just plain crazy

My husband and I have been house hunting. Although we adore our loft, we figure we might as well get serious about finding a house since at some point we will need to move to get within walking distance of Jacob's school. And it would be nice to have a backyard so I can let the kids loose. And a BBQ would be stupendous since that is the only way my husband knows how to cook.
I think moving in general is a pain in the arse but not looking for a house would be just delaying the inevitable.

But I've been completely out of touch.

Back when the loft was purchased eleven years ago, housing prices were normal and reasonable. The seller listed a price, and you bought it. Perhaps for a little less than asking, or perhaps you paid the asking price. In any event, the deal seemed pretty fair. Nowadays there is this thing called the bidding war and frankly, I think it's a bit of a scam and I have absolutely no time for it. I wish buyers would start thinking a bit more logically. A lane house (as in, a house built on a laneway and it has no parking and no backyard!) just sold for $950, 000 in our neighbourhood. Even with the low interest rates it's a bit nuts.

We've been looking for a gut job so we can design the house of our dreams. We figured if we found an old dump we could invest funds into rebuilding. The perfect house came up right in the neighbourhood we wanted. The house hasn't been lived in for years and was basically condemned and raccoons had taken over. But at $329, 000 we loved the price and would bring us well within budget with reno costs. Except that of course this house went into a bidding war and sold for $460,500 and it needs at least $250,000 worth or reno work. We weren't too disappointed but holy crap.... does money grow on trees for some people? Have people lost their brains? We're gonna stay put in our loft for now... because who needs debt? And we realize that you don't need a house to have a home. And we can be happy living anywhere, especially when our necks don't belong to the bank.