Or, from the frying pan into the fire!
Just when you thought it can't get much worse we now have the creeping cost of fuel oil to new heights.
The BIG question is: Is the recent high cost of "home heating fuel" a short, or long term, issue?
Will it linger for 4, 6 or 8 more months? Or is it going to continue for years?
I believe the "short term" impact will make things in real estate simply more difficult. A long term problem will be a major headache.
In the past several days I have talked with several individuals in the fuel oil and heating business, and all with years of solid experience, and asked for their input.
The answers were universal, " I don't know."
So I asked this question, "In your professional opinion, what will be the estimated cost of heating an "average house" in the coming "average winter" here in New England?
The answer was from a low of $3.00 per square foot to a high of $4.00 psf. Now this is nasty.
A house contain a gross area of say 5,500 square feet would then have an estimated heating fuel bill of between $16,500 per year and $22,000!
Doesn't put a damper on Christmas! The cost of heating could exceed the cost of real estate taxes!
What will this do to all the newly constructed Mc Mansions? What will this for for the smaller homes?
My opinion is this: The longer the higher cost of fuel heating continues, the deeper will be the significant drop in the sales prices of the larger-than-life, mammoth dwellings in an "average community."
I believe the buying public ( the market) will begin to gravitate to the much smaller, less expensive to heat, homes. The basic ranch or cape stryle
Bill McInerney
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