Shopping for a house can be similar to dating.
Over the past 14 months, the product manager has put in 15 bids. None of them have worked out.
After moving back to the Miami metro area from the Bay Area in October of 2020, Nader began her house hunt. She had been living between the two coasts until her workplace reclassified her as a Florida employee and she began enjoying the tax perks of the state.
She had been a nomad since the end of the year, but decided to move to Florida after the Pandemic hit. She told Insider that she thought she would be able to own a home and use it as a permanent residence and then rent it out for six months out of the year.
The idea has proved to be more fanciful than reality. The housing boom was defined by cutthroat competition and bidding wars as workers fled cramped apartments in big cities for more space in suburban utopias.
She wanted to buy a house under $400,000 so she could pay it off in 10 or 15 years, but the lack of starter homes made her increase her budget by $200,000.
She was an aspiring first-time homebuyer. She's signed contracts on two different homes. She went into contract for the first time in March for a house that was less than what she agreed to pay.
Nader was willing to eat the difference. The seller never showed up. Doesn't answer emails, doesn't answer phone calls, and ignores the real estate agent. They ghosted me like a guy from a dating app.
She had to get a lawyer and go to an alternative dispute-resolution process to get her money back. She went into contract for another house, but it fell through. She said she spent two months resolving the first contract while taking the risk of a second contract. She said it was a nightmare. I have $70,000 tied up in the process and I couldn't sleep for a while.
Things continued to go downhill. After the due diligence inspection and appraisal had taken place, the second seller's lawyer claimed that Nader was in violation of the contract and that she would have to release her funds if she didn't sign a paper.
She signed so she wouldn't have to start a war to get her money back, and the government ended up buying the house from the seller. They used that as a way to get out of the contract.
I don't want to play that game.
"Arenter on the margin" is what Odeta Kushi, deputy chief economist at First American Financial Corporation calls Nader. It's very hard for a potential first-time homebuyer to find something to buy at this point.
The share of first-time buyers has fallen as the housing inventory has dwindled. The national median home sale price was $386,888 in June, which is more than $80,000 higher than the same month in 2019. The percentage of first-time home buyers who made a purchase in July was 31%, down from 36% in April 2020.
As affordability challenges persist, the rate is expected to stay the same for the foreseeable future. The shortage of starter homes is at a five-decade low and the new homes contractors have begun to build are in the higher end of the market.
"All of the other offers I've submitted have been rejected by greedy agents that want to sell homes for $100,000 to $150,000 more than they are worth," she said, adding that she doesn't have the cash to front the difference between the bank loan and what it's actually worth It's a cash buyer market. You can buy whatever you want if you have the cash.
She doesn't want to put in an offer over the asking price. She said she didn't want to play that game.
She's expanded her search from Florida to Colorado, North Carolina, Washington, and California in order to increase her homebuying odds. She said she put in offers without seeing the houses in person because of how competitive the market is.
She believes that real estate is still one of the best assets to invest in.
She said she would invest in better things. I'm wondering if I should just buy virtual land. I can't live inside the internet because people make so much money in the digital world. I need a roof and a home.
