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

[RitaZ.]

We bought our house in 1996, at the time there was still some land left around the city to build on. When the city reached build-out, the prices went insane. A house on the next block, on a smaller lot, sold recently for almost 4 times what we paid for our house in 1996. Which is great, but the problem is that if you decide to upgrade, you will be paying a ridiculous amount on property taxes. A house that sells for $350K will pay over $8K in property taxes, the problem is that you won't find a house under $400K.

I don't know how young singles and couples can possibly afford to buy their first home.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

In my neck of the woods, I could ask "Does anyone not live in a $600K+ apartment?"

 

[Dznefreek]

I bought my house for 98,000 and it just appraised for 280,000 so I guess I do now. That crazy Florida real estate market . . . .

 

[mbw12]

Another NJ person here. $250,000 probalby for a starter home now. The prices here are outrageous.....and I agree with another poster. The cost of living here on the East Coast (and the West coast) is higher, but so are the salaries. Someone posted that people in their area average about $45,000 a year.....around here I think the average is definitely more in the low $100's a year for salary. (atleast that is what I think it is....couldn't see how anyone around here could afford to live on less than that) and the closer to NYC, that you get, the income level is higher.

 

[Michelina]

We live in Lancaster County and housing prices are pretty high here. For new construction, a 2/br townhouse usually goes for at least $150,000 and a typical 3/br 2/br is at least $200,000.
We bought our house last October for $146,000. I love it, it's 100 years old and has no A/C but we live in a really charming small town with nice neighbors and a chocolate factory around the corner! We have 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms, a nice yard and a two car garage.
I don't like having to drive 45 minutes to work and DH drives over an hour but we live with it.

 

[MomofKatie]

We bought our house 5 1/2 years ago for $135,000. It was appraised last summer for $165,000. I would consider it one step up from a starter home.

 

[noseybuddy]

Bought my house brand new in 1998, paid $210,000. If I would put if up for sale today it would list for about $330,000. I thought about down sizing to a townhome, but the price for them are outrageous. Makes no sense to move.

 

[aprilgail2]

You would NOT want to live in any house that costs under 200,000 around here...you could certainly pick up a fixer upper in the really bad sections for that little...but anyplace decent is 400,000 and up....you could pick up a small 1-2 bedroom starter home for around 300,000 if you looked around enough though...but anything with more than 2 bedrooms is well over that....

 

[nwdisgal]

This is going to be long and I am sorry if it sounds as if I am rambling. I have many things to type and feel like my hands are going a mile-a-minute.

I live in NE PA. It seems that there are a few of us posting in this thread also in Eastern PA.

I live in what they call the Coal Regions. People can still buy a house for under $100k. My first home that I DH and I bought in 1994 was $24,500 and our taxes were below $700. It had 3 bedrooms and we put in some hardwood, Berber and new windows. Nothing fancy, but we lived in that thing for 11 years!!! It was to be starter home, but in a short while we were living there for basically free. So we saved. And saved.

We just sold it for $40,000 as we moved into a "new" home.

We decided to stay in the same town. We bought a half double (duplex) for $80K. It is gorgeous. The woodwork is nicer than any McMansion I have yet to see. Open staircase. Hardwood throughout. Formal living room. Family room in basement. Four bedrooms. Dining room with built in china cabinets. Two bathrooms. New roof/oil burner. Two car garage. 2500 sq ft. (if you included the finished attic). I could go on and on. We are an hour and a half drive from Philly. My DH just drove to NYC last w/end to watch a Cross Country race, he was there in 2 hours. Beach? Three hour drive. Our children get to see movies at the IMAX, they get to go to museums, to the zoo, to the aquarium, etc. We just have to drive a bit to get there. And that drive is worth every minute. The money we save living in this tiny coal mining town is astounding.

Plus, every person that graduates from our local high school gets their college education for FREE if they choose to go to the new community college that was just built two blocks away from the high school.

But, many of our graduates go to schools like Penn State University and Kutztown University. I love to compare our school district with other, richer ones on greatschools.com. We have a WONDERFUL school system (with excellent teachers) and have sent many a student to excellent schools such as MIT, Harvard, Yale, Duke, etc. Infact, many people who go away to become doctors, lawyers, teachers and engineers come back here to live. They have seen how much it costs to live outside this One Horse Town and are willing to eat the commute to save hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I know this town will either be "discovered" and fill up with transplants or rot b/c there is no industry (DH commutes about an hour each way to work). Either way, we will stay. It is cheap. CHEAP. If we lived anywhere else, I would have to work. We would not be able to do the things we are used to doing (eating out, going to the movies, amusement parks, WDW, beach, etc). We don't stress about taxes (although ours did just go up--I think they are creeping up on $1800 for the year), we don't stress about HOA dues. We just live life.

So, yes, there are still places that you can live for under $200K

Wow. Enjoy your quiet life while you have it. Eventually people are going to get wise and start moving that direction.

 

[nwdisgal]

Well, if you're looking for a new home in Southern California, expect to pay a lot of money for it...

Simi Valley is a nice city that's really safe and it's growing beyond leaps and bounds! 7 years ago, we paid $210k for a new 2000sq ft home. We had it appraised recently when we refinanced and it's value is now $635k! Even worse is that there is a new planned community near us that's going for in the high $900k! I imagine homes in Northern California will be even higher than what we have. Crazy, I tell you!

Same thing is happening throughout Hawaii.

 

[cruisnfamily]

We're in South West Fl..

Bought in 1991 for $80,000
Added on in 1996, spent $30,000=$110,000New value(as far as I'm concerned)
Had the house appraised for a refinance in 1999, appraised at $126,000


Houses in our neighborhood are selling for an easy $300,000 if not more...and most of them don't have the 4 bedrooms or the pool that we have.......so, I guess I live in an expensive house.....but it sure isn't any mansion! We only have about 2,000 sq ft under air.

 

[phorsenuf]

Mine just appraised for $250,000. I think it they need to knock about $100,000. off of that. Its ridiculous.

 

[Sandcass]

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.

This is true, we live near Elgin. In our town our house is considered pretty small. (1875 sq feet, 3 bed 2.5 bath), and it's valued about $275,000 right now. But we love our town, LOVE the schools, so it's worth being totally "house-poor".

 

[Aimeedyan]

We just bought last month. 2800 sq feet new construction on oversized lot, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, formal dining, huge gameroom, 2 car garage with lots of upgrades for $150k. I'm in Fort Worth, TX area. So very affordable living here.

Taxes are high, though.

 

[DisFlan]

We bought our house in 1976 for $28,000. It was a very basic 1100 sq. ft., 3 bd. ranch. We remodeled and enlarged it to about 2200 sq. ft. in 1992. We're talking a nice enough do-over, but by NO means elaborate. We put maybe $70,000 into it, tops. It still needs a new kitchen. Last year it appraised for nearly $300,000! And this is out in the middle of nowhere in the Ozark hills - where I'm not sure we even HAVE much of a "housing market". It's a good thing our taxes are low.

A friend of ours just sold a house in L.A. that he inherited. It was an early 1960's ranch that was literally falling apart - it was a real mess, in a not terribly desirable area. It sold for $477,000. The people who bought it thought it was a great deal.

DisFlan

 

[barkley]

mine started out under 200K, bought it for 192K in 1999. identical houses are now selling in less than a week for 550K (and always get multiple bids above the asking price). starter homes in our area run the gamut from 400-750K. i cannot fathom how people afford the house payments.

 

[aprilgail2]

. i cannot fathom how people afford the house payments.

I couldn't imagine having to buy a house now...I don't know anyone buying a house now here that has under a 2,000 a month mortgage...property taxes are not cheap either, we have an average house so ours is only 7500 a year, but the new houses being built the taxes are 12,000 plus a year!

 

[Cindy B]

We bought out house three years ago for $137,500. In fact some of our neighbors thought we were nuts for paying that high for a house!

Its a simple, small older style Cape Cod, but it was new for us type thing.

The same house across the street went for 205,000 a few months ago. Across another street one went for 199,000 (busier side street). We have a fenced in corner lot..so we have more land.

In fact, we found paperwork from the original owners (we bought it from them). They bought the house in 1970 for 17,000 K.

 

[Melrosgirl]

The problem with the brand new houses is the cost of lumber is so high right now. You can't build a new house around here for under $300,000. It's crazy. YET the same houses that are being built right now for $400,000 in a new development...the same ones that were built 2 years ago and bought for $300,000 are being sold by the present owners and guess what? THey are still on the market months later. So that means people are willing to pay an extra $100,000 for a BRAND NEW model - virtually the same house . I don't get it. So basically the re-sales are having trouble being resold, but the new ones are selling faster.

If lumber prices go down, new home prices will go down, which means the houses being sold right now may not be worth that much down the road. Has nothing to do with real estate market "bubbles bursting" - it's just a supply and demand issue basically.

We basically re-did the majority of our older , 2200 sq.ft. house. The taxes are great for this township b/c it's in an older neighborhood. Build our house in a newer neighborhood, pay $200,000 more and the taxes will be double. No thanks.

 

[Disney Doll]

Well, it wasn't a 200K house when we bought it, but now it's worth some ridiculous amount of money that even I think is ridiculous and it's MY house!!!!!!