Real Estate Crash thread

**Ted Striker** · 08-24-2021, 12:30 PM

Notice how there's no offer review date? They know the price is unrealistic.

Still, someone will buy it and build a McMansion. Like this place a few years ago https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...23619613_zpid/ that was only recently completed.

They paid 760, then took it down to the studs both inside and out, and added a lot of extra sq ft.

**sirbumpsalot** · 08-24-2021, 12:48 PM

Originally Posted by altasnob

From Seattle north, the train tracks go right along the water. Same thing in most of Tacoma. So if you want to live near the water, you are going to live near train tracks. Some of the most expensive real estate in Tacoma is right next to a train track.

The train itself is bad enough when you are on top of it....add into it the whistleblows at every crossing!

**californiagrown** · 08-24-2021, 12:54 PM

Originally Posted by sirbumpsalot

The train itself is bad enough when you are on top of it....add into it the whistleblows at every crossing!

I grew up a couple blocks from some train tracks that were used for commuter rail during the day, but ran freight trains a couple nights per week. I actually find the lonely, sad, slow whistle and rumble of freight trains comforting. Pretty sure my wife would lose her mind with the sound though.

**sirbumpsalot** · 08-24-2021, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by californiagrown

I grew up a couple blocks from some train tracks that were used for commuter rail during the day, but ran freight trains a couple nights per week. I actually find the lonely, sad, slow whistle and rumble of freight trains comforting. Pretty sure my wife would lose her mind with the sound though.

Oh no....nothing soothing about Bellingham trains....I too expected it to be not that bad until the first one rolled thru. At least along Edgemoor its below the cliff and the horn/bells don't get sounded. Chuckanut there are a few crossings at the south end and the train is right below you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8scmkJNbp9g

**XXX-er** · 08-24-2021, 01:05 PM

the CN Train yard is 2 block from here and the whole down town, I got used to the trains but the fucking doves used to piss me off , fortunately the hawks took them all out

**liv2ski** · 08-24-2021, 01:09 PM

My Dad's place was built into the side of the hill in White Rock over looking the bay and the train tracks. I would sleep in the bedroom closest to the hill down on the 3rd floor and it was quiet as a crypt. I never heard them, but in the day they were pretty noisy. Fairly sure living/buying next to tracks would be a hard no.

**Mustonen** · 08-24-2021, 01:11 PM

Originally Posted by liv2ski

My Dad's place was built into the side of the hill in White Rock over looking the bay and the train tracks. I would sleep in the bedroom closest to the hill down on the 3rd floor and it was quiet as a crypt. I never heard them, but in the day they were pretty noisy. Fairly sure living/buying next to tracks would be a hard no.

Looked at a house with train tracks literally in the back yard. Super nice house. With a pool.

But train tracks in the back yard? Even if I was fine with it that seems like an uphill battle to sell it.

**Dantheman** · 08-24-2021, 01:14 PM

Originally Posted by Mustonen

Looked at a house with train tracks literally in the back yard. Super nice house. With a pool.

My Dad knows a guy with a house just like that. Luckily, he's deaf!

**sirbumpsalot** · 08-24-2021, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by Dantheman

My Dad knows a guy with a house just like that. Luckily, he's deaf!

Was he deaf before he moved there?

**Benny Profane** · 08-24-2021, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by rideit

And more first world rich people problems.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2...o-corporations

So, timeshares.

**Ted Striker** · 08-24-2021, 01:23 PM

^^^ we're gonna need Art to make a final determination on that

**Dantheman** · 08-24-2021, 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by sirbumpsalot

Was he deaf before he moved there?

Indeed. Supposedly the house had been for sale a long time because of the tracks issue so he got a great deal.

**Ted Striker** · 08-24-2021, 01:35 PM

Originally Posted by sirbumpsalot

Oh no....nothing soothing about Bellingham trains

This in spades. There aren't that many crossings south of town, and they slow way down through White Rock, but in B'ham they roll through fairly fast, and just lay on the horn for four miles. And it's a dozen or more per 24 hr day - including 1 am, 3 am, 5 am...

I lived a block north of that street, and they would shake the whole house.

**Vt-Freeheel** · 08-24-2021, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by sirbumpsalot

Great view....but would you fix up a house next to the choo choo tracks?

Grandparents owned a house next to tracks. Kinda remember liking the choo choo sound but that was a really long time ago.

The open area around the tracks below the house worry me more. Possibly a future industrial lot.

View is nice, convert the carport to a garage so my bikes have a home.

**XXX-er** · 08-24-2021, 02:20 PM

This is a RR town so it runs right thru town, a bigger worry according to a carpenter bud is the RR workers who didnt really know much about carpentry would build a house on their days off and they often were built on wood blocks instead of cement foundation and the blocks would rot

the house next door was built from 3 shacks that were pushed/ bolted together, the interior wall between the kitchen and the front room is > 2ft thick, not a plumb wall in the house, the difference between the roof line at the front corners of the house was 7" a friend looked at the place and told me she almost got sick looking at all the crooked walls

but in this hot market it sold

**rideit** · 08-24-2021, 05:20 PM

Very interesting read on the possible future of Air BnB. Could be wishful thinking, I don’t know.

https://survivingtomorrow.org/airbnb...i=6a0e2885f427

**Flyoverland Captive** · 08-24-2021, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by rideit

Very interesting read on the possible future of Air BnB. Could be wishful thinking, I don’t know.

https://survivingtomorrow.org/airbnb...i=6a0e2885f427

Very interesting; thanks for the link.

**Name Redacted** · 08-24-2021, 06:56 PM

Originally Posted by rideit

Very interesting read on the possible future of Air BnB. Could be wishful thinking, I don’t know.

https://survivingtomorrow.org/airbnb...i=6a0e2885f427

Interesting read, on a day when the same company made me $$$$ between stock and rentals.

I do agree on a lot of the points made in the article, but many are sensationalistic and over dramatized. I guess journalism needs to make money too.

**dunfree** · 08-24-2021, 06:59 PM

Originally Posted by rideit

Very interesting read on the possible future of Air BnB. Could be wishful thinking, I don’t know.

https://survivingtomorrow.org/airbnb...i=6a0e2885f427

they’ve got a great track record of predictions there.

**4matic** · 08-24-2021, 07:31 PM

I’ve been a lap swimmer my whole life so pool envy is not new for me.

“Pandemic pool ownership was all over the news, and Houzz tracked this rise accordingly, especially “pools with water features” (think slides, fountains), with searches on that term up nearly 800%. Homeowners also sought out “rectangle pool” (up 576%) and their own lap lanes at home (with “lap pool” up 269%).”

I can wait. The pool builders will have slack soon enough.

**spanky** · 08-24-2021, 07:37 PM

Trudeau Vows 2-Year Ban on Foreign Home Buyers If Re-Elected

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-if-re-elected

Seems like this *could* suppress demand.

**4matic** · 08-24-2021, 07:50 PM

Caldor fire is 40 miles east of new address. I’m definitely concerned about future fire insurance premiums.

**spanky** · 08-24-2021, 07:53 PM

Duplicate post.

**BCMtnHound** · 08-24-2021, 08:44 PM

Originally Posted by XXX-er

the CN Train yard is 2 block from here and the whole down town, I got used to the trains but the fucking doves used to piss me off , fortunately the hawks took them all out

First house we rented was on HBMtn Rd but the opposite way to the hill. Barn frame on cement slab. Second place was on Railway just up from Queen. Old home built around an old railway bunkhouse. Whole damn town built on a swamp, so any ground shake was amplified. Railway activity never bothered me, but then I have lived within a 1km of tracks most of my life. But do they still throw the cars for switching? That boom when the cars connected I never got used to. Enjoying a cold one at the HBMtn Lodge bar, and often with the rail workers, and they would relate great pleasure in sending those cars crashing into each other from as far away as possible. Assholes, but I did get a couple free pints from their pitchers on occasion.

**altasnob** · 08-25-2021, 09:14 AM

Originally Posted by spanky

Trudeau Vows 2-Year Ban on Foreign Home Buyers If Re-Elected

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-if-re-elected

"As a temporary measure to help stabilize the housing market coming out of COVID-19, we will ban foreign money from purchasing a non-recreational, residential property in Canada for the next two years, unless this purchase is confirmed to be for future employment or immigration in the next two years."

Thank god I can still buy my condo in Whistler and Revy. Seems like a populist, nationalist, law to me. But Canadian cities do have some of the highest real estate prices relative to wage of any place on earth. So something needs to change. It will be an interesting experiment. Seattle area should see a massive influx in capital as foreigners banned from investing in Vancouver look to park their money elsewhere.

I also wonder how this law is enforced? What is recreational property? If a foreigner wants to buy property, couldn't they just get a local to buy the property as an LLC and then become a 100% investor in the LLC? Seems like this will prevent regular people not from Canada from buying property in Canada. But foreigners with money will have lawyers to help them figure out a way around the law.