Just Livin' Sticker Shock!!!

[sashacat421]

No way! That is beyond sticker shock, that is the French Revolution all over again!
Youngsters finding it difficult to afford a house? How about half a shack? Half a meal? Oh that is just too depressing.

 

[flisssweetpea]

Originally Posted by sashacat421

No way! That is beyond sticker shock, that is the French Revolution all over again!
Youngsters finding it difficult to afford a house? How about half a shack? Half a meal? Oh that is just too depressing.

I only live 100 miles away from London - if my house was 20 miles away from London with less land it would cost $4 million.

 

[wellingtoncats]

At out house here in Wellington, New Zealand we pay NZ$250.00 which is US$180.00 a week to rent our house, if we were to buy our house it would cost US$138,800 and we live in a nice sized house with a good section and in a very nice area!

 

[mistys mum]

I have only lived in Orange nSW for a year I moved from WA in WA Perth you can still buy a nice house 4 bed 2 bath2 living brick and tile for around $180,000 but here in Orange for the same at least $350,000 in the new areas in the older central business distric up tp $800,00 needless to say we rent and thats expensive at $240 a week for a 3 bedroom nice area. so it seems like its the same all ove,r the dream of owning your own home is slipping away from a lot of us.

 

[valanhb]

Colorado has a good housing market, especially geared for transplants who sell their homes for ridiculous amounts in places like California, Texas, Washington... You can get a nice-sized townhome for under $200. A very nice single-family detached goes for $250. They won't build a new home that will get less than $250 (except condos and townhomes, and new builds of those still get close to $200). It's great for transplants because when they spend the equity from their old home they get a serious upgrade. Sucks for us who are trying to start out because it's difficult to even find a starter home unless you want to buy a condo (why buy an apartment??). Salaries aren't bad here, job market isn't terribly bad either. Sure, it would be a cut from a California job, but the cost of living is definitely cheaper.

BTW, we buy our milk at Sam's Club and can get it for around $2.80/gallon. In grocery stores it's about $3.50/gallon. Gas just jumped 10 cents last week to $1.97/gallon.

 

[jcat]

Originally Posted by sashacat421

300 s/ft? Like enough to breathe? 300?

or did you mean 3,000. Good grief, Tricia, where do you live???

I meant 300. Space is at a premium in European cities. The exterior and interior walls, floors, etc., are solid, the roofs are tile, and the houses are built to last. No wooden frames, insulation, and plasterboard. We co-own a house that was built in the fifteenth century. You sacrifice space in order to be able to afford a solid structure.
Tokyo is worse, of course.

 

[sashacat421]

Originally Posted by jcat

.... We co-own a house that was built in the fifteenth century. You sacrifice space in order to be able to afford a solid structure.
.

oh swell. --"Come see my new digs, dontcha just love my 3,000 square feet? But walk softly though, we're in Europe and we could crumble at any moment, we have so much space!"

 

[berylayn]

real-estate prices here in Northern VA are INSANE!!! Most condos don't sell for under $250,000 , most townhomes don't sell for under $300,000; and its near impossible to find single family homes for under $400,000. The neighborhood I teach in pulls from two VERY well off communities. One is a gated community and one is a brand new development both where the house prices are right around $600,000 or $700,000 on average.

I currently rent and we pay $1300 a month for our 2 bedroom apartment.

Fortunately since I am a teacher and considered "low-income" I was able to apply for a program and buy an affordable townhouse in a brand new delvelopment!! My townhouse, which will settle in June, cost $130,000 where my neighbors are paying about $300,000 for theirs.

 

[pat]

This is fascinating reading all of these. DH and I often talk about if we should eventually move back East where all my family and most of his reside. But these prices are beyond anything I recall seeing in Central NY 9 years ago! DH does not want to move to NY state though so that is a mute point...we've thought of Ohio, North Carolina, New Hampshire.

Yeow....maybe rural WA state makes just as much sense though the commute would then be nutso...sigh.

 

[jcat]

Originally Posted by sashacat421

oh swell. --"Come see my new digs, dontcha just love my 3,000 square feet? But walk softly though, we're in Europe and we could crumble at any moment, we have so much space!"

Let me put it this way - I've never heard of a dog chewing through a wall and suffocating in a bag of potato chips stored in the pantry here, which is exactly what happened after a friend bought a brand-new house in Delaware.
Also - imagine over 80 million people living in Wyoming - what do you think real estate prices would be like?

 

[cougar]

Hey I'll trade you

I've always loved Seattle! Seriously down here in Utah the houses aren't too bad. There's a couple areas where a nice house goes for 300K+, but I think the average is 225-260K around where I live. Our house on an acre just appraised for a little over 210K because it's getting pretty old. In the more remote areas like Tooele you can get a brand new one for way cheap. My dad just bought a 2 story house thats pretty damn big, I don't know how many square feet but it's good, for about 114K. Then again there's not much to see in Tooele aside from the occasional tumbleweed, lol.

Later,
Brandon

 

[momofmany]

You're gonna hate me. I bought 10 acres and a 2300 square foot Victorian house about 11 years ago for $102,500. The annual taxes are about $800. I think the recent appraisal would be about $179,000, but we have put a lot of money into the place (roof, windows, siding, electricity, plumbing, etc). If you put my house and land into an area such as Denver, it would be worth about $1 million and I couldn't afford the taxes.

I price real estate in various parts of the country all the time and the sticker shock has kept me here longer than I ever expected to be. I hate to pay more for half the house on a postage stamp lot.

 

[j. otte]

Oh, it's unbelievable how things are. I am in very Northern MD. If I bought a 3,000 square foot house "in town" in a postage stamp piece of property (1/4 acre), we are talking a good $400,000-500,000. If we wanted two acres with the 3,000 square foot house like what we have now, it's more like $600,000-700,000 (and that is in a development - we don't "do" developments... BTDT - will never again... hate living close to other people).

Since I bought away from town in the rolling hills and cornfields (but not the boonies - just peace and quiet but not very convenient as far as stores, etc.)

, anyway, four years ago I bought this 3,000 square foot house on two acres for $221,000 (a steal... a dentist lost his practice and was looking for a quick move - we seriously lucked out). We just got it appraised for $420,000. It's crazy really.... but like I said... this same house on this property sitting "in town" is more like $600,000-700,000.

We have plans of buying about 10-20 acres in the next five years and building in the future on it... however, we are still having fun doing stuff with this house... I just did a tumbled marble backsplash with slate insert in my kitchen... I JUST finished it... I should post pics

It's been keeping me busy... I also don't want a house any bigger than this... this house is double our first house and it has kicked my butt as far as keeping it clean! I'm actually looking for a house cleaner right now to come in once a week...

 

[pat]

Originally Posted by Momofmany

You're gonna hate me. I bought 10 acres and a 2300 square foot Victorian house about 11 years ago for $102,500. The annual taxes are about $800. I think the recent appraisal would be about $179,000, but we have put a lot of money into the place (roof, windows, siding, electricity, plumbing, etc). If you put my house and land into an area such as Denver, it would be worth about $1 million and I couldn't afford the taxes.

I price real estate in various parts of the country all the time and the sticker shock has kept me here longer than I ever expected to be. I hate to pay more for half the house on a postage stamp lot.

Now that kind of acerage, type of house and price is right up my alley

It sounds lovely! Though my druthers are truly for 25-50 acres and a huge privacy hedge

 

[momofmany]

About 2 years ago we looked at a house south of us (further from work) on 67 acres, good sized house with a river running across the property on one end, rocky bluffs on another side, and 20 acres farm land up front to rent out for income. Had it not been for the drive, we would have bought it for the riduculously low price of $150,000.

 

[sashacat421]

I drive 3 hrs a day and I would have bought that in a heartbeat. That's just like what we saw last weekend which sold 4 hrs before we got there.