Does anyone else *not* live in a 200K+ house?

[yoopermom]

Listening to NPR last night, they were talking about the future of the housing market, and stated that the "average" price of a "starter" home was 250-300K. I can see that along the coasts and near big cities, but what about the rest of us in fly over land? We live in a rural area of the upper Midwest, very little growth or industry, and houses run 50-150K, maybe. We have ours listed for sale right now for 129, and it will probably take a year to sell. The closest houses over 200K would probably be in Green Bay (largely owned by the Packers!). Anyone else live in a "poor" area and not ashamed to admit it? (Hey, there may be no jobs, but at least our houses are cheap!)
Terri

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We refinanced 18 months ago to put in a pool and our max value was under 200K. But the market went crazy--so though I didn't buy my home or get a 2nd mortage even for over $200K--my home is considered a $300K home. It makes looking at other areas very intriguing. A friend just returned from Oklahoma for a trip--said she saw BRAND NEW 3000sq ft homes with granite countertops in the low $200s. In my area--it is minimum Half-million...and if you are on the barrier island (as I am)--that my friend is 3/4 of a million...and if it is on navigable water--about a million.

 

[Planogirl]

Hey our starter houses are under 200K too. And we also have few jobs! Coincidence?

 

[crz4mm2]

I live in the midwest too (IL) and our houses are not that expensive either. I can't understand how people afford those expensive houses.....
Our house is about 90k...... and we have 25 acres!!

 

[Marseeya]

We rent! And I bet our house is probably only worth $30,000-40,000 in this town. When I start working (sometime in 2007), we'll buy a home and we can reasonably expect to spend between $90,000-100,000 for a nice house.

We could afford to rent a nicer house right now, or even buy one. But we like our lifestyle. I'm able to stay home and we can afford to do what we want and eat out a lot, go to movies, have two cars, DH and I both go to college... we're happy the way we are. But I have to admit, when I see my friends in their bigger and nicer homes, I do feel a twinge of envy.

 

[Bob Slydell]

I can understand that average, considering how much the East and West coasts (along with much of Florida these days) can skew that figure.

Our starter home, in a decent suburb of Cleveland, was around $150K (I believe we paid $145,000), so it's doable in this area, as, I would imagine, a lot of the Midwest and probably the South as well.

But there's a whole lot more people living in the East and West coasts, so for each starter home bought in the Midwest, there's gotta be like 5 bought on the coasts.

 

[lillygator]

housing here is going crazy...the end of our street is in the millions being on the water...the one bedrooms down the next road are going for $459,000.....I keep telling DH we need to sell sell sell!! But we love our location so close to the beach we decided to stay put and put in a pool!

 

[BabyTigger99]

I live in Green Bay. Our home, which I consider a step above a starter home, we bought 3 years ago for $120000. Average price of starter homes in this area is $80000 - $100000.

 

[ckay87]

We paid 100K for ours and we're staying put. It's worth a lot more now, but where would we move to????

 

[Iluvthemouse]

We bought our house 13 yrs ago for $89,500 with 2 acres of land. Right now it is appraised at $200,000. It was tempting to sell and move but it will be paid off in less than 5 years so I couldnt justify. It will be great to have the extra $900.00 a month to save/spend instead of a big house that I would have to clean more anyway. LOL
I do have friends that have bought into the big house theory and they can afford to furnish their houses.

Dont get me wrong, if I could live comfortably like we do now and have a bigger house, I would but I cant see it happening.

 

[ReneeA]

Ok, yoopermom...I can tell by your username that I live in the same state you do (different peninsula).

Our house is valued at around $115,000, however it's only 850 sq.feet with no basement and no garage. It has been completely gutted and redone, however. Larger starter houses with garages and basements in the area start at about $160,000.

I grew up in the Northern Lower Peninsula, just south of the Mackinaw Bridge. Homes in that area very rarely sell for more than $80,000 (for a large, nice home on some land). Only if you have a lot of land, or the house is on the water do they go for more than that. All that being said, it's a pretty depressed area as far as jobs and wages go. You can't afford much when you make $7.00 an hour part time.

 

[Briarmom]

What is considered a 'starter' home? This house is the first we've ever owned, but I don't know if it's a 'starter.'
And I don't know of any houses in the Phoenix suburbs for less than $200K anymore.

 

[Tracey1974]

We built our house in PA in 2002 for 153K which shocked all of my friends and family in NJ where we were from because there you couldn't touch anything for less than 220K. NOW our house is worth 300K+ and the houses in NJ are worth that as well. Forget about trying to build another one here- ours is an ok size but the bigger ones are starting in the mid 350's. If only we had the guts to build bigger back then...........

 

[Chicago526]

We bought ours in August for $186,000. 3 bed, two full bath, full basement and a 1 car detached garage. I'm in the NW burbs of Chicago, and the ONLY reason I got a house this "cheap" is because it's in Elgin, which has a bad rep for bad schools and a high hispanic population (not that a high hispanic population should matter, but I guess it does to some people!). But even here housing prices are rising, the schools are getting better, and all the other towns near hear as so expensive, that young couples don't have a choice. If you can only afford a home under $200,000, Elgin is really you're only option for this part of the state. You'd have to go to the Western or Southern suburbs otherwise. Heck, you can't even touch most town homes for less than $200,000 in many areas.

 

[yoopermom]

BabyTigger--hello "neighbor"! You're where we go to shop when we want a Kohls or a Sam's Club, kind of our mini WDW!

Glad to hear we're not alone. You're right, Marseeya, our "cheap" house makes it possible for us to have a decent lifestyle and actually enjoy ourselves once in a while!

Anyone else want to admit to not having a four digit house payment?
Terri

 

[azgal81]

Right now I live in a condo that was bought almost 4 years ago for $62,000 right they are selling for $160,000. You can not buy a house here for less then $200,000 ghetto or fancy no matter if it is really small it will still cost you that much. Even if it is out in the middle of nowhere it will still cost you $200,000. Houses in the midwest are cheap. I grew up in the midwest but I probably would never go back.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

I live in the back woods of NH, and there is very little affordable housing here. The cheapest houses on the market are generally 200K, and those are small with very little land.

Jen

 

[72smallblock]

We have a 3 BR, 3 BA with full basement in a very nice subdivision. We paid $122,000 for it 3 years ago. I couldn't but it for that now even though our county has the highest unemployment in the state right now. Go figure.

PS - My mortgage payment is 3 digits.

 

[Texan Mouseketeer]

My starter home was 95,000 in 2000 and was 1800 square feet. It was built in 77. Now my home is slightly smaller - 1715 square feet, but we bought it brand new in 2003 for $137,000. We want to move now, but can't find anything with the features we got on ours for that price range that is larger. Oh well.

 

[Chicago526]

Anyone else want to admit to not having a four digit house payment?
Terri

Our mortgage is 3 digits, but once you add in the taxes, we are at 4 digits! But we are still well within our budget! Once we get the wedding paid off we'll have tons of "extra" money!