the two of us for some time, and we're both absolutely glad to get out of it. Smaller is much better (four bedrooms) so still have a little spare room, and we absolutely love it.

However, my parents are a typical example, retired, built huge retirement home but in the middle of nowhere, MO. The whole Ozarks and surrounding whole middle of MO is loaded with thousands of retirees who built giant homes but then when they go to try and sell them later, the job market for a younger demographic is not there to buy the homes since the jobs aren't located there (the jobs are in more populated areas, not in the woods).

I tried to encourage my Mom after Dad passed to go into a small condo, but she wanted to stay in her 3000 sq ft home by herself, w/ a huge yard. We tried hiring out just about everything but anyone has to drive at least 50 miles to get to her place...a huge obstacle in getting any kind of help or something done, or not being able to have deliveries of groceries meals like a bigger city would have. Oh well, as long as Mom is happy and aware of challenges, what can you do?

Additional: I've also noticed that we're seeing lots more elderly couples buy homes in urbanized STLMO, not mostly young couples as it has been. I guess the more older couples are liking the huge amount of things available to do, e.g., eat out, museums everywhere, things to do, etc. Makes sense...you do want to be able to do stuff close by instead of having to drive everywhere...

[Demovictory9]

14. 50 miles is a trek. an hour drive to amenities would be a pain. location, location, location

is important regarding house value

[Wounded Bear]

8. Gonna be more and more co-habitation in the near future...

people ganging up and sharing houses like that.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. I am surprised not hearing of that happening by now.

as a '70's college student, I room-mated the entire decade, 90% of the time it worked well, we all saved a ton of money. This was in Seattle.
I've asked people I know who live/work in Seattle and barely getting by b/c high rent, what about house sharing? They are strongly turned off by the idea.

Mystifying.

[theophilus]

10. Exactly! Those who "built bigger barns" are gonna be stuck with a big

ol' barn with lots of upkeep needed and a buttload of crap that nobody wants. We need to rebuild our society and make it less greed based. Enough dick waving. Let's take care of each other and be kind for a change.

[CountAllVotes]

11. I live in a small house

The whole house with a garage is about 1100 sq. feet.

I bought this in the year 2000 and was shunned for buying such a small house by my family.

My brother (who owned a huge Mc Mansion type of house) stood in my living room shaking his head from side-to-side laughing at my small house. He started giving me advice as to what I should/should not do with it.

I ignored him and he left.

He tried to sell his Mc Mansion a few years ago and had to keep lowering the price on it until it finally sold some 2-years later for 25% less than he had hoped to get.

He bought another large home with 100 acres of ground in a huge fire risk area in California. He's losing on this deal too. Oh well is all I can say other than I am staying put were I am for the foreseeable future!

[Demovictory9]

15. so he keeps losing huge chunks of equity with his poor choices

[Maxheader]

13. Yep...talked to a few guys that were house hunting..

for large homes...so they could get 'lost' in them...away from family...I've really no problem with that except for the huge amount of wasted materials..lumber..etc...

[JustAnotherGen]

16. It is what it is

We fired a realtor in 2013 because she kept showing us 4500 to 6000 square foot homes.

It's the two of us and a tiny maltese. Who needs that?

We bought a 2700 historic district fixer upper - custom arts crafts - unique hiuse. Plaster walls, rounded archways - and the majority of the space is for entertaining.

We impress ourselves with our step back in time home.

[AnnieBW]

18. Glad We Stayed

I'm glad that we stayed in our 3-br, 2.5 ba house that we built in 2000.

[harumph]

19. Not only are they big - they're built like shit with

Crappy foundations. Lots of chipboard and cheap low density white wood studs.
If the roof or walls are ever breached (as in a storm) they'll
melt. I've seen em' built and they were literally thrown up.
The attics will scare you. Random reinforcing with no thought
given to structural integrity. Big, cheap and tasteless.

[TeamPooka]

22. not just houses but the furniture too. Nobody wants antique furniture and/or the

huge living room, dining room, and bedroom sets of days gone past.
I've seen furniture that probably cost thousands when purchased go for hundreds and even tens of dollars at local auctions.

[Demovictory9]

31. young people don't want that heavy real wood furniture, even though it's higher quality than IKEA

There was an article about that a few years ago.

[rainin]

32. We can't get rid of furniture or fine china. It's hard to sell the items we've inherited.

We've had to practically give it away to get it out of the house, like selling an Ethan Allen kitchen table for $10? We just need to be rid of it all.

[TeamPooka]

34. I saw a huge fancy dining room set that surely cost $15,000 in 1987 sell for $75 at an auction house

and the auctioneer was begging for bids.
He had tried to start the bidding at $500.
It was probably from a Beverly Hills mansion
This place gets a lot of that kind of stuff

[customerserviceguy]

35. We've been trying to clean out the condo in NY

to sell it, and nobody will take used furniture. We'll have to pay a junk hauler to cart it off.

[KentuckyWoman]

23. 3000+ sq ft homes are being built like crazy near here

I keep wondering where all these people north of Cincinnati are getting their money.

[TruckFump]

26. I had almost 4,000 sq. ft. in SoCal

Sold it when I retired and had another huge house for a bit -- about 3700 sq. ft. Then I got into 1700 sq. ft. thinking that would be great. I hate the small house and miss all the space I use to have. It's just me and the dog and cat, but I loved all the room I had. Thinking about doing the big house thing again.

[Demovictory9]

30. interesting.. what do you like about the space? you own lots of stuff?

[rainin]

33. Space is nice. I understand wanting a sewing room,

a dining room, an oversized pantry, lots of closet space. We just can't afford it anymore and we're always worried about job loss, so we're downsizing out of necessity (and fear).

[madville]

27. I'm trying to decide what to build on some property I purchased

I bought 6.5 wooded acres outside the city limits in a rural area with almost no restrictions. I'm gonna sell the 1200 sq ft house I have and build something with the cash on that land. The 1200 sq ft house is about right as far as size, I'll probably just do something like that. It's also hard to sell a smaller house that only has one or two bedrooms or only one bathroom, a 3/2 small house is kind of the sweet spot.

[Historic NY]

29. Upkeep, cleaning,yard work, taxes, etc...

everything costs more with a big house....everything.

[CrispyQ]

36. An ex-boss of mine lives with her husband and one dog in a 10,000 Sq foot house.

She told me her air conditioning bill was $800 a month and that was over a decade ago.

[intheflow]

37. I remember predicting this in 2002, when McMansions were being built in my Denver neighborhood.

They'd buy these cute little historic bungalows, raze them, and put up monstrosities in their place. I knew then that it was unsustainable, and I predicted they'd be divided up like the Victorians of old, into multifamily dwellings. That's the logical next step for the "poor" boomers.

[Phentex]

41. I've only been bitter about one particular one...

recently I'm laughing about all the faux chateau houses that are now OUT of style. I guess they are all going to be painted white soon.

But there was one cute little house that everyone called the doll house. Victorian trimmed sitting on a nice lot. The owner got a boat load of money for the land. I have no idea if they could have moved the doll house but they didn't try. Tore down nearly every tree and built a large white thing. It isn't the worse looking house but the doll house was so charming. They ended up putting large privacy trees around the lot so I'm not sure why they took down ALL the other old trees.

About six months ago, someone started building a house right next door on a piece of land that doesn't even look big enough to be classified as a lot. I mean it looks like it's just feet from the other house. I hope they're all happy!

[Aristus]

38. The house Mrs. Aristus and i are living in is a four bedroom house.

We bought it in 2004. We're still happy here. One of the spare bedrooms instantly became my home office/library. And we turned one of the others into a walk-in closet for Mrs. Aristus' wardrobe. (She's got a shoe collection that Imelda Marcos would find impressive...)

The third bedroom still serves as a guest room.

We don't have any real incentive to move anywhere any time soon.

[hunter]

39. Real estate prices and rental costs in this part of California are insane.

Landlords will rent out big houses to large extended families, cousins and in-laws included, or even unrelated people.

It's not uncommon to see many unrelated working people sharing a house.

The hassles of renting large homes to multiple working people doesn't seem to stop investors from buying them.

The process has even been formalized in many places:

‘It’s great having people here when I come home’: Behind the rise of co-living

It was a typical group-house scene: As evening rain pelted their Lake Merritt neighborhood, Randy Jordan spun a Stevie Wonder record on a turntable, while Carissa Villafaña sauteed vegetables and Jessica Bruno lounged on a leather sofa. Their other housemates were out for the evening.

“I love co-living,” said Bruno, 28, a tech saleswoman who moved into the six-bedroom house when it opened in August. “It’s great having people here when I come home.”

The home, run by the 2-year-old San Francisco company Bungalow, embodies a trend that’s spreading rapidly across pricey cities in the Bay Area and beyond: co-living, in which unrelated people share spaces and split costs.

--more--

https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/It-s-great-having-people-here-when-I-come-13677855.php

The biggest problem in our neighborhood is the cars.

If there are five or six working people living in a four or five bedroom house there are generally as many cars, in homes designed for two cars. Without good public transportation these extra cars spill out onto the street. Public transportation isn't especially good here.

Technically, these are "single family" homes, but code enforcement generally starts with housing that is actually dangerous, things like entire families living in unconverted garages or garden sheds, so they never get around to smaller issues. Nobody cares if loosely related or unrelated people are sharing a house.

Our adult kids shared larger houses with unrelated people after they graduated from college. Apartments here are simply too expensive for most recent college graduates, even if they get what I or my parents at their age would have considered a "good" job.

[wishstar]

40. My relatives lost $300,000 to sell mansion that stayed on market for over 2 years

Ironically they were frugal in every other way- keeping their kids in public school, driving economical cars etc, but bought a gorgeous huge home as an investment and a rewarding early retirement project but after finishing up all of the expensive roofing, stucco, plumbing, pool renovations etc , they didn't get to enjoy it due to an unexpected health crisis where they can't live there anymore navigating all the steps and immense space. So after having the vacant house on market for over 2 years with tremendous upkeep and taxes, they finally sold at a big loss. They have had to spend as much for a much smaller but accessible and convenient one story replacement home in the same area as they got from selling the mansion.

For many years I have owned a small older one story house with a basement workshop and large yard with garden areas and lots of trees and shrubs that I spend hours each week maintaining, but working outside is my hobby and we enjoy all the birds and wildlife and flowers. After fixing up the house we decided to just stay put since the basement with windows has been ideal for our hobbies and compensates for only having 2 bedrooms, one bath, kitchen and living room which has been a challenge to accomodate family and guests. Even without adding a second bathroom in the basement I think we could sell the place quickly at a profit due to the demand in our area for affordable housing especially with potential for enlargement or building a second house on the land.

[rainin]

42. I no longer regret not buying a large home.

Over the years, I have watched my peers buy increasingly larger houses every few years. I'm not going to lie, it's caused envy and resentment for me. I felt like we'd missed out on an obvious investment opportunity.

Now, as we work hard to downsize (into a tiny space) for our retirement, I'm so glad I'm not carrying the burden of a giant house. This one is big enough!