Many longtime Everett residents are homeowners who have been living in the same home on the same street for much of their adult lives.
Those homes are now worth incredible sums of money compared with what they were worth say 20 years ago.
The problem for those Everett homeowners is that if they sell their homes, they have nowhere to go where they can reasonably pay the outrageously high rents that are plaguing the housing market today.
Also, homeowners looking to downsize will find that smaller homes at lower prices do not exist.
It is now smaller homes at much higher prices that exist, if they exist at all.
It is the ultimate Catch 22.
You cash out of your home with a wonderful profit but then can’t find a place you can afford to live in without having to spend all the profit.
What then?
Homeowners wanting to downsize tend to remain in their homes where they can live for less than a much smaller, very expensive, modern apartment.
What does this do?
This makes it almost impossible for first time homebuyers to find a home for themselves in a marketplace where very few properties are coming up for sale.
It is a conundrum with seemingly no solution.
Higher property prices are here to stay because demand is outpacing supply.
It is an impossible situation.