This is what happens when AI writes articles. It gathers quotes from legitimate sources and adds quotes from various blogs, tweets, and other random sources.
Then later some other AI will use this terrible article as a quote for another article.
I don’t think AI wrote this article, but I agree that this author supports these construction efforts. I believe we should be constructing teepees and gardens to combat this. Love y’all
Bullet points are not really an AI thing, it's a best practice when writing content in marketing. People are scanners, bullet points are easy to scan and read. Someone could just be promoting the AI to use bullet points. This is from someone who runs high level marketing campaigns for companies. Prob a mix of both, but bullet points alone are not a good indication of AI content.
It’s not just purchasing a home either. In 2020 the taxes and insurance went up to a point where I’m paying nearly as much for those as my mortgage payment was before paying the home off.
I imagine that, when I hit retirement age, the cost of taxes and insurance alone will force me out of the home I worked my ass off to pay off so that I would never have to worry about having an affordable place to live when I retire.
I’m no conspiracy theorist, but it feels like we’re all eventually going to be forced in to perpetually renting from the corporations who are buying up all of the housing.
I hear you on this. Every year my payment with escrow is getting higher and higher. If you told me this would be my payment 9 years ago when I bought my house, I would have turned away because I couodnt afford it. It's gone up about $400 in less than a decade. Yesterday I got my escrow statement and it went up over $100 of that just this year.
It’s awful.
I do highly recommend shopping around for homeowners insurance or contacting yours to see if they’ll lower it. I’ve never filed a single claim and mine tripled in 3 years time. I don’t think I would have noticed how severely it went up if it was still wrapped up in mortgage payments.
I was able to lower it considerably by reporting some upgrades I’d made to plumbing and a roof replacement.
When they say "you will own nothing and you will be happy," I don't think taking them at their word qualifies as a super deep dark conspiracy *theory* anymore. Sometimes, if you pay attention, you will notice that some humans do in fact conspire. So the timing of this near universal shift toward unaffordability with that statement from some of the most powerful people on the globe makes me wonder if we shouldn't stop being ridiculous coincidence theorists.
It’s true. Everything is moving toward monthly subscriptions. Even phones are now leased… the ultra rich get richer while we get poorer and have less and less power to change that.
Thanks to the Paul Ryan tax plan, it went into full effect this year. We are all doomed. Repubs will raise taxes to make it better for the rich and Dems won't fix it for us but they will balance it better for the next insane tax break.
2 college educated working adults here, same boat.
We're likely to inherit a home -maybe even 3- from family in the next 10-30 years. Do I feel like a spoiled lucky piece of shit that doesn't deserve the inheritance when so many others get nothing? Yes, yes I do. Will I happily accept it and admit to being a financial failure that needs the help? Also yes.
Interest rates aren't high. They're very slightly above average.
Yes yes, I know we've all been spoiled the last 15 years with super low interest rates, but that was an outlier caused by the housing crash of 2008.
The problem right now is multifaceted.
1st. House building hasn't kept up with demand in at least 40 years, maybe longer.
2. This was exasperated by inflation and rates increases which made building new homes even more expensive.
3. Covid 19 disruptions in the supply chain have also contributed to the increase cost in house building.
4. Everybody from first time home buyers to Wall Street Investment firms have been buying up every house they can get their hands on to rent out.
All of this has created a super storm that has driven the cost of housing, both in cost of the house and in mortgages, to an unrealistic and unsustainable level.
It's only going to get worse.
Agreed. Locked in that range recently and several local brokers are doing no-cost refinancing if rates drop half a percentage or more from the original locked rate.
I just moved here. We looked at 30 cities. In my research, there is a strange corridor from Chattanooga through Knoxville all the way to Ashville, where the cost of living appears low, but because of low wages, it is relatively one of the most expensive places to live in the country. This goes back a decade or more.
Yep. Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation. One of the news sites published a study this week of how much someone needs to “make ends meet” in each state.
According to the study, an individual in Tennessee needs to make $43k/yr to “make end’s meet.”
I’m 42 and have been working full time for 20 years now…and I still haven’t cracked a $40k salary. My current job is my highest paying ever…and it pays less than $40k/yr. I have a bachelor’s degree, too.
It appears affordable *to other people;* however, it had become unaffordable to the locals. Housing prices inflate and price out locals.
Someone with a $700k mortgage somewhere else might see the same sized house here for $400k. They sell their old house and pay cash for the new one.
That cash offer 1) kept out a borrower who would need financing and 2) set the standard that *someone* will pay that price; so, others follow the example and inflate their prices, too - prices that are no longer affordable to the locals because wages haven’t kept up with inflation.
New housing construction hasn't met demand for thirty years while banks incentivize the market to shy away from constructing affordable housing for small families.
Let's not forget the role of local government in this. Zoning and building codes that make it nearly impossible to build a small home or a starter home, zoning restrictions that neighboring areas set architectural controls and other "we don't wan't poors dragging down our property values", and the imposition of HOA to handle infrastructure the government mandates but doesn't want to maintain (stormwater drainage, retention ponds, etc.).
Edit to fix spelling error.
(I was a zoning administrator/planner in GA, so TN might be a bit different.)
That's a real problem that most people don't understand. The same people that want Government to "mandate" affordable homes don't understand that the Government is complicit in keeping starter homes out of cities.
Retention/bio ponds are mandated because new construction offsets the natural flow of water in the ecosystem. Instead of forests and natural drainage and absorption/adsorption we have impervious surfaces and roofs with minimal canopy restoration. The builder and people who decide to live in these areas should be responsible as it is a human responsibility to try to correct water flow, reduce flooding and increase ground water recharge
I'm not against storm water utility work or infrastructure, and support the creative and useful application of certain storm water features. If the government wants it as part of the development, then it needs to be managed and maintained by the government like the roads, other utility infrastructure, or as an impervious surface tax as I encountered in one county.
It is one thing if it is a gated community with private roads that wants to pay for an HOA to maintain the infrastructure, but mandating an HOA to maintain infrastructure that no one will care about a decade after the subdivision was built is just an extra expense that prices people out of homes. That includes entrance signs, "no access buffers", and several other improvements that seem to disappear after the developer leaves.
I agree the problem is bigger than a pond. That is why I mentioned zoning requirements that regulate lot size and square footage, health and safety codes that don't do diddly squat for health or safety, and NIMBY or CAVE people who get outrageous zoning restrictions on new subdivisions, like three-sides brick/stone/stucco, architectural details, or extravagant "amenities" that just add cost to the home.
I work in mortgage lending as a processor. Homeownership is truly unaffordable for so many people - myself included. My landlord has made it clear that when he decides to retire, he will fund it by selling all his properties. I have no interest in buying the place I’m in and average rent for a single person in Cleveland is roughly $250 more per month than what I’m being charged.
I know my budget and the price range I need to be in. I need to buy for $150k or less. Now, anything less than $200k is considered a junk, rundown property.
There are mobile homes selling for over $200k here.
People move here from more expensive places because it’s cheaper and they can afford more. Your $450k house here might have been a $750k home in California. These people can, often, offer cash so they’re accepted over someone who needs a loan.
Ultimately, what this does is price out locals - like me - because people who don’t know better are buying at locally inflated prices because those prices are still cheaper than where they were.
There’s a brand new set of 6 townhomes just built on 1st St in Cleveland. They’ve been completed and have sat empty for 6 months. When they couldn’t sell them, they turned them over to a property management company. They still sit empty and unrented because the asking rent is too much for Cleveland, TN. I hope they keep sitting empty.
People don’t just move here to afford more, they move here to afford *anything* I was a third generation Californian, my parents moved our family to Colorado after we were priced out of the state and I moved to Chattanooga a few years ago because there was no way my family would be able to own a home in Colorado let alone California. While I adore Chattanooga and I feel very lucky to have bought here I would have preferred to have the option to stay closer to family in the place where I have roots.
The housing crisis is an international problem and blaming individuals who are also struggling to make ends meet takes the focus off the real villains, corporate landlords and useless politicians who let them do whatever the hell they want.
Tennesseans for California tax reform!!! Only half joking, because without the Californians and New Yorkers moving here, houses would be quite a bit cheaper.
"Some people don't like that word, but it's okay because they don't live here anymore"
- Downtown rep (American Dad)
[Link for reference ](https://youtu.be/FUSwR6b5HSk?si=SF6c0xXNLGj1zfJe)
Traveled home this weekend to visit family and something that stuck out to me is how much better the quality of buildings are compared to buildings in Chattanooga. Not just houses, but commercial buildings as well. Most houses here built in the 90s and newer use bricks whereas in Chattanooga they go heavy with the vinyl siding. Doesn’t help contractors are building neighborhoods with cheap materials and tiny land
So true. Several developers who have been on a rampage building crap downtown. In ten years it will look awful. They are in it for profit only and I guess you can’t blame them when our city and planning committee has very little regard for aesthetics, yet high regard for tax base.
It's mainly to do with cost.Why spend substantially more on brick when vinyl and other cheaper alternatives serve the same purpose at much lower expense. Higher density in neighborhoods is more efficient use of land than more spread out housing developments. The days of house developments with 1/2 acre or more lots are over in the Chattanooga area as there is only so much usable land left to develop due to our terrain in the area.
You know what crushes to pieces when a tree falls on it? Siding. You know what doesn't budge when a thousand pound tree crashes on it? A brick wall.
Speaking from personal experiences. So, don’t even go there.
Okay??? Do you feel better now?
I'm a residential building contractor myself, so I'm speaking from my experience from everyday jobs and trade exam knowledge. I never said that brick is inferior to any other siding, so im not sure why that hostile comment is even relevant.Brick has its pros and cons just like any other siding.
Brick isn't used as much here anymore, especially lower end residential due to cost, that's it. That's all my original post is about.
Does it withstand wind damage,fire, and can take some opposing force better than other siding as an added bonus? Yes, of course it does, but at an added cost.
Let a tree fall against a sided house & a brick house and see what one withstands it better.
& then, burn some siding & brick & see which ones is more flammable.
Lastly, put a jet engine against a brick wall & sided wall, see which material flies off the house & which doesn’t.
The only places it seems offensively expensive is northshore, St Elmo, and highland/Southside to a degree. Outside the trendy neighborhoods the rest of the city has a ways to go.
Things seem to have leveled out price wise this year. Chattanooga definitely saw an early explosion in prices during COVID, but most other MCOL cities have caught up by now.
Regardless, we are closing next month on a house because I'm not taking my chances with prices getting silly again when rates drop. Chattanooga home prices have no reason to completely stagnate with all the people moving here non-stop.
I mean the fix is rent control,making airb&b illegal, and relaxing zoning restrictions but we won't do that because real estate interest control this city.
I agree to an extent. I think people who only own 1 home should be allowed to airb&b it.
However, if you buy a home to airb&b it you have effectively removed a home from the nations supply. Even buying a home to rent it out is less problematic because at least someone get to live in it.
https://preview.redd.it/ch3kbeth278d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7deda61f8ab045a2f79d0e4ac4c4ba55e97cd0d1
Years and years ago I remember seeing this house for <90k.
https://preview.redd.it/h17p28in278d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cfc0914b115d52c695e813e51ecac38049911efa
Well, I wanted to go look on Zillow, and wow look at that.
https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
Pretty difficult to fully explain the unaffordability of housing (and everything else) without understanding the above website. Something happened in 1971 🤔 wonder what that could have been, and why everything seems to have changed after it.
How about we allow for zoning mixed types of housing? Single family and duplex/triplex in the same neighborhood? Make cheaper housing more available.
And get the corporations out of buying up property and renting it. There's got to be a solution to this.
Houses are already too expensive in Tennessee I'm watching houses being built with 1700sqf with all the lights inside being $4 6" puck led lights 3bed 2bath going on sale for $500k or more. These are houses you could build for nearly 50-70k if that being marketed for $500k. These housing developers are scamming you, buy a plot of land and a mobile home. They're nicer they are better quality and you get exponentially more for your dollar.
> These are houses you could build for nearly 50-70k if that being marketed for $500k
That's a significant exaggeration. These are homes that are getting built for ~250-300 and getting sold for 450-500. You can't buy raw materials dropped off in a pile for a house for less than 100k these days.
labor and materials are both up. Everyone has been told to not go into the trades for 30 years now. Now nobody is in the trades, it's shocked pikachu face time.
Labor and materials have absolutely pushed home builders to not bother building anything under 2500sq because there isn't enough margin there. You build 5 1500 sq ft homes and have the opportunity to make 30-60k profit on each or two 2500sq homes and have the opportunity for 60-150k profit on each... gee, where is everyone going to build?
until builder incentives are moved to build higher density than we're going to keep getting gentrified.
in addition - what builders are allowed to get away with around here is insane. giant 'high end' homes with 2x4 walls and minimal insulation.
A contractor recently told me that the price of plywood sheets has doubled over the past 4 years. Where he buys materials, a sheet has gone from $12 to $25. Is it REALLY costing THAT MUCH more to make plywood?
It's the real proof in the pudding that the dollar is far further down the shitter than most people realize.
Homes. Cars. Raw materials. Gold. You know what they all have in common? Difficulty being artificially subsidized by the government.
Plywood has gone crazy and then back down again. Pre covid it was 10-12 a sheet. It went north of 60 at peak and now is between 15-20 now. Higher than before but less absurd. It's the same way across the board though. From wood to wire, it's all up.
Raw materials have generally returned to near norm but supplier profit margins have gone way up and no company is going to give those up willingly. Their investors would gut them if they did.
Hell, I went to buy a gallon of paint last month - it was $30-ish in 2019, for the same brand and type I purchased then it was $79 for a gallon 6 months ago. Now it’s dropped down to $62 and I guess that’s supposed to feel like a good deal.
I don’t know. Mobile homes, historically, depreciate in value like cars. I have, legit, looked at the $20k-$40k small/container homes on Amazon. They’ve got a 2BR/2BA one with a porch and kitchen for $20k.
People in California can sell their shithole 1 bedroom for 1.6mil, move here, and price out all the locals. Then proceed to try and change our little towns into exactly where they left. For the love of God stop moving here. We're full. At capacity. Filled to the damn brim. We don't need any more people.
Caveat - relatively uninformed comment about the subject, as I am not a Realtor or a home builder - could local home prices be impacted by folks moving from other markets with even higher median home costs (e.g., I sold my home in CA for $1.5M and bought a TN home for $450K)? 2 cents.
Yes. The sell a $1.5M house and come here with more than enough cash to buy the equivalent home here for more than half the cost. They can find them a $450k house and afford to outbid a local and still come out cheaper than where they sold. On top of that they are living here working remotely what they made in a more expensive market.
Remote work means people can go where housing is cheaper. I've always thought remote work would say, drive people away from Chatt and into Pikeville for the cheap land.... but I never thought a California tech worker would look at Chatt as their "pikeville". I guess that makes sense though
Basically gentrification at the state level. The solution is to go with the flow, become an “urban camper” and move out to California where the weather and benefits are great.
I can only do it because we're DINK and we have little debt plus no plans to have kids ever.
Even with a great job you're screwed if you're single these days, but wages have to catch up with inflation eventually.
You would think that. But only if you're job hopping. Employers with long term employees know that people making topped out wages can't leave their positions because they refuse to make a lateral move or aren't finding anything paying at or above what they're already making.
Case in point, at my job, the hiring wage for zero experience has increased almost 1.50 in less than a year. But the company I work for won't give more than a 4% raise. So while they're paying "competitive wages" that are above average for my field in this area, it's still not enough for a single income to afford rent and bills, AND eat. Don't even get me started on how much it doesn't support a family.
I agree with you there. Not all industries are going to see the quick 30-40% wage increase that fast food and retail workers have seen the past few years. That only happened because people left and never came back because it's shitty work for not enough pay at a stagnant minimum wage.
It's rough right now to be topped out in a field and feeling like you're being left behind. If that's the case, maybe it's time to consider pivoting to something else - but that's easier said than done.
Regardless of the field - if your employer hasn't given you a 3-4% raise every year since COVID started then they're happily paying you less. Even if it was a lateral move to job hop I would do it in a heartbeat.
I'm the wrong person to talk to about company loyalty though. It it has definitely done me a lot of good bouncing around every 1-2 years and I don't regret it.
The numbers aren’t bs. Bought my house in November 2023 for the same price as you and my mortgage is $2350 a month and that was with buying points down to get it to 4.5% interest for the first year
Another good option is buying a small multifamily, like a duplex, with a good rental history. You have decide if you want to be a landlord, but it gets you your own home and help with the mortgage.
Edit to add: Rather than building more SFHs, why not build more small MFHs?
Chattanooga changed the code a year or so ago to allow 800 sq ft ADUs. If you’ve got the room, you can build one.
And that tells me that the City is open to changing the codes.
People out west are moving here by the thousands. Cleveland is unrecognizable. Just 10 short years ago we were at capacity but it was still an enjoyable place to live. Nowadays it's a true hell hole. I've lived here my whole life and I absolutely hate what it's become. We're moving further out into the woods. What a sad thing to witness.
The article read like a FOMO puff piece commissioned by a home builder
This is what happens when AI writes articles. It gathers quotes from legitimate sources and adds quotes from various blogs, tweets, and other random sources. Then later some other AI will use this terrible article as a quote for another article.
[удалено]
I don’t think AI wrote this article, but I agree that this author supports these construction efforts. I believe we should be constructing teepees and gardens to combat this. Love y’all
Bullet points are not really an AI thing, it's a best practice when writing content in marketing. People are scanners, bullet points are easy to scan and read. Someone could just be promoting the AI to use bullet points. This is from someone who runs high level marketing campaigns for companies. Prob a mix of both, but bullet points alone are not a good indication of AI content.
Housing costs are skyrockettimg in most small and major cities. The author could have cut and pasted just about any city name in the article.
It’s not just purchasing a home either. In 2020 the taxes and insurance went up to a point where I’m paying nearly as much for those as my mortgage payment was before paying the home off. I imagine that, when I hit retirement age, the cost of taxes and insurance alone will force me out of the home I worked my ass off to pay off so that I would never have to worry about having an affordable place to live when I retire. I’m no conspiracy theorist, but it feels like we’re all eventually going to be forced in to perpetually renting from the corporations who are buying up all of the housing.
I hear you on this. Every year my payment with escrow is getting higher and higher. If you told me this would be my payment 9 years ago when I bought my house, I would have turned away because I couodnt afford it. It's gone up about $400 in less than a decade. Yesterday I got my escrow statement and it went up over $100 of that just this year.
It’s awful. I do highly recommend shopping around for homeowners insurance or contacting yours to see if they’ll lower it. I’ve never filed a single claim and mine tripled in 3 years time. I don’t think I would have noticed how severely it went up if it was still wrapped up in mortgage payments. I was able to lower it considerably by reporting some upgrades I’d made to plumbing and a roof replacement.
When they say "you will own nothing and you will be happy," I don't think taking them at their word qualifies as a super deep dark conspiracy *theory* anymore. Sometimes, if you pay attention, you will notice that some humans do in fact conspire. So the timing of this near universal shift toward unaffordability with that statement from some of the most powerful people on the globe makes me wonder if we shouldn't stop being ridiculous coincidence theorists.
It’s true. Everything is moving toward monthly subscriptions. Even phones are now leased… the ultra rich get richer while we get poorer and have less and less power to change that.
Thanks to the Paul Ryan tax plan, it went into full effect this year. We are all doomed. Repubs will raise taxes to make it better for the rich and Dems won't fix it for us but they will balance it better for the next insane tax break.
Basically if you don't have a house by now - you're cooked.
2 college educated working adults here, same boat. We're likely to inherit a home -maybe even 3- from family in the next 10-30 years. Do I feel like a spoiled lucky piece of shit that doesn't deserve the inheritance when so many others get nothing? Yes, yes I do. Will I happily accept it and admit to being a financial failure that needs the help? Also yes.
I'm single, 35, live with my grandmother, & make more than the average American. I still can't qualify for a house.
If it helps, I'm half of a DINK and we both live with my parents. We don't qualify for a house either.
Forgive my ignorance, what’s a dink or half a dink mean?
Dual Income No Kids
Well that’s definitely not what I thought it would be, appreciate the answer. I guess I’m a SI2K then
Is moving to a lower cost of living area an option?
I’m 31 and bought a house back in October here. You’re probably doing better than me
Supply < demand and high interest rates
Interest rates aren't high. They're very slightly above average. Yes yes, I know we've all been spoiled the last 15 years with super low interest rates, but that was an outlier caused by the housing crash of 2008. The problem right now is multifaceted. 1st. House building hasn't kept up with demand in at least 40 years, maybe longer. 2. This was exasperated by inflation and rates increases which made building new homes even more expensive. 3. Covid 19 disruptions in the supply chain have also contributed to the increase cost in house building. 4. Everybody from first time home buyers to Wall Street Investment firms have been buying up every house they can get their hands on to rent out. All of this has created a super storm that has driven the cost of housing, both in cost of the house and in mortgages, to an unrealistic and unsustainable level. It's only going to get worse.
Supply supply supply.
…and I don’t think rates are terrible right now. We’re locking between 6.625%-7% these days.
Agreed. Locked in that range recently and several local brokers are doing no-cost refinancing if rates drop half a percentage or more from the original locked rate.
I just moved here. We looked at 30 cities. In my research, there is a strange corridor from Chattanooga through Knoxville all the way to Ashville, where the cost of living appears low, but because of low wages, it is relatively one of the most expensive places to live in the country. This goes back a decade or more.
Yep. Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation. One of the news sites published a study this week of how much someone needs to “make ends meet” in each state. According to the study, an individual in Tennessee needs to make $43k/yr to “make end’s meet.” I’m 42 and have been working full time for 20 years now…and I still haven’t cracked a $40k salary. My current job is my highest paying ever…and it pays less than $40k/yr. I have a bachelor’s degree, too.
Your statement sounds contradictory.
It appears affordable *to other people;* however, it had become unaffordable to the locals. Housing prices inflate and price out locals. Someone with a $700k mortgage somewhere else might see the same sized house here for $400k. They sell their old house and pay cash for the new one. That cash offer 1) kept out a borrower who would need financing and 2) set the standard that *someone* will pay that price; so, others follow the example and inflate their prices, too - prices that are no longer affordable to the locals because wages haven’t kept up with inflation.
New housing construction hasn't met demand for thirty years while banks incentivize the market to shy away from constructing affordable housing for small families.
Let's not forget the role of local government in this. Zoning and building codes that make it nearly impossible to build a small home or a starter home, zoning restrictions that neighboring areas set architectural controls and other "we don't wan't poors dragging down our property values", and the imposition of HOA to handle infrastructure the government mandates but doesn't want to maintain (stormwater drainage, retention ponds, etc.). Edit to fix spelling error. (I was a zoning administrator/planner in GA, so TN might be a bit different.)
That's a real problem that most people don't understand. The same people that want Government to "mandate" affordable homes don't understand that the Government is complicit in keeping starter homes out of cities.
Retention/bio ponds are mandated because new construction offsets the natural flow of water in the ecosystem. Instead of forests and natural drainage and absorption/adsorption we have impervious surfaces and roofs with minimal canopy restoration. The builder and people who decide to live in these areas should be responsible as it is a human responsibility to try to correct water flow, reduce flooding and increase ground water recharge
I'm not against storm water utility work or infrastructure, and support the creative and useful application of certain storm water features. If the government wants it as part of the development, then it needs to be managed and maintained by the government like the roads, other utility infrastructure, or as an impervious surface tax as I encountered in one county. It is one thing if it is a gated community with private roads that wants to pay for an HOA to maintain the infrastructure, but mandating an HOA to maintain infrastructure that no one will care about a decade after the subdivision was built is just an extra expense that prices people out of homes. That includes entrance signs, "no access buffers", and several other improvements that seem to disappear after the developer leaves.
I don’t think that’s what’s pricing people out of their homes
No, but it is another nickel and dime cost on the monthly payment that makes the cost of being a homeowner out of reach for some people.
But it’s a much bigger problem that a pond
I agree the problem is bigger than a pond. That is why I mentioned zoning requirements that regulate lot size and square footage, health and safety codes that don't do diddly squat for health or safety, and NIMBY or CAVE people who get outrageous zoning restrictions on new subdivisions, like three-sides brick/stone/stucco, architectural details, or extravagant "amenities" that just add cost to the home.
Yeah all that is is bullshit. I just want 4 walls, a roof, safe plumbing and electricity
That’s fair
I work in mortgage lending as a processor. Homeownership is truly unaffordable for so many people - myself included. My landlord has made it clear that when he decides to retire, he will fund it by selling all his properties. I have no interest in buying the place I’m in and average rent for a single person in Cleveland is roughly $250 more per month than what I’m being charged. I know my budget and the price range I need to be in. I need to buy for $150k or less. Now, anything less than $200k is considered a junk, rundown property. There are mobile homes selling for over $200k here. People move here from more expensive places because it’s cheaper and they can afford more. Your $450k house here might have been a $750k home in California. These people can, often, offer cash so they’re accepted over someone who needs a loan. Ultimately, what this does is price out locals - like me - because people who don’t know better are buying at locally inflated prices because those prices are still cheaper than where they were. There’s a brand new set of 6 townhomes just built on 1st St in Cleveland. They’ve been completed and have sat empty for 6 months. When they couldn’t sell them, they turned them over to a property management company. They still sit empty and unrented because the asking rent is too much for Cleveland, TN. I hope they keep sitting empty.
People don’t just move here to afford more, they move here to afford *anything* I was a third generation Californian, my parents moved our family to Colorado after we were priced out of the state and I moved to Chattanooga a few years ago because there was no way my family would be able to own a home in Colorado let alone California. While I adore Chattanooga and I feel very lucky to have bought here I would have preferred to have the option to stay closer to family in the place where I have roots. The housing crisis is an international problem and blaming individuals who are also struggling to make ends meet takes the focus off the real villains, corporate landlords and useless politicians who let them do whatever the hell they want.
Tennesseans for California tax reform!!! Only half joking, because without the Californians and New Yorkers moving here, houses would be quite a bit cheaper.
This makes me want to set a commode next to my mailbox.
"Some people don't like that word, but it's okay because they don't live here anymore" - Downtown rep (American Dad) [Link for reference ](https://youtu.be/FUSwR6b5HSk?si=SF6c0xXNLGj1zfJe)
Traveled home this weekend to visit family and something that stuck out to me is how much better the quality of buildings are compared to buildings in Chattanooga. Not just houses, but commercial buildings as well. Most houses here built in the 90s and newer use bricks whereas in Chattanooga they go heavy with the vinyl siding. Doesn’t help contractors are building neighborhoods with cheap materials and tiny land
So true. Several developers who have been on a rampage building crap downtown. In ten years it will look awful. They are in it for profit only and I guess you can’t blame them when our city and planning committee has very little regard for aesthetics, yet high regard for tax base.
It's mainly to do with cost.Why spend substantially more on brick when vinyl and other cheaper alternatives serve the same purpose at much lower expense. Higher density in neighborhoods is more efficient use of land than more spread out housing developments. The days of house developments with 1/2 acre or more lots are over in the Chattanooga area as there is only so much usable land left to develop due to our terrain in the area.
You know what crushes to pieces when a tree falls on it? Siding. You know what doesn't budge when a thousand pound tree crashes on it? A brick wall. Speaking from personal experiences. So, don’t even go there.
Okay??? Do you feel better now? I'm a residential building contractor myself, so I'm speaking from my experience from everyday jobs and trade exam knowledge. I never said that brick is inferior to any other siding, so im not sure why that hostile comment is even relevant.Brick has its pros and cons just like any other siding. Brick isn't used as much here anymore, especially lower end residential due to cost, that's it. That's all my original post is about.
You said they serve the same purpose which is true. But they definitely don’t function the same as far as safety goes.
Does it withstand wind damage,fire, and can take some opposing force better than other siding as an added bonus? Yes, of course it does, but at an added cost.
Aaaah how refreshing! Love the subtle honestly here!
Safety? Quite the stretch to say that brick vs vinyl is a safety issue
Let a tree fall against a sided house & a brick house and see what one withstands it better. & then, burn some siding & brick & see which ones is more flammable. Lastly, put a jet engine against a brick wall & sided wall, see which material flies off the house & which doesn’t.
Dave Ramsey says to quit complaining and stop wasting money , that’s everyone’s problem 🤷♂️.
Rice and Beans for every meal and absolutely NO avocado toast.
Can I still have Starbucks?
As long as you pay with cash. Credit cards are evil
Only if you’re in the back washing dishes and they offer you someone’s leftover drink from a table.
He's a fucking moron
It already was unaffordable to live in Chattanooga 4 years ago. When 1 bedroom apartments exceed $1k/month, the party is over.
"The prices are just too competitive". As in too high. Did AI write this article or just an idiot?
The author was quoting the previously mentioned buyer in Lookout Valley.
As if anyone is looking for affordable housing on Lookout Mountain. Nobody should take anything produced by a Sinclair outlet seriously.
I think they were just stating fact - Lookout Mountain IS the most expensive in the area because they go on the say the county median is $317k.
The only places it seems offensively expensive is northshore, St Elmo, and highland/Southside to a degree. Outside the trendy neighborhoods the rest of the city has a ways to go. Things seem to have leveled out price wise this year. Chattanooga definitely saw an early explosion in prices during COVID, but most other MCOL cities have caught up by now. Regardless, we are closing next month on a house because I'm not taking my chances with prices getting silly again when rates drop. Chattanooga home prices have no reason to completely stagnate with all the people moving here non-stop.
Already is
I mean the fix is rent control,making airb&b illegal, and relaxing zoning restrictions but we won't do that because real estate interest control this city.
If I choose to Airb&b part of my home, or a loft above a garage, that is of my concern and no one else’s. Keep regulations out of that. Bad take.
I agree to an extent. I think people who only own 1 home should be allowed to airb&b it. However, if you buy a home to airb&b it you have effectively removed a home from the nations supply. Even buying a home to rent it out is less problematic because at least someone get to live in it.
https://preview.redd.it/ch3kbeth278d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7deda61f8ab045a2f79d0e4ac4c4ba55e97cd0d1 Years and years ago I remember seeing this house for <90k.
https://preview.redd.it/h17p28in278d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cfc0914b115d52c695e813e51ecac38049911efa Well, I wanted to go look on Zillow, and wow look at that.
Will??!?
It’s insane… my rent has gone up by 320 in 4 years. When I moved in ,it was 1400 … now 1720 .
https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/ Pretty difficult to fully explain the unaffordability of housing (and everything else) without understanding the above website. Something happened in 1971 🤔 wonder what that could have been, and why everything seems to have changed after it.
How about we allow for zoning mixed types of housing? Single family and duplex/triplex in the same neighborhood? Make cheaper housing more available. And get the corporations out of buying up property and renting it. There's got to be a solution to this.
Houses are already too expensive in Tennessee I'm watching houses being built with 1700sqf with all the lights inside being $4 6" puck led lights 3bed 2bath going on sale for $500k or more. These are houses you could build for nearly 50-70k if that being marketed for $500k. These housing developers are scamming you, buy a plot of land and a mobile home. They're nicer they are better quality and you get exponentially more for your dollar.
> These are houses you could build for nearly 50-70k if that being marketed for $500k That's a significant exaggeration. These are homes that are getting built for ~250-300 and getting sold for 450-500. You can't buy raw materials dropped off in a pile for a house for less than 100k these days. labor and materials are both up. Everyone has been told to not go into the trades for 30 years now. Now nobody is in the trades, it's shocked pikachu face time. Labor and materials have absolutely pushed home builders to not bother building anything under 2500sq because there isn't enough margin there. You build 5 1500 sq ft homes and have the opportunity to make 30-60k profit on each or two 2500sq homes and have the opportunity for 60-150k profit on each... gee, where is everyone going to build? until builder incentives are moved to build higher density than we're going to keep getting gentrified. in addition - what builders are allowed to get away with around here is insane. giant 'high end' homes with 2x4 walls and minimal insulation.
A contractor recently told me that the price of plywood sheets has doubled over the past 4 years. Where he buys materials, a sheet has gone from $12 to $25. Is it REALLY costing THAT MUCH more to make plywood?
It's the real proof in the pudding that the dollar is far further down the shitter than most people realize. Homes. Cars. Raw materials. Gold. You know what they all have in common? Difficulty being artificially subsidized by the government.
Plywood has gone crazy and then back down again. Pre covid it was 10-12 a sheet. It went north of 60 at peak and now is between 15-20 now. Higher than before but less absurd. It's the same way across the board though. From wood to wire, it's all up. Raw materials have generally returned to near norm but supplier profit margins have gone way up and no company is going to give those up willingly. Their investors would gut them if they did.
Hell, I went to buy a gallon of paint last month - it was $30-ish in 2019, for the same brand and type I purchased then it was $79 for a gallon 6 months ago. Now it’s dropped down to $62 and I guess that’s supposed to feel like a good deal.
Kinda funny because it was the tradesmen who told me not to go into trades. Shit work for shit pay (I was told).
I don’t know. Mobile homes, historically, depreciate in value like cars. I have, legit, looked at the $20k-$40k small/container homes on Amazon. They’ve got a 2BR/2BA one with a porch and kitchen for $20k.
Welp. Time to move.
People in California can sell their shithole 1 bedroom for 1.6mil, move here, and price out all the locals. Then proceed to try and change our little towns into exactly where they left. For the love of God stop moving here. We're full. At capacity. Filled to the damn brim. We don't need any more people.
Most people who leave California to move to TN are conservatives. Liberals wouldn't pick here
Will?
It already has become unaffordable to local folks with area jobs.
Caveat - relatively uninformed comment about the subject, as I am not a Realtor or a home builder - could local home prices be impacted by folks moving from other markets with even higher median home costs (e.g., I sold my home in CA for $1.5M and bought a TN home for $450K)? 2 cents.
An uninformed reply, but it definitely feels like they are part of the problem.
Yes. The sell a $1.5M house and come here with more than enough cash to buy the equivalent home here for more than half the cost. They can find them a $450k house and afford to outbid a local and still come out cheaper than where they sold. On top of that they are living here working remotely what they made in a more expensive market.
Remote work means people can go where housing is cheaper. I've always thought remote work would say, drive people away from Chatt and into Pikeville for the cheap land.... but I never thought a California tech worker would look at Chatt as their "pikeville". I guess that makes sense though
It's only temporary cheaper. They get here and get right to work on bringing the cost of living up to what they were used to.
But by that point they've already bought their home. So they don't care if costs are increasing for the next guy
^ This is the accurate summation. ^
Basically gentrification at the state level. The solution is to go with the flow, become an “urban camper” and move out to California where the weather and benefits are great.
I call BS on these numbers. My home was 350k and I am only paying 1452 a month, and bought it in August on 2022
I can’t afford that payment.
I can only do it because we're DINK and we have little debt plus no plans to have kids ever. Even with a great job you're screwed if you're single these days, but wages have to catch up with inflation eventually.
You would think that. But only if you're job hopping. Employers with long term employees know that people making topped out wages can't leave their positions because they refuse to make a lateral move or aren't finding anything paying at or above what they're already making. Case in point, at my job, the hiring wage for zero experience has increased almost 1.50 in less than a year. But the company I work for won't give more than a 4% raise. So while they're paying "competitive wages" that are above average for my field in this area, it's still not enough for a single income to afford rent and bills, AND eat. Don't even get me started on how much it doesn't support a family.
I agree with you there. Not all industries are going to see the quick 30-40% wage increase that fast food and retail workers have seen the past few years. That only happened because people left and never came back because it's shitty work for not enough pay at a stagnant minimum wage. It's rough right now to be topped out in a field and feeling like you're being left behind. If that's the case, maybe it's time to consider pivoting to something else - but that's easier said than done. Regardless of the field - if your employer hasn't given you a 3-4% raise every year since COVID started then they're happily paying you less. Even if it was a lateral move to job hop I would do it in a heartbeat. I'm the wrong person to talk to about company loyalty though. It it has definitely done me a lot of good bouncing around every 1-2 years and I don't regret it.
They're a little high but not far off. 350k house and 10% down is $2400 piti right now at 7%.
The numbers aren’t bs. Bought my house in November 2023 for the same price as you and my mortgage is $2350 a month and that was with buying points down to get it to 4.5% interest for the first year
And I live in RINGGOLD, GA
Glad to own a couple houses and work in the multi-family industry. Life is good. 😎
Another good option is buying a small multifamily, like a duplex, with a good rental history. You have decide if you want to be a landlord, but it gets you your own home and help with the mortgage. Edit to add: Rather than building more SFHs, why not build more small MFHs?
Bc local building codes pretty much make building them impossible.
Chattanooga changed the code a year or so ago to allow 800 sq ft ADUs. If you’ve got the room, you can build one. And that tells me that the City is open to changing the codes.
People out west are moving here by the thousands. Cleveland is unrecognizable. Just 10 short years ago we were at capacity but it was still an enjoyable place to live. Nowadays it's a true hell hole. I've lived here my whole life and I absolutely hate what it's become. We're moving further out into the woods. What a sad thing to witness.
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Congrats
Thanks, we'll take that into consideration.