What are real estate prices like in your area?

[Flaxbee]

Now, I'm not delusional (at least I don't think so), but I'd like to find a house in good condition, preferably with 2+ bathrooms and at least 1/2 acre in a state with a warmer climate, though I'd consider an in-town, smaller lot if the town were "cute" (by which I mean that it has some amenities, and is not in its death throes as so many midwestern ones unfortunately seem to be). For under $100,000. Is it possible? I don't mind snow and colder temps, so long as I can get in and out of my house easily (where I live now is off a dirt road, with a realllllly steep driveway, and when it ices over in the winter, life's a bitch). But I'd prefer warmer. Anywhere in the US.

So, What are prices like where you are? Employment is a consideration, but I'm trying to reduce my expenses so that I don't have to be tied to a job that I hate. I have no problem working, I just don't want to have to commute into a big city, blah blah blah, just to make house payments, ya know? Schools don't matter, I don't have kids and don't intend to have kids, other than those of the cat-and-dog variety...

Does my dream community exist, or has Shrubya destroyed it?

[madmax]

1. One word.

Insane! Prices are out of control here in the Northeast. :(

I'm staying put until...

[SmokingJacket]

6. Some rural areas are still affordable

Upstate New York, for example. My sister recently bought a 100 yr old house, three bedrooms, half acre or so, town of 200, for $50K.

There's no work to speak of! But it's a great place to start a self-sustaining homestead.

[madmax]

50. I lived in Upstate NY

For 23 months - felt like I was doing time. Then minute the movers left I knew it was a mistake. It was pitch black! I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. No street lights, no neighbors - nothing but flies and bugs the size of helicopters.

And it wasn't that far upstate either, Orange County. The snow doesn't melt until the 4th of July :evilgrin: I hated it. Was so happy to be able to move back to Joisey. :hi:

[tjwash]

2. Not in San Diego, where the median house price is 450000.

However Condos here are affordable, in the mid twos.

[CO Liberal]

3. We're House-Hunting in the CO Springs Area Right Now

You can still get a 2 or 3-bedroom ranch for less than $125,000.

[tjwash]

7. I Hear CO is real nice and affordable...

...another one is Idaho, around Lewiston.

[CO Liberal]

10. It Depends On The Area

Pueblo and Colorado Springs are reasonable - Boulder and Aspen are almost as bad as California...

[tjwash]

21. I was in Denver a couple months ago...

...and Boulder did seem a bit pricey. It's beautiful out there though. Our neighbors are getting ready to move there.

[On the Road]

4. In the DC Area, Prices are Out of Sight

Five years ago, I could have bought a single-family house in suburban Maryland for $100-150,000. Now there's twice that -- it's really out of control.

In Baltimore City, however, prices are still pretty depressed. You can find a decent rowhouse on a relatively safe street for $50,000 in some working-class areas. Possibly in more rural areas, too, but I haven't been looking there. PM me if you would seriously consider a move.

[1monster]

5. Forget Florida... you're unlikely to find anything like that on two lots

for under a $100,000 let alone on an acre of land here.

[GOPisEvil]

8. Rural Texas might work.

Heck...even in a city like San Antonio, real estate prices are low.

[elfwitch]

12. You and me think alike!

I'd move back home in a heartbeat if I could.

[GOPisEvil]

13. The only sad part is that wages are kept fairly low as well.

That's why I had to leave.

But, there's that fancy new Toyota plant being built...

[elfwitch]

15. And a new SouthWestern Bell place too...

It is the customer service capital of the US.
There are jobs to be had. I was pulling in $52K at the last job I had before we moved.

[GOPisEvil]

20. Of course I am a state employee.

Most of the good jobs are up here in Austin.

There are decent jobs; just not a lot of them. If you make $40k in San Antonio, you can live like royalty pretty near.

[Dems2002]

9. That's a fantasy in California

California is warm, but I don't think you're going to find anything here. Even Fresno, which is being heavily developed is in the high 100,000s heading into the 200,000s.

My parents own a two bedroom 1 bath house near Long Beach, 780 sq. ft, and it's worth right around 400,000.

Prices are INSANE right now.

So good luck!

[elfwitch]

11. Try San Antonio...

The housing prices are reasonable. The climate is good enough. The people are nice. It is inexpensive to live there. You are an hour from Austin.

If I could move back there I would. It is the biggest "small town" in the world.

[ronnykmarshall]

14. Example

Our condo was 190K in 1999 and we can sell it for close to 500K now.

The problem is, where would we move to?

[nini]

19. same problem here... I've got about 200k equity ..

.. but can't afford to move anywhere else in the area.

stinks.

[ronnykmarshall]

24. We looked around

There ARE places we could afford, but they were smaller than our condo.

[nini]

26. or in Moreno Valley...

:-)

[ronnykmarshall]

28. If our commute wouldn't suck ....

we would move to Long Beach.

But we love West Hollywood so much, we don't want to leave.

[nini]

31. Long Beach is where I'd like to live..

I almost bought condo downtown on Ocean a couple years ago but changed my mind. I could kick myself know.. :cry:

A house? forget it! I don't think I'd live long enough!

[ronnykmarshall]

35. I like condo liviin'!

I'm not a yard person and have lived in apartments since I moved out on my own.

There are some GREAT condos on Ocean. LB is a great city.

[BigMcLargehuge]

16. re-goddamn-diculous

southern NH is insane... a two bedroom trailer, in a park, starts at 180,000. A two bedroom one bathroom house, where several grisly murders occured, AND is currently ON FIRE and where billions of non-native cockroaches skitter in for an annual picnic and in a location known for multiple meteor/lighning strikes, a poisoned well, and poor drainage AND the family of squatters living there: asking price - $269,000.

[ZenLefty]

17. Your dream house in Denver:

$275,000-$325,000, depending on condition and neighborhood. And you won't get the 1/2 acre. You just won't.

Denver's suburbs are priced less, but they're pretty far out from town, and the investment isn't the greatest. Your house won't appreciate much in value out there, and houses tend to sit on the market for a long time. Still, even in the distant suburbs, you'll start out at $150,000. On the upside, you'll have a big plot of land, and probably a bigger house too.

[eyesroll]

25. You're right -- my sister bought a house in Denver in the mid-200s,

in an OK neighborhood. 2 bedrooms, plus a finished attic, one bathroom, cellar but no proper basement (1920s bungalow). It's good structurally, needs help cosmetically. It sits on a double lot, and she figures in a few years, someone will want it as a teardown and pay a pretty penny.

The whole thing amazed me -- my sister is single, makes about what I make, and I can't imagine paying a mortgage that size on my salary. (It would be tough to pay my own mortgage on just my salary...) But that's how things work when geography varies. Housing's cheap out here (WI), compared to Denver. We had nearly identical "first apartments" -- mine was $575 per month; hers was $950. (OK, hers had a fireplace, but mine had 1.5 baths and hers only had 1.)

[ZenLefty]

34. 1920's bungalow

I hope no one tears it down. We take a lot of pride in our old bungalows. They are good structurally, making restoration less expensive than trying to restore an old victorian. Personally, I hate it when a developer pays $250K for a finished lot just for the privilege of scraping it and putting down some ugly monstrosity that looks like it belongs in the suburbs.

Who knows, maybe when your sister puts it on the market I'll buy it myself and restore it. :)

[elfwitch]

18. Another bonus for San Antonio

In the area of town I used to live in (which was one of the nicer parts of town) you could pick up a new house 4 bedrooms 2 bath for around $130K.

I've been gone for three years but I don't imagine it has gotten too much worse since then.

[skippysmom]

22. Stay out of Mass

Outrageous prices abound, except in the western part of the state.

[eyesroll]

23. The Milwaukee area has lots of housing for under $100,000, but it's

unlikely to be on anything more than a small city lot. The city of West Allis, for instance, has 3-4 bedroom bungalo homes, about 1,200-1,700 square feet, plus basement, in varying states of repair for around $100,000. West Allis is still a pretty decent blue-collar town (it has good and bad areas, same as any other). Milwaukee proper also has some areas that are affordable (some are gentrifying; some are long-time family-type neighborhoods). But it's cold.

Small country homes used to go for very little out here, but sprawl's gotten so out of control that people are buying the land and putting up McMansions.

[VOX]

27. In Los Angeles, where reality has flown the coop...

Modest (and I mean modest) homes in okay neighborhoods (but not ritzy, by any stretch) are going for $600,000+ -- and here's the really weird part -- they're being bid up!

It's not out of the question for a seller to receive several offers well over the asking price.

Who the hell has this kind of $$$$????

[Deja Q]

29. Just wait until the bubble bursts...

It's sad, really... interest rates are down and people start to buy so that's when prices skyrocket.

More people and farmers sell their land that's then torn up to build houses.

Once the topsoil is gone, it's rather difficult to put back into place.

Anybody hungry yet? Milk prices are only the beginning if the trend continues and the bubble doesn't break.

[bearfan454]

30. 1400 sq foot house across the street going for $109,000.

They won't get that, but probably at least 100.

[GOPisEvil]

32. I'm paying $98k for my 2BR, 2bath in Austin.

Nice neighborhood, small city lot though.

[Sorwen]

33. I would suggest

going to www.realtor.com and searching different parts of the country.

[KamaAina]

36. Would you believe, Hawai'i's Big Island might work

specifically the Puna district, south of Hilo.

http://www.hawaiiinformation.com/REsearch/IDX/mlsHawaii/query.asp?CAT=rescnd&LOC=3&DIST=1

Of course there's a catch: the area is in the shadow of Kilauea volcano, so your half-acre (up to three acres, in your price range!) is likely to be on top of a fairly recent lava flow.

The town of Pahoa is well-known as a hippie hangout, sort of like Maui used to be before the yupazoids got to it.

And of course, the only snow is way, way up on top of Mauna Kea (by the observatories) and Mauna Loa. Rain? Yeah, they've got it -- over 100 inches of it! -- but most of it falls in the afternoon or overnight.

Prices of day-to-day stuff, while high, are no longer as insane as they once were. Hilo (pop. 40,000) has big-box stores like Sprawl-Mart :puke: , Borders, etc., not to mention a state university campus. All in all, well worth looking into.

[geniph]

40. Wal-Marts in Hawaii?!!!

That SUCKS. The Apocalypse MUST be coming.

I love Hawaii. I'd live there in a heartbeat if I could find work and afford the move.

[KamaAina]

42. On top of sacred Hawaiian burial sites, no less

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1676512#1676700

I have a feeling the merchandise at the Ke'eaumoku Sprawl-Mart may be "flying off the shelves" without waiting for that swashbuckling round yellow price rollback thingamabob...

It'll only be the fifth or sixth one in the state. You see, thanks to our commie pinko Pre-Paid Health Care Act </sarcasm>, the miserable peons actually qualify for employer-provided health care at a measly 20 hours a week, not 30 like in most states (the average Sprawl-Mart work week: you guessed it, 28 hours!) Plus, with combined city/county government, they're unable to locate fifty yards outside city limits like they do elsewhere.

What do you do? You might be surprised how much is going on here: our unemployment rate is quite a bit lower than in the PNW these days (but the pay sucks, especially relative to the cost of living).

[geniph]

48. I'm a server administrator

been administering Windoze servers since before there WERE Windoze servers (in other words, I go back to the MS-Net and LanMan Server days, and before that, I administered Xerox servers). They call me a network systems manager, but I'm a server administrator. My husband's a carpenter/remodeling contractor with his own business, and I know carpenters can always find work.

[KamaAina]

49. Would you mind terribly working for the Bush* war machine?

Alas, that's where a lot of tech stuff is here (home to Schofield, Tripler, Hickam, K-Bay Marines, and of course, Pearl Harbor). Bring your clearance, please.

Actually, the question should be "Would the Bush* war machine mind terribly having your Evil DUer self working for it?" :-)

Any civilian stuff might be found at

http://www.jobshawaii.com

or (especially startups)

http://www.htdc.org

[beyurslf]

45. You could have trouble with financing there, it sounds like.

I work for a major bank underwriting mortgage loans. Lava Zones 3 and above we will not loan to.

[Beaker]

37. our house in Chicago has TRIPLED in value in 8 years...

we bought our North Park two-flat for $131,000 in 1996. If we were to sell now, we could expect to get between 400,000 and 425,000, accoring to our friend in real estate.

[no_hypocrisy]

38. Northwest Bergen County, New Jersey: $350,000 Cape Cod, 1/2 acre

if you're lucky. Same property was $50,000.00 thirty years ago.

[geniph]

39. In the city of Seattle, they SUCK

you might be able to get into a two-bedroom fixer for less than $250,000 in the city. If you're willing to live in one of the high-crime neighborhoods.

They're high throughout western Washington, but the prices are better south of Seattle than they are east or north. It sucks; I really want to move back into the city (EVERYTHING I do is in town), but I can't afford to live there. I could sell my little house 30 miles south of the city for about $180,000, and buy a broom closet in town. Or I can keep commuting.

[flamingyouth]

47. No kidding - we just bought a house last month

There's no way we could have done it without help from my parents.

[MI Cherie]

41. Hard to find in W. Michigan ...

... although we're looking for a 3+ bedrooms, 2+ baths, 1+ acre lot. We've searched at least a 100 mile radius and can't find anything decent in the $100,000-$200,000 range. Employment opportunities suck.

A smaller house on a smaller lot in the city of Grand Rapids can be found for under $100,000 though.

[jayavarman]

43. Come On Down To Atlanta, GA & or Environs

Since you are only looking for a 2br there are lots of places you can live in the city for around 100k (especially if you like fixing up houses or living in a gentrifying community. If you dont mind condos you could look into that. If you like more suburban, exurban you can Easily find some places in that price range (& probably bigger than 2br)

Job prospects are excellent & salaries are good . . . this place is the greatest mix of above average pay & below average living expenses.

[rinsd]

44. San Diego? HA! Outrageous.....

A 600 sq ft place a few blocks from me in Ocean Beach went for $500,000.

[Nikia]

46. Decent in rural WI

You probably wouldn't want to live in rural Wisconsin since it is cold and if you want a job that doesn't require a long commute or pays poorly, find your job before buying your house. There are decent larger older homes for under $100,000 or around that. There are houses that I'd consider luxurious that are under $200,000.

[Beaker]

51. SSSHHH.....

don't tell people that-
we're planning on selling our house soon and moving to the dodgeville/madison area.
you can get lots for your money, and Madison is a coooool city to live near.

[Delano]

52. SF Bay Area - INSANE!!!!

I live in the city on the bottom floor of a 3 story house divided into 3 apartments. Supposedly it's worth about a mil. My rent is 1300 for 2 bedrooms. They say only about 16% of the people living in this area could actually afford to buy a house here nowadays. I love this city, but that's very disheartening.

[Beaker]

53. the place to go for real estate prices everywhere

http://www.realtor.com/Default.asp?poe=realtor

i heartily reccomend the map search option-

just click on a state, (or participating province) and go...