U.S. household debt rises above pre-pandemic levels due to mortgages
@SouthJamaica In your opinion, do you believe we're due for some housing market "bubble burst" "correction" etc etc.? I live in rural New England and it seems like a lot of out of staters are migrating here with out of state money and severly driving prices around here, I thought I was all prepared to buy a house because I have the financial side of things very in line, 95% of houses in this area (I've been steady watching since January) sell within 3 days of listing, almost all sell above asking. The 5% are houses not even work clicking on the listing. Looking for thoughts about this, how long will this continue?
@800who wrote:@SouthJamaica In your opinion, do you believe we're due for some housing market "bubble burst" "correction" etc etc.? I live in rural New England and it seems like a lot of out of staters are migrating here with out of state money and severly driving prices around here, I thought I was all prepared to buy a house because I have the financial side of things very in line, 95% of houses in this area (I've been steady watching since January) sell within 3 days of listing, almost all sell above asking. The 5% are houses not even work clicking on the listing. Looking for thoughts about this, how long will this continue?
I'm no guru, but my personal belief is that we are experiencing an economic collapse
Thank you for sharing the information.
@iced I feel as if pre-pandemic, people in the industries that were most negatively impacted by the pandemic were already at a point where they wern't thriving financially. Most of the people who are buying houses now a days either weren't affected by the pandemic or people like me it increased my work load resulting in a lot of overtime being worked, combine that with record low interest rates, it has people really not caring how much over they pay for a house, it's a hard knock life out here, I guess I have to join the bandwagon and bid 10-20% over asking sight unseen. 
@800who wrote:@iced I feel as if pre-pandemic, people in the industries that were most negatively impacted by the pandemic were already at a point where they wern't thriving financially. Most of the people who are buying houses now a days either weren't affected by the pandemic or people like me it increased my work load resulting in a lot of overtime being worked, combine that with record low interest rates, it has people really not caring how much over they pay for a house, it's a hard knock life out here, I guess I have to join the bandwagon and bid 10-20% over asking sight unseen.
It is par for the course now. For the place we bought earlier this year, we ended up having to come up $50k over asking and waive contingencies. Was on and off the market within 72 hours.
I do have to wonder how long it will take for the troubles that the hardest hit industries have had to trickle down. All of the people who are gainfully employed (myself included) are taking advantage of these extremely low interest rates and buying houses, the low rates are allowing us to buy houses that might not be as comfortable with a 3.5 or 4+ percent rate.
Ultimately though, both my wife and I who have been employed during the pandemic work in services type companies and our customers vary but include things like food service and hospitality as these industries take big hits there is less spending so while so far things have balanced, in my field our medical customers and our other service providers are relying on us more and in my wife's field she is actually doing work for one of the labs that will be producing the vaccine so they are fine but eventually if these other industries don't return post pandemic (and there is some fears that they won't).
My point being, we are long way from seeing how all this plays out.
@800who wrote:@iced I feel as if pre-pandemic, people in the industries that were most negatively impacted by the pandemic were already at a point where they wern't thriving financially. Most of the people who are buying houses now a days either weren't affected by the pandemic or people like me it increased my work load resulting in a lot of overtime being worked, combine that with record low interest rates, it has people really not caring how much over they pay for a house, it's a hard knock life out here, I guess I have to join the bandwagon and bid 10-20% over asking sight unseen.
Gosh, this had been my world since the latter part of the 1990's. My first house was bought for $50k over ask. The next was another bidding war. But then we got $400k over ask when we sold.
Now I want to sell again and buy a bigger place (being cooped up makes me want more square footage and private outdoor space) but don't want to tie up $ if there's a chance we'll want to leave the city. If we move somewhere else, we'll be part of the contingent that are driving house prices higher.
I just hope in these mad times that those who can buy real estate are keeping their heads and not overextending themselves.