New construction is always a bit behind here and we will definitely see higher prices in central NC with the various tech companies increasing their presence in the area.
But it was complete bonkers until August. Sellers were getting double-digit all-cash offers 10%-20% over asking price. Never seen anything like that here before.
They simply noped out on shopping because the market seemed so irrational to them personally. I wonder if other similarly wealthy buyers looked around and just did the same . . .
I am glad big tech is growing in the area but the home prices have been bonkers.
Know much about folks buying that far out these days? I mean, I hear apocryphal stories about Apple/Google engineers buying up houses unseen in the immediate RTP area but I am not entirely sure I believe those.
I am in Burlington and everything from Mebane toward RTP has just been crazy prices and moving crazy fast. I am very glad I got in when I did. I worked in Chapel Hill for a couple years and could commute on the back roads but going in to Cary or RTP would be at least an hour for me.
It's a systemic issue and can't be fixed by focusing on any particular set of earners. The entire system is broken and needs to be replaced.
There, luxury housing (e.g. high rise condos in the heart of the city) are of course still expensive but more affordable housing is broadly available, mostly in residential districts. Houses are seen as a liability and as such property with housing on it deprecates much the way a car would in the US. As a result it's not too difficult to find housing for sale for prices below ~$200k USD in the Tokyo metro area with options opening up considerably if you bump the upper limit to $300k USD. Those prices are unheard of in most US metro areas, with even the most dumpy closet of an apartment you can find fetching prices higher than that. Also note that this is just what's visible to me as a foreigner — there's likely a large number of properties that I can't see.
This is also partially enabled by their extensive public transportation. It's much less of a problem to not be in the heart of the city when getting there costs ¥500 or less and is a ~30 minute ride that you're free to read, catch up on email, etc during.
So in short, 1) housing should be treated as homes, not investments 2) most US cities need more density 3) public transportation needs to be expanded and properly supported.
Don't forget, this commute is actually free for most commuters, because their companies pay for it. It only costs money to use the public transit if they stray from their normal commute route (and this is automatically calculated and handled by the system), or go somewhere on the weekend.
So not only do Tokyoites not have to deal with car payments, insurance payments, maintenance costs, and fuel costs if they don't want to, just getting to work and back won't cost them anything but time. Plus they don't have to worry much about being killed or maimed on the way to work.