Here in San Diego, the median price of a home has just hit $412K! And we're not talking mansions here: There are TONS of ordinary-looking older homes which are RIDICULOUSLY overpriced/overvalued.

I'm curious: Is there a place in the USA where you can get a decent home for
$130-$150K?

What city offers the most "bang for you housing buck?"

It's Friday nite...my wife & daughter are already asleep, but I'm wide awake and in a daydreaming mood.

Thanks!

I was out in Phoenix last November and saw nice new houses for around 130K, they were really beautiful with spacious kitchens, not much land though.

In some areas of greater Milwaukee, yes; others, no.

As little as 5 years ago you could get a pretty decent house in Las Vegas (2400 sq. feet) for 130-140k. About 10 years ago you could get the same house for around 115-125k. Prices here are rapidly increasing. You could now still get a decent place for 140k but not for much longer and they are moving much further out of town, 30 mins or so.

And then there's always the small towns in PA. My parents have a 1600 sq. foot home in 1/2 acre for 80k with lots of beautiful 100 year old trees. Places like that do exist but you have to make a lot of sacrifice (small town life) to be there. Of course to others it's heaven.

PS Lucca I had to tell you I love the name and am also a big Godfather fan! It was Bartzini all along....

Lucca, I can tell you where it's NOT -- the San Francisco/Bay Area! I don't think you can even buy a condo for that.

Small towns all over the US, but then there is the issue of jobs in small towns. However, I believe that San Antonio, Texas has some of the most affordable housing for a large city... I don't live there, but I heard that a few times.

Cape Coral, Florida...visit news-press.com

According to Business First Magazine, Buffalo has the lowest housing prices in the nation! $130-$150K would get you a huge victorian mansion with fabulous hand carved woodwork, stained glass windows, marble fireplaces, etc. on a beautiful tree lined street in the city. $600K would get you a small mansion in the Delaware Park area.

But it's all relative, isn't it? $412K in San Diego for an average home might seem like a lot to you, but you get to live in San Diego. $130K might get you a huge, beautiful home in Buffalo, but you'd have to live in Buffalo.....know what I'm saying?

Say all the jokes you want about Cleveland. There are plenty of jobs
and the housing is very affordable.
You can find houses in nice parts of Cleveland (not dumps) and some suburbs
for under $150,000.00. The "dumps" in
the crime ridden neighborhoods go for
$40,000-$75,000.

Dallas! You can buy a new house in the Dallas suburbs for 150,000.
Mine is in a planned community, about 2000 square feet with all the typical upgrades. We have a golf course, swimming pools, playgrounds, ponds and miles of paved walking trails.
The job market is about as good as it gets and the cost of living is low.
No state taxes either...

Dallas! You can buy a new house in the Dallas suburbs for 150,000.
Mine is in a planned community in the Allen/Plano/Sachse area, about 2000 square feet with all the typical upgrades. We have a golf course, swimming pools, playgrounds, ponds and miles of paved walking trails.
The job market is about as good as it gets and the cost of living is low.
No state taxes either...

You can find a house for that in the New York City area. (Roof, walls, kitchen, living room not included.)

It really won't buy much in the DC to Annapolis MD area. But it's a matter of JOBS - the housing market is always great where the jobs are plentiful.

I'll second TxTrvelPro's recommendation for Dallas! $130-150k will buy you a nice 3/2/2 house in a good neighborhood here. If you're willing to drive 30 minutes out of town, it will buy that same house on about 3 acres of land, too. If you're willing to buy an existing home, the money will go even further because exisitng home sales are in a slump lately.

San Antonio housing prices are slightly lower. Don't even think about Austin; the real estate market there is almost as bad as in San Diego...

In Columbus, Ohio you can buy a very nice house in that price range. One of the comments we hear from people moving here from either coast is how affordable housing is.

In Central Virginia, you can still find a nice starter home ( 2000 sq ft) for $150,00......

The perennial trade-off - cost of housing vs. quality of life! Agree that San Diego and Bay Area markets are insane. Dallas does not appeal to me because I dislike a cookie cutter approach of mass homogenization, sort of a sprawling trailer park with some structural upgrades. San Antonio, essentially the cleanest city in northern Mexico, offers lots of housing options in your price range but you have to be able to live in the culture. I do, and it's great, but a type A yankee would go bonkers rather quickly. Even in SA there are (sigh) evolving burbs a la the Dallas plan - a clutch of quickly built houses with the veneer (but often no more) of quality built close together inside a wall. Many of them are purchased by folks fleeing CA or other highly inflated area who arrive in town with a suitcase full of cash from the sale of their former residence. As always, IMHO...

I hope you look at a lot more than just the price of buying a home. Friends of mine moved to North Carolina about five years ago because they could buy a "wonderful" new home with a large lot in a brand new development -- at something like $125,000. They hate the place there now and have been trying to sell it for over three years. The new neighborhood has already gone to the dogs and they've lowered their asking price to $85,000 and still can't sell it. When house prices are extremely low, especially for a particular area, there is very often a major reason why that is.