Real Estate Market. Thoughts?

[Aloha_Shooter]

It almost feels like price-fixing, and I heard somewhere (can't confirm accuracy of this) that many local orgs stick to compensation "guidelines" from MSEC (mountain states employers council), and rarely - if ever - deviate from that....

It's not so much price-fixing as having a third-party "standard" to fall back on makes the salary negotiation more impersonal. There's less chance someone will be able to claim they were offered a lower salary due to bias when the company can point to the third party guidelines. It also gives them the freedom to deviate when needed (e.g., extraordinary demand for a particular specialized skill or person) because they are "guidelines". My company uses target points based on comparable pay for equivalent positions to allocate raises. If you're earning above the salary target point, you better be performing above the performance target point (based on supervisor ratings) or no payraise for you ...

[Jlorenzo]

I am currently busting my ass to get my reality license. Just hoping its not like it was selling cars, having to take peoples heads of financially. I won't do that anymore.

[MrPrena]

It is opposite for me.
It is much more difficult for me to find a decent paying job here than CA.

Maybe I am in the wrong ind.
I sure am not going to a place like CA, NY, MA , or DC.

[Aloha_Shooter]

MrPrena, what do you consider "decent paying"? I could make a lot more in CA or MA or DC but I'd be paying more too -- more taxes, more for food, more for gas, more gas burnt while sitting in parking lots mislabeled "highways" and "interstates", more for decent housing (if you can even find it), etc. They could give me a huge raise and I'd still lose in net income and quality of life by moving to CA or MA or DC.

[MrPrena]

MrPrena, what do you consider "decent paying"? I could make a lot more in CA or MA or DC but I'd be paying more too -- more taxes, more for food, more for gas, more gas burnt while sitting in parking lots mislabeled "highways" and "interstates", more for decent housing (if you can even find it), etc. They could give me a huge raise and I'd still lose in net income and quality of life by moving to CA or MA or DC.

Yup. That is why I a m avoiding those places.
Still I cannot fid a job which pays 30 cents on a dollar.


It is not because the cost of living.

[HoneyBadger]

My last job has already lost some people that they brought in from Wyoming due to the living expenses. They went from making maybe $12/hr to closer to $18/hr ($36,000 salary), BUT the taxes and housing was so much more expensive that they couldn't swing it and ran back home.

Yeah... if your mortgage is more than 1/4 of your take home pay, you're asking for trouble. Our mortgage is a little less than that, but we had to work hard to slim down other areas of the budget

[hatidua]

I asked one of my neighbors who is a real estate agent with over 30 years in the local market how anyone affords buying a house here now. He said "they buy it 20 years ago".

[Irving]

I think too many people expect too much house for their first purchase; I know I did. You see the house your parents live in after years of trading up through equity, learning to manage money, general life lessons, etc. Then you move out and have a crappy job, no savings, consumer debt, etc and of course everything you look at will be WAY o5r of your budget.

When we first started looking for houses, I felt I needed at LEAST a basement and a two car garage. Now I have neither, but have a mortgage that is 2/3 of what the house would rent for, a solid 40k in equity after only three years (Zillow thinks it's 90k lol), no car payments, etc. My house is half the size I thought I needed, needs some work, and wouldn't impress anyone (assuming I'd let anyone inside); but I'd rather be in this position than living with roommates because I can't afford what "want." On top of all that, I'm finding that we have at least two rooms that we don't even use (living room and bedroom) because they are just full of "stuff" we've collected over the years that we also don't even use.

tl;dr there is a pretty large gap between what people THINK they need or should have, and what they actually need, can afford, and as a result people spend way too much of their lives in a holding pattern until they wake up and accept reality.

[hatidua]

tl;dr there is a pretty large gap between what people THINK they need or should have, and what they actually need

You're right. But Madison Ave would have us believe otherwise.

[HoneyBadger]

Zillow thinks my house is worth $220k. Houses that have been remodeled go for around that in my neighborhood.

Zillow is hit and miss with their pricing. They are ok to get a general guesstimate but almost never truly accurate.

This^ Zillow thinks my house is worth more than $400k!