Although the house price has been reduced below the purchase level, during the past 1 year, the young man still cannot sell.

In early 2022, Gio Navarro (31 years old, working in cybersecurity) decided to sign a contract to buy a house in Atlanta, USA after only 48 hours of visiting. However, he quickly regretted it and wanted to return to renting a house, escaping the costs and troubles that come with a 3-bedroom apartment, about 150 m2.

After nearly a year of selling, Navarro still hasn’t received an offer for the home he bought for $399,000. He even lowered the price twice, from the listed level of 430,000 USD to 387,500 USD (more than 10 billion VND).

“Owning a house is not as ‘pink’ as people say,” he admitted.

Navarr rushed to buy a house when he saw that his friends around him massively owned real estate

According to The Wall Street Journal, Navarro is one of the Americans who rushed to buy a home amid the housing fever during the Covid-19 epidemic, when mortgage interest rates were so low that no one had ever seen them and people flocked to a work-from-home lifestyle.

Navarro is also affected by FOMO (fear of missing out syndrome) mentality when friends buy houses at the same time. He chose an apartment with a granite kitchen and a luxurious kitchen island, but bought it right at the end of the price boom, much to his disappointment.

Specifically, Atlanta has become a symbol of the boom period due to the pandemic, when the influx of people made the market extremely competitive and forced many buyers to feel urgent to make decisions. But now, the market has cooled down, causing many apartments to wait for sale longer.

According to real estate brokerage Redfin, home prices in the Atlanta area only increased by about 5% from the time Navarro bought it until July of this year. While in the previous 3 years, prices soared by 51%, although the increase varied from neighborhood to neighborhood.

This drastic cooling is leaving some sellers stuck with homes that are no longer suitable. Some people discover problems with the house that they didn’t initially notice because they were forced to buy it urgently, while others have to return to the office, wanting to find a home closer to the company.

For Navarro, soon after having a house, he realized that owning an apartment also had its own difficulties. From the beginning, he spent more than he thought: the cost of garden care was inflated, many rooms needed to be furnished, even though he realized that he only used about 40% of the house.

Each month, he spends about $2,950 to maintain the house, including a mortgage, insurance, utilities and garden care. Compared to the previous rental, he only needs to pay about 1,200 USD.

About two years after the purchase, Navarro began to smell the sewer. He discovered a pipe that had not been connected to the sewer system and had to spend more than $13,000 to repair and fix the related damage.

Navarro hopes to be able to rent an apartment with a friend as soon as he sells the house. However, he and many other homebuyers in the last few years are facing a housing market that has changed dramatically.

Navarro realized that owning his own home also had difficulties and wanted to return to renting

The period of auctions and many offers to buy has passed in many places across the United States. Mortgage rates have also risen sharply, although they have recently fallen to about 6.5% from a peak of nearly 8% at the end of 2023. This number is still so high that homeownership is no longer accessible to many people, especially after the dizzying increase in home prices over the past few years.

Homebuyers like Navarro are more likely to sell at a loss or fall into a “negative capital” mortgage, meaning they owe more than the real value of the home.

Navarro thinks he may have to lower the listing price again. He hopes to save more money when he no longer has to pay his mortgage.

Looking back, the 31-year-old wishes he hadn’t made such a hasty decision. However, he hasn’t completely given up on owning a house and hopes to one day buy a bigger one with a wife and children.

“Next time, I’ll take the time to think twice before buying,” he said.