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Post by chickypoo2468 on Jul 26, 2017 20:44:58 GMT -6
I just can't help thinking about how I would apparently be homeless if I lived anywhere other than here. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Or you'd just live in a teeny tiny house What like a one room house? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Post by ovenrack on Jul 26, 2017 20:45:16 GMT -6
I just can't help thinking about how I would apparently be homeless if I lived anywhere other than here. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Cost of living, man. Jobs pay more proportionally... kinda. Sorta.
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sak
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Post by sak on Jul 26, 2017 20:47:22 GMT -6
Or you'd just live in a teeny tiny house What like a one room house? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk The average houses around here are actually $40-70. I just like the ones with more acreage. How much do they cost out there?
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Post by chickypoo2468 on Jul 26, 2017 21:05:45 GMT -6
What like a one room house? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk The average houses around here are actually $40-70. I just like the ones with more acreage. How much do they cost out there? I don't even know. D tries to send me listings all the time but I don't look bc it's depressing. When you guys talk about assessments are you talking about the tax ones? We just got ours in the mail and it's like 30,000 less than we paid for it. Zillows zestimate is 181,871 though. We paid 185. So which are you looking at? When we bought our house we wanted 2 acres, 4 bedrooms, and I think we started at like 175,000. Everything was a dump. I thought we got a good deal on ours bc it was 10 acres, no real issues, like we've gotten a new furnace and ac and roof but we didn't have to fix things immediately. Its 1146 sq ft but has a finished basement so we get another bedroom, laundry room, playroom, and family room down there. But it's like we can never move because we would have to give up all the land and get a smaller house. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Post by chickypoo2468 on Jul 26, 2017 21:22:22 GMT -6
Hi. I'm MK. And I ramble.
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$263,800
Jul 27, 2017 4:44:29 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by grumpycakes on Jul 27, 2017 4:44:29 GMT -6
Wait, sak. The average house in your area is 40-70 thousand dollars? Am I reading that right?
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sak
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Post by sak on Jul 27, 2017 4:48:49 GMT -6
Wait, sak. The average house in your area is 40-70 thousand dollars? Am I reading that right? Yep. Like if you just bought a little 3 bedroom 2 bath house with .25-.5 acre yard in town it would be around $60 +\- . I've got lots to say about real estate here but I'm leaving for work. Whomp whomp.
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$263,800
Jul 27, 2017 4:50:02 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by grumpycakes on Jul 27, 2017 4:50:02 GMT -6
MK, the assessment is what your town estimates your home to be worth for tax purposes. It will always be a little lower than its actual worth. An appraisal is when you pay out of pocket for a professional to estimate the current market value of your house based on what comparable houses have sold for recently. Maple said she had her house appraised. Is that what you were asking about?
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$263,800
Jul 27, 2017 4:50:41 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by grumpycakes on Jul 27, 2017 4:50:41 GMT -6
Wait, sak. The average house in your area is 40-70 thousand dollars? Am I reading that right? Yep. Like if you just bought a little 3 bedroom 2 bath house with .25-.5 acre yard in town it would be around $60 +\- . I've got lots to say about real estate here but I'm leaving for work. Whomp whomp. That's amazing. It's like you live in the 1980s. Lol.
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stringy
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Post by stringy on Jul 27, 2017 5:27:34 GMT -6
sak I'm also in awe that you can just discuss buying those houses over time as they sit in the market. We had to act fast (like a weekend) on anything or it's gone. Which means you can't wait around for something to come up that meets all your criteria.
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rugger
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Post by rugger on Jul 27, 2017 6:03:42 GMT -6
I'm just like with all these amazing houses on big lots.
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Post by chickypoo2468 on Jul 27, 2017 6:07:22 GMT -6
MK, the assessment is what your town estimates your home to be worth for tax purposes. It will always be a little lower than its actual worth. An appraisal is when you pay out of pocket for a professional to estimate the current market value of your house based on what comparable houses have sold for recently. Maple said she had her house appraised. Is that what you were asking about? Yeah I guess that's what I was thinking of. I know what an appraisal is but I did not know the tax assessment was less than actual worth. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Post by mama2a on Jul 27, 2017 6:23:49 GMT -6
This one is for sale for $285k in my neighborhood in the city. This is a 3br, 2ba 1500sf house. This is a popular neighborhood, and 2 blocks to the elementary school, middle school and the park. Given the hot housing market they will probably get asking price. My neighborhood expands 6 blocks north to south, and about 10 blocks east to west. You can see the history of development as to the north are 1920s and 1930s bungalows and then as you go south they turn to 1940s, 1950s and 1960s houses. The further south you go the cheaper houses get because the bungalows are the more popular ones. Our house is a 2-story built in 1958 similar style to Don Draper's house on Mad Men (but not as nice).
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Post by Dramaphile on Jul 27, 2017 6:36:47 GMT -6
4 bed 2 bath with a good sized yard in an ok school district. Our house was a little under that, 3 bed 1.5 bath 1700 sq ft. in a high rated school district. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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rockies
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$263,800
Jul 27, 2017 6:37:23 GMT -6
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Post by rockies on Jul 27, 2017 6:37:23 GMT -6
In my zip code I could get a 2bd/1ba townhome/condo. If I look at the metro area there are a few pockets of smaller older homes that are 1000-1200 sq ft.
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rugger
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Post by rugger on Jul 27, 2017 6:58:21 GMT -6
sak I'm also in awe that you can just discuss buying those houses over time as they sit in the market. We had to act fast (like a weekend) on anything or it's gone. Which means you can't wait around for something to come up that meets all your criteria. We had to act fast on our house, too. Of things sit for a long time here, there's a reason for it, and you prob don't want to deal with it. Our house popped up the day we were going to put in an offer on a townhouse, and we offered asking price bc we didn't want to lose out. It hadn't even hit the main/public realtor sites yet. And Denver area seems similar, so that kinda blows
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Post by Dramaphile on Jul 27, 2017 7:37:08 GMT -6
sak I'm also in awe that you can just discuss buying those houses over time as they sit in the market. We had to act fast (like a weekend) on anything or it's gone. Which means you can't wait around for something to come up that meets all your criteria. We had to act fast on our house, too. Of things sit for a long time here, there's a reason for it, and you prob don't want to deal with it. Our house popped up the day we were going to put in an offer on a townhouse, and we offered asking price bc we didn't want to lose out. It hadn't even hit the main/public realtor sites yet. And Denver area seems similar, so that kinda blows It definitely depends on the market. We put an offer on our house immediately and it had been on the market for max 2 weeks. In our neighborhood, houses that sit for a while tend to need work or have weird layouts or are overpriced. I have friends in San Diego who put their townhouse on the market and had an open house that weekend and 30 people showed up and they had an offer and accepted it by Monday. Just did a search for my old neighborhood in San Diego and for $263,000 you get a 600-900 sq foot condo in a decent building. You pretty much can't find a single family home for under 360,000
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$263,800
Jul 27, 2017 7:38:19 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by critter015 on Jul 27, 2017 7:38:19 GMT -6
Here that would be new construction in a great neighborhood with 4 beds, 3 baths. Or a great rural property with some land and lots of extras.
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stringy
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Post by stringy on Jul 27, 2017 7:45:33 GMT -6
It feels like a tradeoff too because I know that - should shit hit the fan, we could sell our house as is within a week and have money. I think I'd still rather it be easier to find a house with everything you want in it without bidding wards and quick decisions. But sak my guess is that if you want to buy either of those - you aren't guaranteed that you could move your current house in order to do that. I have a friend in your neck of the woods (suburb of the city nearby that starts with an A) - and they missed out on like 3 houses cuz they couldn't move theirs - and it was like a nice suburban neighborhood type area.
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stringy
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Post by stringy on Jul 27, 2017 7:49:23 GMT -6
The cost of living thing is so odd to me. Its like a dollar is worth more in some areas than others (maybe that is literally true). Like MK said she couldn't buy anything in so many parts of the country - but then we get so frustrated because we make what would also be above average salaries, and if we lived in the more rural, inexpensive parts making them we'd be loaded. But instead we can barely pay our bills every month with 2 parents working almost full time in mid-level paying jobs.
But like, if we had just worked a few more years - and moved to buy a 40k house by SAK - we maybe could just retire now. (if we hadn't dropped all our savings on this house).
So I guess my retirement plan should be to move out of here asap.
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Post by pbandj714 on Jul 27, 2017 8:02:12 GMT -6
This house is listed for $264,900. 4 bed, 2.5 bath, 2102 sq ft, subdivision.
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Post by catlady22 on Jul 27, 2017 8:11:40 GMT -6
That would buy my house. 4 bedroom new build with full basement.
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piccyami
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Post by piccyami on Jul 27, 2017 8:43:04 GMT -6
My house sold for 271-ish. 5 bed, 3.5 bath on just under a half acre. Of course, if it we're just a half mile north, it would be in another city and worth over 400k. Appraisals are fun out here.
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Post by Dramaphile on Jul 27, 2017 8:51:42 GMT -6
My house sold for 271-ish. 5 bed, 3.5 bath on just under a half acre. Of course, if it we're just a half mile north, it would be in another city and worth over 400k. Appraisals are fun out here. Our house would easily be worth 30-50k less 1/4 mile down our street because it's a different township and school district, which is much lower-rated than ours. It's so weird how PA works, you can live in one town, but your neighbors live in the same town but a different township, and county lines can divide towns, too. Like when I used to live in A, our apartment was in M county and L township, but a mile down the road, you were still in A, but in D county and H township. There was literally a "right side/wrong side" of the tracks according to which township and school district you lived in.
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mapleme
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Post by mapleme on Jul 27, 2017 8:56:16 GMT -6
The cost of living thing is so odd to me. Its like a dollar is worth more in some areas than others (maybe that is literally true). Like MK said she couldn't buy anything in so many parts of the country - but then we get so frustrated because we make what would also be above average salaries, and if we lived in the more rural, inexpensive parts making them we'd be loaded. But instead we can barely pay our bills every month with 2 parents working almost full time in mid-level paying jobs. But like, if we had just worked a few more years - and moved to buy a 40k house by SAK - we maybe could just retire now. (if we hadn't dropped all our savings on this house). So I guess my retirement plan should be to move out of here asap. I wonder what the internet is going to do to this in the long term. There exist a lot of jobs that don't require a physical presence where folks could live anywhere with a good internet connection. People could work where they love to live and not where they have to work.
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mapleme
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Post by mapleme on Jul 27, 2017 8:58:38 GMT -6
HAHAHAHA
I just looked in the neighborhood where I grew up. The cheapest non-foreclosure house was $999,000 for 2 bed, 1 bath, 1200 sqft.
That is a huge reason that I moved away. I remember being BLOWN AWAY that my coworkers making $10ish/hour back in 2003 were buying houses.
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piccyami
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Post by piccyami on Jul 27, 2017 9:01:49 GMT -6
My house sold for 271-ish. 5 bed, 3.5 bath on just under a half acre. Of course, if it we're just a half mile north, it would be in another city and worth over 400k. Appraisals are fun out here. Our house would easily be worth 30-50k less 1/4 mile down our street because it's a different township and school district, which is much lower-rated than ours. It's so weird how PA works, you can live in one town, but your neighbors live in the same town but a different township, and county lines can divide towns, too. Like when I used to live in A, our apartment was in M county and L township, but a mile down the road, you were still in A, but in D county and H township. There was literally a "right side/wrong side" of the tracks according to which township and school district you lived in. In our situation, the more expensive town contracts with our town for utilities, so they have M utilities, which buys everything from H utilities. So they're paying more for utilities, higher taxes, similar police/fire presence/response, and have similar schools at this point, so I really don't get the ridiculous change in home price. But the divisions are weird. And then we also have people who live in the country with a city address, but their taxes are lower because they're not in the city. And the lines are so gerrymandered that even the police don't know where the different cities start and stop.
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mapleme
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Post by mapleme on Jul 27, 2017 9:04:21 GMT -6
But oh! If you go to the "bad" neighborhood with ample crime you can get a house for $700,000 on a busy street.
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piccyami
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Post by piccyami on Jul 27, 2017 9:05:46 GMT -6
The cost of living thing is so odd to me. Its like a dollar is worth more in some areas than others (maybe that is literally true). Like MK said she couldn't buy anything in so many parts of the country - but then we get so frustrated because we make what would also be above average salaries, and if we lived in the more rural, inexpensive parts making them we'd be loaded. But instead we can barely pay our bills every month with 2 parents working almost full time in mid-level paying jobs. But like, if we had just worked a few more years - and moved to buy a 40k house by SAK - we maybe could just retire now. (if we hadn't dropped all our savings on this house). So I guess my retirement plan should be to move out of here asap. I wonder what the internet is going to do to this in the long term. There exist a lot of jobs that don't require a physical presence where folks could live anywhere with a good internet connection. People could work where they love to live and not where they have to work. We also have a lot of people who commute up to 1.5 hours from across the state and even from another state because of the income here and the cost of living there. It makes a huge difference in their standard of living. They usually live in areas where the median home cost is between $30-60k.
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Post by Dramaphile on Jul 27, 2017 9:16:14 GMT -6
I wonder what the internet is going to do to this in the long term. There exist a lot of jobs that don't require a physical presence where folks could live anywhere with a good internet connection. People could work where they love to live and not where they have to work. We also have a lot of people who commute up to 1.5 hours from across the state and even from another state because of the income here and the cost of living there. It makes a huge difference in their standard of living. They usually live in areas where the median home cost is between $30-60k. I commute an hour to work every morning (more like 45 minutes on the way home with less traffic) in part because the cost of housing in our neighborhood is lower than in other areas. Our old neighborhood, where we could barely afford an apartment, was affluent and to buy a similar house to ours there would be at least 100k more. The only houses in our price range would have been dumpy twins with barely any yard that needed a lot of work. I wouldn't want to commute any farther (and am thinking maybe at the end of 2018 or early 2019 I'm going to seriously look for a new job that is closer), but it might be worth it for a 60k house. I would be terrible at working from home, though.
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