List It or Sell It.

[OhMari]

OP I knew you were in WI the minute I saw the picture of your house!

I live in a very rural, poor, part of the upper Midwest, I would guess median income to be in the 40K range. However, you can easily purchase an older/starter home for less than a year's salary. One of DS's good friends who is going to tech school and working f/t bought an older farm house on 2 acres last week for 20K, with a 30 year mortgage. Yes, it will take some "fix up" work over time, but rentals are fairly hard to find, and think of the equity he's building!

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of homes worth over 200K in our county. The majority (that don't have major acreage attached) are had for less than 100K.

Much of rural America would be the same, I would think...

Terri

I live in East Central WI and we have big farms around here and 40 acres are going for a million dollars. Some big time farmer is coming in with tons of money and making small time farmers offers they can't refuse. We have about 5 other farms that are milking 2000 cows and they need the land, so their is huge bidding wars going on. I would love to move further north into WI. I know we could find a home for a lot less. We just looked at a home on 7 acres in a subdivision down by West Bend. They want $415,000. We think they are nuts, but when you watch these other shows on tv, it makes us wonder if we realize what a bargain we are getting. But our wages don't pay enough to pay the mortgage.

 

[yoopermom]

OhMari, I was born and raised in SE WI, and would *never* be able to afford to move back there again (despite my parents longing for me to do so!). Part of why we moved "up north" was because I would never have been able to afford to have my "critters" where I grew up. (Acreage up here is about $1500/acre, which is still higher than twenty years ago when we moved up here, but a bargain compared to most everywhere else...)

Unbelievable how the values are rising in your area!

Terri

 

[gumbyjones]

I'm really getting into the Million Dollar Listing shows, both the LA and NY versions are pretty entertaining, however, how much of it is scripted is hard to know, some of it looks like they are in fact manufacturing drama.

 

[pooh4evr]

We live in a suburb of St. Louis , our home is a 2400 sq ft 2 story 4 bedroom, 2 and a half bath, unfinished walkout basement 2 car garage in a court on half an acre = 200k in 2004. I can't imagine trying to afford the homes on so many of those shows! It's crazy!

 

[hlg22]

We live in Wisconsin. If we lived in Milwaukee we may get maybe an extra $25,000 for the house. It just amazes me when I watch these kind of shows, like List It or Sell It. They are purchasing homes for $500,000 and putting another $35,000 into the home for improvements.

1. What are their mortgages and
2. What do these people do for jobs?
Are they really paid that much more out East than what we earn in the Midwest?

It is all totally dependent on the local area and what the market will bear. I live in a very popular neighborhood just outside of DC with lots of very pretty but small 1920s style Sears-type front-porch bungalows, and foursquares, as well as some duplexes and townhomes. In my neighborhood, $500,000 would buy you a small 2 BR townhouse/duplex, and houses that are priced right get snapped up within a few days of going on the market. You're paying not just for the house but for the proximity to the city, public transport, and our lovely little walkable neighborhood with lots of shops and restaurants. My current house was built in 1930 and is 3 BR, 2.5 BA & 1700 sq. ft., and right now I could probably sell it for around $825k, easily, in less than a week.

To answer your questions, mortgages depend on down payments, interest rates, etc. I was able to buy my current house because I bought my first house back in 2003, and even with the market decline was able to sell it for a $150k profit 7 years later, giving me a 20% downpayment on my current house plus enough money to finish the basement. My old house sold before it was even officially on the market and this was in late fall, so not really a time when the real estate market tends to be very active.

As for what people do for jobs, many in my neighborhood, including me, work professional jobs in DC, or work in high level government jobs. I would make significantly less money if I were to move to the rural midwest...maybe 1/4 of my current salary, or less. There are also some older neighbors who have lived here a long time and have mortgages that I presume are already paid off or at least a lot smaller than the rest of us.

 

[timmac]

And the east suffered too! Our home lost almost $200,000 in value back in 2008 due to the recession and I wanted to strangle our Realtor while we were trying to sell it in 2008 when she kept saying "But homes values had to go down. They were so over-inflated."

Though I understand why it was frustrating, she was telling you the truth. I think a lot of people bought into the mentality that housing values will always go up really quickly, but it shouldn't take much to realize why that can't possibly be true in a stable economy.

Though the economy as a whole hit a recessing in 2008, what happened specifically in the housing market was really more of a recovery than a recession; when we think recovery we often automatically assume that means value going up, but not so... they "recovered" to a more reasonable level as a way to correct for the hyper inflated increases of the several years prior.

 

[OhMari]

It is all totally dependent on the local area and what the market will bear. I live in a very popular neighborhood just outside of DC with lots of very pretty but small 1920s style Sears-type front-porch bungalows, and foursquares, as well as some duplexes and townhomes. In my neighborhood, $500,000 would buy you a small 2 BR townhouse/duplex, and houses that are priced right get snapped up within a few days of going on the market. You're paying not just for the house but for the proximity to the city, public transport, and our lovely little walkable neighborhood with lots of shops and restaurants. My current house was built in 1930 and is 3 BR, 2.5 BA & 1700 sq. ft., and right now I could probably sell it for around $825k, easily, in less than a week.

To answer your questions, mortgages depend on down payments, interest rates, etc. I was able to buy my current house because I bought my first house back in 2003, and even with the market decline was able to sell it for a $150k profit 7 years later, giving me a 20% downpayment on my current house plus enough money to finish the basement. My old house sold before it was even officially on the market and this was in late fall, so not really a time when the real estate market tends to be very active.

As for what people do for jobs, many in my neighborhood, including me, work professional jobs in DC, or work in high level government jobs. I would make significantly less money if I were to move to the rural midwest...maybe 1/4 of my current salary, or less. There are also some older neighbors who have lived here a long time and have mortgages that I presume are already paid off or at least a lot smaller than the rest of us.

Interesting. Thank you for responding.
!My dd works for the Federal Government in Milwaukee and she is taking a transfer out to Omaha and she is going to be paid slightly less.