Have you noticed? Housing prices have gone through the roof!

All-cash offers, bidding wars, homes selling for thousands over asking pricesβ€”these describe the US housing market in spring-summer of 2021. The boom may continue indefinitely. It’s hard to predict.

According to the Wall Street Journal, β€œU. S. home prices surged at their fastest pace ever in April as buyers competing for a limited number of homes on the market pushed the booming housing market to new records.” Low mortgage interest rates also have spurred strong demand resulting in a critical shortage of homes for sale.

The WSJ article goes on to mention that the β€œmedian existing-home sales price in May rose almost 24% from a year earlier.”

This is very good news for homeowners, not so much for buyers, who may be willing to pay ridiculous prices because they long for more space after a year hemmed in by the pandemic.

If you are selling your home, you’ll probably get top dollar for it at the moment. If you plan to stay put, your home equity has zoomed up, perhaps even doubled or tripled in value since you purchased it.

* * *

There’s a property I’ve had my eye on near Manheim, Pennsylvania. I will never own the Hans Longenecker House, nor do I want to. But it is part of my family heritage dating back to Langnau, Switzerland in the 1700s.

The Hans Longenecker house is located close to where my mother Ruth Longenecker grew up on the Abram Metzler home and farm, also near Manheim.

Mother Ruth Metzler (Longenecker) in high chair, 1918

 

The Hamaker House (Hans Longenecker house) is also not far from the town of Manheim, Pennsylvania, where my nephew Ehren Fairfield and his family live. I have Ehren to thank for calling this home to my attention.

Nephew Ehren Fairfield

 

Here is what the Hamaker House looks like now:

 

The historic house on Hamaker Road features stones dated 1768 and 1789, the year of the French Revolution, celebrated July 14.

 

The 6-bedroom, 3-bathroom house at 330 Hamaker Road has kept some original features

  • Original strap hinge doors
  • Wide plank wooden floors
  • Deep sill windows
  • Low door frames, a reminder to be humble

 

Zillow listed the 2680 square foot house at $412,200 in July because this real estate estimating site has to put a price tag on properties. Although I’m just guessing, I imagine the current owners, Tom and Susan Ford, may not sell because they have put so much time and effort into meticulously restoring it. They may also not want to sell their home at any price.

What price can you put on a pristine 253-year-old home?

 

I’ve written about houses before:

A Tale of Two Houses (Janet Givens)

Up and Down Anchor Road, Secrets Revealed

Bobby Oliver: My Ideal Reader

 

 


What do you make of the housing market now?

If you live in another country, has the housing market changed where you live?