I insure a large block of the "substantial" small businesses here in these parts. Biggest complaint is work force. Bosses have employees they want to fire, but will not having no alternatives. One knows an employee is actually stealing and still will not get rid of him. Another is taking Marijuana out of the drug test equation. People get hired with many not showing up for 1st day of work, while others don't make a full week. One friend raised the starting wage to attract more employees. That meant handing out raises to other employees who had been there for awhile. Some of them then requested fewer hours. The increased wage sort of defeated its intended purpose.

Supplies ridiculous. All sorts of supply chain issues. Called for gutters on a home the other day and were told 6 weeks to get an estimate. A client has a high end home near completion and his range is 20 weeks out. Lumber costs down, but not by much. Plywood still ridiculous. Steel seems to go up weekly. Price out some PVC.

People going out and buying new vehicles when they are going for sticker price or in some cases more than sticker price. I don't gets that. Then people get to put $3.00 a gallon gas in it. We'll see how long it stays at that price.

One buddy bought some acreage and is having all kinds of issues involving months to get a well drilled and a septic installed. Then there is the issue of actually building a home.

A friend of mine bought a small old crappy home on 1/8th of an acre in, pretty much, downtown NB. I thought he was crazy paying $90k in 2016 for the vacant ramshackle place with no insulation in the walls and without any architectural merit. He showed me who was crazy, having closed on it last week for $300,000. The purchaser will be tearing down the home and building on that there 1/8th of an acre lot.

We have a contract for a different home nearby that came under extremely favorable circumstances. Our place is going up for sale. We bought it in December of 96 when it was 36 years old for $199,000. Did a down to the studs remodel with installation of a couple of beams to create bigger spaces in 2015, spending somewhere near $250,000. I know it is an absolutely great location, but the suggested price is in excess of 45% more than what I would have taken just last year. Can't believe we will get it, but MLS goes active on Monday and there are already showings scheduled. Some realtors seem to think bidding may result.

My issues are first world and I get that, not the point. I am trying to figure out how this works. The bag has to rip at the seams.

It is like a Ponzi Scheme with real estate. Some are going to make a bunch of money and when it ends some are going to loose their a**es.

Its crazy times we live in Hud

Is this the road to Utopia?

These times they are a changing.

why work ? the gubment will provide for ya

You are dead right Hud

It can only last so long and then the bottom will fall out and MANY homes will likely be foreclosed on.

I will not be surprised when your current house sells in less than a week for up to 25% over the asking price. Take the damn money and run compadre. Maybe momma will let you go on a special hunt with some of it?? Bull elk or trophy mule deer maybe???

Service times for anything are stretching way out there. Restaurants are struggling everywhere. And the guy (supposedly) in charge in this country snidely comments that people ought to pay more. A guy that never had a real job in his life. Street slime emboldened to attack, maybe even kill, folks walking down the street, just to go through their pockets and see what they have. 'Hard to believe society isn't breaking down. We still pledge "indivisible", but that doesn't mean "invincible". Rome did eventually fall. Humans haven't changed all that much.

It's very troubling when you have grandkids and you worry what they're going to have to deal with, perhaps before they're even grown. Time for faith and a lot of prayer.

But on a lighter note - take the money and run Hud! Spend it wisely, like I know you will.

Raise your hand if you're glad you're on the backside of thirty.........

I'm envious Hud!

I look at my taxes and knowing that I have another 14 years is scary. May be cheaper for me to move out of this school district and just roll private for the kids. I was planning on retiring before kids graduate, but who knows with this ridiculous inflation. I’m sure we are about to see new asset tax too.

I have been right in the middle of this real estate/building boom. I had my place for sale for a couple of years....priced so that whoever wanted to buy it had to want it as much I as I liked it. Found that person in January....they looked at it on a Thursday afternoon and had a contract Saturday morning that was 2% less than my asking price. Wanted a closing date in 3 weeks which would not work for me since I did not have any place to buy nor a place to move all my "stuff" and to live. So we set it out 45 days. No problems right? Then two worlds collided in that placing were selling as fast as I could call on them. I had a list of 22 places I liked and wanted to look at. One place I wanted to buy was not listed by an agent and the rest were. In a 3 day period 7 of those went under contract....I needed places as a backup if I could not make a deal on my favorite place. Go a week and now half of the places on my list were under contract. If a place came on the market it was under contract within a couple of days. I finally got a contract on the land I wanted...now on to trying to find a place to live in while I tried to get a home built. Water well drillers were 10 to 16 months out. Septic installers were 6-9 months out. Electrical Coop was 5 months out after the major winter storm. So building was put on the back burner. Rent a place....easy right? Wrong, I was looking to rent a place in a county that has over 55% of the residences on the tax roll that are in the B&B or VRBO rental market. They would laugh at you when you ask for a yr lease on small 1 bed/1 bath "home"...they said they could make over $4000 per month with a 20 days of rentals. If you could find a rental home it was $1750 with most over $2500 per month and was leased as soon as it hit the market.....many times leased before it was listed on a website....with 10 people on the waiting list. Try to find a storage rental unit in the same county....waiting lists for those. Well if I can't rent then I will buy a house....I thought easy, right? Wrong again. I called on houses that were listed in that county......listed over their value and in most in need of repairs. If I called it was "Just went under contract yesterday or today" or "It is closing next week". Houses not even built yet were "Under Contract". After trying to rent a house, now I could not find a house to buy in my budget in that county. So I started looking in adjoining counties for rentals or move in ready house to buy. Same song and dance..."Just went under contract" or "closing soon". I looked at homes that needed repairs that were priced two times what they were worth...most were selling. I am within 2 weeks of needing to be out my old house and moved off the land.....I still do not have a place to live. So I move to adjoining counties and I broadened my search area. I finally found a nice house that was move in ready. I was lucky in that is was under contract but they deal fell thru when they could not get financing. The house was move in ready but it was over 50 miles from where my land that I was buying was located. It was over 250 miles from the land I sold, so my move was going to take time. I considered myself lucky to get a house bought and moved into within 3 weeks time in these crazy times.

Me !!

Well seasoned sounding man right here

I don't know when things will get better, but I do know that people across the country had better get out there and vote in 2022.

Moved from NB to Corpus last February with the intention of buying a house here. I am going to ride it out in a rental for a while until the market settles down. It’s just nuts right now.

It is pretty crazy. My parents are looking to move, and while selling their current house would be a non issue, they have been trying to buy the replacement before selling. The are having a hard time getting to go look at a house before it has a contract on it. People are making offers without even looking at properties. Dad said that is stupid we are not doing stuff like that if that means we stay where we are then we stay. I tend to agree.

My wife spoke to a friend of her who is a realtor here in Houston, she said the market is allegedly starting to level off a bit...allegedly.

You have to have secured a landing spot prior to selling. those moving away and down sizing are in the best positions.

We would not be selling save for the new home acquisition already contracted for.

I’d like to move to be closer the grandkids, problem is finding another place. The big issues is the property taxes would be substantially more, due to crazy prices.

Eat`n ain`t cheap.

Bru, taxes do not stop when you hit a certain age.......they just get frozen at the rate they are up to at that time.
you will be paying taxes til the day you say adios compadre. That is unless you decide to sell everything you have an rent.

And just because you enroll your kids in private school, you still pay local school taxes. We did the same thing, you pay double!

No doubt rc!

Hell, idiots today are buying cars online & from vending machines.

Our world is now full of effng MORONS

Just wait ------------ another article in today's paper of people with no water in N. Calif, the 20 yr drought in the West has no sign of easing, in fact it is getting worse --------- 200,000 acres of farm land has been cut off from the water, etc etc etc ---------- they have to go somewhere --------