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

[minkydog]

We live in our starter home. When we bought back in 1991 we intended to only stay about 5yrs, but things happen and we ended up staying. Now the house is nearly paid off and it has doubled in value. We live in the metro Atlanta area which has a huge share of McMansions. When we do decide to move, I'm sure some little family will be thrilled to buy our house in our nice neighborhood for under $200,000.

 

[hentob]

My DH's family lives in your area

Small world! I will PM you

 

[MickeysMommy]

We can't afford to buy a home. The housing around here is NUTS. A small one or two bedroom maybe 1000 sq. ft. can go for $150,000. SO has two kids so we need at least 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. We can forget it. Most houses here are now at least 200,000 and more. It's depressing.

I can't leave the area either because of family. So what happens?

 

[Sthronds]

I think I need to move.

I live in an area where an average home is priced at $500.000. My dad is in real estate and just listed a mobile home for $290,000. It's scary. I don't think I will ever be able to afford to buy in this area, I currently rent. If something were to happen to my parents I would not stay here, as beautiful as it is. They are the only reason I stay. I have a college education with a post graduate degree and work full time. My cousin who is just out of high school with no college, makes $3 more an hour than I do in a different area. The job market here stinks and it's impossible to get ahead. It's something I just don't understand.

 

[hentob]

I can't leave the area either because of family. So what happens?

Tell your family that you are moving, but you will call them on a regular basis and visit during the holidays

 

[mickman1962]

a buildable lot in my town is around $200K by itself, let alone a house.

 

[frndshpcptn]

I wish I could find a house for under $200,000. My boyfriend just bought a 2 bedroom apartment on long Island and it cost WAY more than $200K.

 

[ntburns22]

I live in the boonies and our 2200 sqft home cost us 127,500.

 

[luv2tvl]

Another midwesterner here.
We just put our house on the market yesterday and it's listed at 147,900. It's 3 bed/3 bath with about 2100 square feet.
We are buliding a new home and it's 3 bed/3 bath with about 2400 square feet and our total will be around 180,000 lot included.
Our housing has increased greatly here, but not to the extent as other parts of the country. I'm not necessarily in the "boonies" but Omaha isn't HUGE either.

 

[NMAmy]

We live in a nice suburb and bought our house a year ago for $155,000. It's about 2000 sq ft and on a huge lot in a well established neighborhood that's close to schools.

My aunt had a hissy fit when she came to visit. Her daughter lives in San Francisco (my aunt lives in Palo Alto) and she bought a 1 bedroom condo for double the price of my house. She couldn't believe that we got the house for that price.

 

[Crankyshank]

I live in a starter home (2BR/1BA 1200sq ft Cape built in 1940) and bought it for under $200k. It's no longer something you can buy for even under $250K

We'll be here until we can afford to build a house and with 1/4 acre lots costing as much as I paid for my house 3yrs ago (just land) it's going to be a while before that happens.

 

[ForTheLoveofDisney]

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

I agree, ckay87. Where would we move to?? We bought our home in 2001. It was a foreclosure in a nice neighborhood on an acre of land. The previous owners got in a bit over their heads by paving the 300+sq ft. driveway, putting in a pool and doing thousands of dollars of landscaping to the front yard. Then, they went through an ugly divorce and they had to foreclose on the house. We were able to buy the house for less than $80,000. Today our house (definately a starter home at 1,092 sq. ft.) is worth $200,000.

I hate it here and I'd love to move to Florida but I don't think we could afford it. So I sell my house for $200,000 and pocket $120,000. The houses in Florida are going for a half a million to 3/4 a million dollars!! And, another thing DH and I discovered is that the incomes are not as high in Florida as they are here. So the ratio of income to cost of living seem to be really disproportionate!

 

[OhMari]

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

Homes in Green Bay have started going for $300-$500 thousand. Your small average ranch is running $250-300K. You can find 100 yr old homes in the price range like $150,000, but you can bet it needs work. I think the midwest is catching up. My dd is Marquette and in the 4 years she has been up there she said house prices have literally jumped over nite.

 

[Jeafl]

Most of the houses around here are in the $400,000 range, but that isn't the problem. Our property taxes are around $10,000 a year which is a real bite in the butt. We have excellent schools and a park district, but the taxes are pricing a lot of people out of this area unfortunately.

In the 10 years since we built this house, it has gone up in value almost $200,000. It is crazy what is going on with the real estate market.

 

[WeirdEyes]

Well, I live in Alabama (close to Montgomery) and in my neighborhood you can get a 2200 sq ft house for around $250K and a 4,000 sq ft house for $500K. Five years ago the 2200 sq ft houses were priced under $200K and the 4,000 sq ft house were priced at $400K. The housing market has gone nuts. Also, the average income here is around $35K-$40K!

 

[Kitty 34]

My DH bought the house we live in w-a-a-a-y before I married him. He paid 5K for it!! Obviously it looked like 5K even for back in the 70's. Luckily by the time I came into his life he had remodeled the whole thing.

Once we started having children we kept adding onto the house. I have no clue what our house would be worth now.....probably 120,000 but that's with a pole barn and several acres.

 

[LaLa]

We live down South, in MS. We built our 2000sf home 3 years ago for 91,500.00. With our double lot, the total was about 105,000.00. Since Katrina, everyone is looking for homes and the housing market has really gone up. We were considering putting it up for sale for around 180,000.00. In the real estate section of the paper, I noticed a 1500 sf home had a sale pending for $189.5. So we could probably get more than 180 for it, but then, there's the question: Where do we go? Sure, we will make a good bit off it, but will have to pay more to build another one.

 

[Aidensmom]

DH and I bought our home 2 years ago for under $130,000. We would not be able to afford it if we waited until today to buy it, and it is only a 1000 sq ft home in an older neighborhood. Housing prices in our area skyrocketed and made it very hard for families with average incomes for our area to buy a home.

Like someone else said, my mortgage is only 3 digits, but add taxes and insurance, and it is 4 digits.

 

[disneysteve]

We didn't have a 200K+ house when we bought it, but we do now. A house down the street from us sold for 325K recently. Of course, we have been here over 11 years.

My mom still lives in my childhood home in Philadelphia. Houses in that area are selling for about 140K so still reasonable.

I do think a part of the problem is what people consider a "starter" home today. Most families feel they must have 1 bedroom per child and 2 or more baths. Years ago, I had plenty of friends who shared a bedroom with a sibling and lived in a 1-bath home. Today, that's almost unheard of, or at least it is around here. I didn't share a bedroom growing up, but we did only have 1 full bath (and just a 2nd toilet in the basement). The problem is the areas where people are still living like that tend to be areas with poor schools, high crime rates and just aren't areas where folks want to raise their families if they can avoid it.

 

[GillieRose]

We bought are 1st house for 76,000 and then sold it for 108,000 5 years later. We built are new house 2 years ago for 200,000.