Houses are expensive things.

Duh, and friend is a four-letter word!

I'm feeling quite weird this morning. We've bought a house. A 175,000 dollar house that sits in Chesapeak, Virginia. Three bedrooms, wood floors for everything except the bedrooms, kitchen, and bathrooms....and den. So, I guess that leaves the hallway, livingroom, and dining room to have the nice, sturdy flooring.

Anyway.

The housing market is CRAZY here. Houses stay on the market for, at most, three days. Any longer than that, and there's something wrong with the house. If you want to buy one, you have to bid above the listing price, or the asking price of the seller. I'm telling you, this 1300 square foot house is nice, but where I'm from, it would've been around 135k. My grandparents built themselves a house in Arkansas that cost them 180k, but here it would go for around 300k.

That's ridiculous! This market is NUTS. And it's caused no little amount of stress, I can tell you that much. The amount of forms we have to sign is crazy, and half of them we'll have to re-sign since we'll be legally "buying" the house after we get married. I hate working with mortgage companies already!

Soooo...

What's everyone else been up to?

Well...the houses in my neck of the woods go for 300K to 500K and they are not even half the size you just described...plus most need at least ANOTHER 100K of renevations...House market is insane...going through that myself at the moment.

Not all that much fun. I hate houses anyhow...I prefer a nice apt.

Geeze, Tequila Zaire. Where do you live, Cali, NY?

Yup...SoCal. To look at the houses you would think would go for no higher than 300K but the go for quite a bit due to the area...I'm in an apartment building that's on the LAST block (near schools actually) which allows apt. buildings. So from my window all I see are houses...and the higher up the more expensive and elaborate. It's actually quite odd to see such a mix...but the safety of the area is what you are paying for really. The city I live in ranks high in that area...the downside is that it's very much a police state...but It's close to everywhere I go so I have no complaints really.

i could never live in an apartment, seems like your to bunched up with to many people plus i know id get alot of neighbors complaining about loud music lol

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Originally Posted by Tequila Zaire

Yup...SoCal. To look at the houses you would think would go for no higher than 300K but the go for quite a bit due to the area...I'm in an apartment building that's on the LAST block (near schools actually) which allows apt. buildings. So from my window all I see are houses...and the higher up the more expensive and elaborate. It's actually quite odd to see such a mix...but the safety of the area is what you are paying for really. The city I live in ranks high in that area...the downside is that it's very much a police state...but It's close to everywhere I go so I have no complaints really.

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I don't usually watch the morning news, but FOX Good Day LA recently did a segment where they said the median price for a home in Southern Cali is $490,000 and that includes Hesperia and Compton.

Maybe this is part of why I don't understand how people in other parts of the country feel about dough. I look at houses here and I'm like I could be a multimillionaire and it wouldn't buy me that much.

I am so torn because in a way it seems silly to me to live somewhere so expensive. I needed to be here for work when I moved here (and because being homeless in Georgia was somehow unappealing to me), but I don't now. I just really like it here.

The main issue I've found in owning property: UPKEEP. It isn't *that* difficult to qualify for loans. The real issue is whether you are willing to maintain the property. I ended up moving into a really nice highrise in which all amenities are taken care of. Building equity in a home just was not worth the trouble. I think buying is a good option only after you have "settled down", which you obviously are in the process of doing.

Amelia: Move to Pittsburgh. We could open clubs, venues, and stores for a song. You could buy a nice house here for 100K. I'll make you a star:1orglaugh :thumb:

OEC

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Originally Posted by AmeliaG

I am so torn because in a way it seems silly to me to live somewhere so expensive. I needed to be here for work when I moved here (and because being homeless in Georgia was somehow unappealing to me), but I don't now. I just really like it here.

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I'm pretty much in the same boat...I see all these great houses and places to live...but they are not SoCal...I'm too much of a lizard to live in NYC and their are too many things I love here that few other cities could match. I'm open to the idea though...

Oh we're talking houses well let me tell you about mine, we got ours for 117 000 , now it's by a nice sized lake thats fairly close to Toronto , 50 years ago it used to be cottage country, thats what my house used to be anyway the houses have been torn down and new ones built so the aveage nice house here costs about 5/6 hun our house was in such bad shape that noone would insure it so we had to go to a company about 200 miles away who wouldn't ask questions just to get that . Once we moved in and I started poking around I realized that there were no foundations , seriously none just a few bricks to level it out so whenthe ground froze you litteraly could not open the door, when I did the roof the stuff I took to the dump wieghed 5 tons and thats not counting the midnight dumpster runs and the door and the traffic sighn and all the other shit I found in there, I'd reach into walls and they were so badly rotted that I'd pull out compost, oh and my girlfriend is really fucking allergic to mold, she couldn't use the bathroom for the first week or so untill I had time to wrap it in duct tape(really)

anyway this is the 4rth spring and now I'm on the second bit of foundations , I've redone the roof and now water doesn't littearally pour into the house(a drip is fine but it poured as in gallons) the bathroom has a nice jacuzzi init theres insulation

and the whole time I'm working I always wonder how the fuck could anyone have lived here for so long and considering all the building they did do couldn't they have gone down the road to the library and read about how it should have been done in the first place

well got that out of my system, anyway arn't houses the most fun a guy can have or what?

shit guys, my house cost me $37,000.......it may be small as fuck,BUT it's looks really cool, and has a shop,that really all i need.......

and after so looong of living with friends and renting,i love it here......



ohh yea, maybe i should add, i've basically rebuilt it from the time i got it ,redone the floors(there all wood) 3 times...KNOCKED OUT 2 WALLS, compleatly rebuilt the bathroom(there's a fucking awesome story behind that)....and countless small projects.....

all that done by myself or with a few friends helping as mules....

I justed returned from Asia and if you want crazy house prices you should check out Tokyo or Taipei. $250k will get you something but not anything we're use to in size here in the states. Event up at the $600-1000k mark it's still just a nice apt in a good location. But after living in such cramped conditions I've realized that you really don't need that big place... you just need to get use to the lifestyle.

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Originally Posted by johnny

I justed returned from Asia and if you want crazy house prices you should check out Tokyo or Taipei. $250k will get you something but not anything we're use to in size here in the states. Event up at the $600-1000k mark it's still just a nice apt in a good location. But after living in such cramped conditions I've realized that you really don't need that big place... you just need to get use to the lifestyle.

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Damn Straight :thumb: .........

Houses are awesome, dont let anyone tell you otherwise. Owning your own home is the coolest thing ever.
by the by, im back for the moment, but computer use is still limited.

I sooooooooo want to buy a house right now. I'm going to start another thread about this actually.

the hardest thing to get used to with owning a house is getting used to all the nieghbours fuck do I hate it when they pick lilacs off my bushes

I paid 56k for mine, on 4.5 acres and I have 1300 sqft livable and a 750 sqft unfinished basement. It's just an old farmhouse but we like it, plus my master bedroom is the complete upstairs (740 sqft) and has a walk out deck. It needs a little TLC but no leaks and the main structure is solid. Gotta love the midwest for land prices. Oh yeah my nearest neighbor is a 1/4 mile away :) and no one complains about me having a bobcat as a pet. The big downfall is there is no night life around here and the pay scale sucks.

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Originally Posted by kshearsedriver

I paid 56k for mine, on 4.5 acres and I have 1300 sqft livable and a 750 sqft unfinished basement. It's just an old farmhouse but we like it, plus my master bedroom is the complete upstairs (740 sqft) and has a walk out deck. It needs a little TLC but no leaks and the main structure is solid. Gotta love the midwest for land prices. Oh yeah my nearest neighbor is a 1/4 mile away :) and no one complains about me having a bobcat as a pet. The big downfall is there is no night life around here and the pay scale sucks.

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Can you get broadband internet (cable or DSL high speed) there?

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Originally Posted by AmeliaG

Can you get broadband internet (cable or DSL high speed) there?

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Planing to move to more quiet place?

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Originally Posted by AmeliaG

Can you get broadband internet (cable or DSL high speed) there?

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We are about 10000 ft past the high speed limit. We are in the process of setting up a long range wireless from the shop in town :) can't wait this dail-up thing sucks. There are three of us that are going to run off of a directional and then rebroadcast off of an omni so we can get close to full DSL speeds. We just have to get the tower up and the equipment installed. It's nice because we know the guy that runs the local ISP. Let me know if your thinking about some "good ol' country livin'"and I'll get you a local listing :D but you have to drive an hour for a decent nightclub :eeek:

i live in bergen county nj (pretty damn close to nyc) and tons of people are bridge and tunnel rats commuting into nyc for work and fun

i know its considered one of the more expensive places on the east coast and makes national lists...

basically if i wanted to buy a house right now i would have to buy a 2+family and rent out the other apartment in order to make payments (and that is assuming i am working full time making average wages)