Buying Houses

[She Is Raging]

I'm ready to pull my hair out of my head.


Is it only Boston... or are the prices of house out of control everyone?


My fiance and I are house hunting right now. Everything that's in remotely nice shape with only two bedrooms is at LEAST $300,000. This really sucks royally for first time home buyers. We've been pre-approved for plenty of money, but it doesnt seem right to have a gargantuan mortgage for such small houses. But then again, it's either that, or live with my parents forever.

 

[celia]

It's out of control in England too, especially in the south...

Good Luck to you finding a house

 

[Jody]

It's out of control in England too, especially in the south...

*Glad she lives in the north where she actually has a hope of finding something she can afford.*

Good luck She is Raging. Just remember if you pull all your hair out, sell it and put the money towards the house.

 

[Angela Harlem]

Its definately all over the place.
How exciting though, Raging! Houses!! Dont be scared off by the prices. Speak to some financial advisers in the area you want to buy and find out about your real estate cycles. Try and avoid buying if its at any kind of peak. Frustrating as the whole thing can be.
We want to buy land/or another house. There's actually a block of land about a minute's walk from my house and its one of the last in a new land release and is only 530K. Its a shitload of money, but its an entire acre. 1 acre!! In suburbia! In Sydney! Totally unheard of...
Have you considered building? It can work out to be cheaper sometimes. You can then get exactly what you want.


1 acre!!


Good luck with the hunting

 

[Hewson]

I've been looking on the north shore of Boston for a couple of years now...this is definitely not a good time to be a buyer. Record low interest rates have kept house prices rising (though I've been told they have levelled off recently) while the rest of the economy has been stumbling. Its tough.

 

[nbcrusader]

If you are lucky, you might find a "fixer" in this area for under $500,000.

My guess is we will rent forever.....

 

[HelloAngel]

My boyfriend and I just bought a house a year ago in a northern suburb of Tampa... we were pre-approved for certain amounts and all that stuff - our Realtor thought we were 30 with kids - big surprise came to her when we said "no! we''re 24!" (we were 24 when we first made an offer on the house)

We're the youngest people in our area.. kinda sucks cos we get all manner of dirty looks and stares.

Anyway, yeah... prices totally suck and our mortgage is sky high. But luckily our lender gives us free refinancing, so it hasn't been toooo bad - but bad enough.

 

[zonelistener]

prices suck everywhere right now.

Interest rates are down...so lot's of people are buying.

Real Estate is one of the few markets booming in this crap-ass economy.

 

[Elvis Presley]

Thats the nice thing about the Cincinnati area, affordable living, especially across the river in Northern Ky. You can find lots of great stuff in the 100-150 price range, big family houses in the burbs or fixer uppers in the city.

 

[oliveu2cm]

How exciting!! Good luck Kathleen! I don't know much about the housing $$ but I do know apartment prices suck here I hope you find a perfect gem for your home!!

 

[Mrs. Edge]

Houses here in Toronto are outrageous too. It's very depressing. I am now realising I got a bargain on my small house, which is almost in suburbia but not quite, and it cost 195K 2 years ago.

Good luck!

 

[U2Lynne]

Sounds cheep to me. A 3 bedroom house right down the street from us just went for 800K. How do people afford these things?

(we've been here for 20 years now)

 

[MrBrau1]

The only thing more expensive than a home is kids, remember that. My GF sliced my nuts off w/ a razor the nite we met, that's when I knew she was the one for me!
My parents just sold my Grandfathers house for $400,000, 35 minutes outside of NYC. He built the thing in 1954 for $13,000, and it's a TINY 2 bedroom. If you want to own a home in the NYC area, you will spend at minimum 1/2-1 million dollars.

 

[cass]

Here too ,She Is Raging. It's phenomenal. I forsaw what was going to happen here several years ago, but had no spare money to do any thing about it. Houses at the beach that were $80,000 are now going in bidding wars for $300-500,000. My son's school mates who had financial backing from their parents, just doubled their money in one year. I'm pleased for them, they work hard.So it's great for the sellers, tough for the buyers. My son and his g'friend saw a small house they liked at the Gold Coast last weekend....$900,000 ...buy two!!!

Good luck, don't pull your hair out mate, keep looking, it will come.

 

[enggirl]

I'm lucky to live in Dayton (ugh) Ohio--Our house is downtownish, in an OK area--big, 100+ year old 4-bedroom for 100K!! But not far are mcmansions for 200 and 300K...with no character. Compared to the rest of our families, we're in good shape. They all live in very expensive places. One is in Orlando, another in Phoenix (their house is falling apart--bad foundation--and they'll prolly NEVER be able to sell it), another in Vegas (don't even get me started on the construciton boom there!) and another lives in the most expensive county in the country, right down the road from Martha Stewart. My sister-in-law was bitching about how $$ it was there and how people she knew were having to move from the area--DUH! You have to be a millionaire to live there...and she's got several mortgages out on her house and is in debt to the gills, just for a nice zip code. Yep, we may live in BFE, but we're in good shape financially!

Don't let it get you down Raging...but don't fall into a trap where you'll have to work harder than you want just to keep a house! It is NOT worth it--really. You don't want a 300K albatross around your neck. People go on about the low interest rates (very true) and the taxes you save...but strapping yourself out each month is nutty. A guy on the news tonight was talking about how he finally found a house, but he could only afford it when the rate was 5%, and now that the rate is 6.5%, he can't afford it....I say he was looking beyond his means!

So good luck Raging!

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

i want a home to call my own so bad, however in order for me to be a homeowner, i will have to move at least 1 hr. and half outside of Atlanta. All the homes in the areas i like start at $500,000.

 

[She Is Raging]

Thank you all for you encouragement!


I know things will work out eventually, it's just frustrating. I feel like I eat sleep and breathe houses. Plus - I feel like I'm the bad guy here because everytime we find something we like, I'm not willing to pay so much as my fiance is because I just cant let myself do it yet. Both of my brothers have recently boughten houses in the same area that have at least 3 good sized bedrooms and lots of space for around 300,000. Sure they need a little work, but that's expected. Everything that we have looked at with 3 bedrooms has been total crap that would take at least 20,000 additional dollars to make it decent. Everyone and their mother is taking advantage of these interest rates etc to try and sell their crap for sky-high prices. Hopefully I'll have good news soon. We're really hoping that the woman who owns this house will cave and come down a little bit since she's anxious to sell by october. Who knows at this rate!

 

[Angela Harlem]

Its the best investment you will ever make. Some lawyer guy back in the 60's made headlines in Sydney having paid a whopping $60,000 for a house on Sydney harbour. Oh, how they laughed. Fool! They said.


A couple of years ago he sold it for a cool 1.2 mil.
He who laughs last, laughs the hardest.

They will always appreciate. The best of luck to you Ragin'

 

[The_Sweetest_Thing]

Yeah, houses increase so much in value. I believe the hous ei live in has doubled in value over the past 18 yrs. My neighbours just sold their house for $400,000 (4 bedroom, 3 bathrooms, finished basement.

Of course, ours has probably dropped slightly now that the neighbours sold it to a drug-grower who promptly got arrested a few months after moving in...

 

[MrBrau1]

And don't forget, as you house increases in value, so will your property tax bill!

 

[kobayashi]

im looking at a condo right across the street from my appartment. i pay 1200 a month for a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom appt that is probably 1200 square feet.

the condo is going to be 900 square feet and $275 000. but it is a part of ottawa that is quickly becoming cool and i think i could turn a profit over 4 or 5 years.



or maybe i should just finish university first.

 

[HelloAngel]

And don't forget, as you house increases in value, so will your property tax bill!

Amen, man.... my property tax bill makes me But luckily, my bf and I pay it quarterly so it doesn't seem tooo bad, but still bad enough.

 

[Bono's shades]

One of my co-workers is planning to buy a house for the first time. She has looked at more than 30 places and hasn't been able to find anything suitable. (She's looking for a two-bedroom house that she doesn't have to put a lot of money into fixing up.) Price isn't so much as issue because we are in the Midwest and are nowhere near any metropolitan areas, which tends to keep prices reasonable compared to Chicago and Minneapolis. It's simply finding something livable. She finally thought she found the perfect place and made a down payment only to discover that the furnace is a model that has been recalled. She didn't want it to blow up in the middle of the night and kill her, so she backed out of the agreement - but the owner refused to give her the down payment back!

I guess the moral of the story is be sure you check EVERYTHING out before signing on the dotted line and making a downpayment.

 

[U2Bama]

My wife and I are currently in a transition of home ownership/homelessness/home construction. No, it's not as bad as it sounds. We are building a new house, and due to strong home sales in our area, we sold our previous house about 3 months before our new house will be ready.

You can buy a new, 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in a nice neighborhood with a community pool and tennis court for $120,000 to $160,000. The best value is in building a new one, as we have found since we built our first one 4 years ago. That house was in a planned development neighborhood and all of our neighbors moved into their houses around the same time we moved in. This time around, we have an individual builder who is building our house on a vacant lot in an older neighborhood and we are enjoying the process much more. He is much more flexible with us and we are able to get more for less.

We have been fortunate this summer to live with my brother down the street from our old house; that somewhat takes the burden out of having to move twice. We hope to be in the new one soon.

Good luck with homebuying; You can possibly still get a good rate around the 6% range depending on how the bond markets do over the next few weeks.

~U2Alabama