Originally Posted by wings&wheels
Or, are folks who want to live in a nice neighborhood, that will hopefully preserve home values by staying nice and well maintained....
True Home values only match income and inflation
Home values VRS "How nice" things are
become meaningless when employment is high,
And equally meaningless when employment collapses
The real issue lies with banking and loans enabling sellers to overcharge and buyers to overpay, where I grew up housing has gained value EXTREMELY slowly and houses sell for the same price today that they did 20 years ago, which is how housing values should work matching income and inflation, 100 miles away where I live now little 100 year old dives with no yard or driveway are selling for $100000+, 3 years ago their sales value was about $20-$40k, 8 years before that they were $80k, 3 years before that they sold for about $25,000
30 minutes away I can buy a mansion of a farmstead with 2 acres, a gazebo and a shop is $165,000 in excellent shape, but the same money here buys me a very small 3 bedroom, 1 car garage and ubout a 1/10th acre in at best ship shod flipper "good" condition that lasts 3 years before the interior cracks show.
The only thing that has changed over the years is the transient employment levels. Whereas my home town has steady but not well paying jobs.
The regulated neighborhood maintaining home values idea is a myth, how "nice" things are move with employment and it's not our place to judge others property.
The real value of these local homes has always probably been $0-$40,000 and hasn't changed but because of loans and predatory practices you get a completely unnecessary boom bust cycle aggrevated even more by [censored] poor community management practices trying to demolish the poor people's homes (during a lack of housing crisis) creating vacant lots that can't be rebuilt due to ever changing laws on lot and house sizes.
The town also favors tax sales to the 2 slum lords who own about 1/3 of houses jacking up rent while creating more blight.
One would think keeping the poor people as home owners paying taxes would be better than 2 slum lords that can negotiate property taxes. Further allowing people to legally rebuild vacant city lots without blowing a cool million would help things too.
The HOA neighborhood nearby makes me think of [censored], no cars driving no people outside, no kids, no lawns getting mowed, no lights on in houses, no flowers, no bushes, every house the same color in 1 of 4 orientations, silent, no birds, no dogs.