Statia

I agree that most areas in Texas, including the major metropolitan areas, have very affordable housing in comparison to other parts of the country. I've been quite shocked when pricing real estate in many areas of the US after being used to prices in the Houston area for many years.

I'm currently trying to sell my mother's 4 bedroom/2 bath home in a nice suburban residential area of Clear Lake, just south of Houston, if anyone is interested!

Ann41

I'll be moving to Richmond, VA, soon and I'm rather excited about the housing prices there. Originally, I thought I'd be going back to the DC area. When I did a little house hunting several weeks ago in Arlington, VA, it was for houses at about $600k that weren't very big and needed a fair amount of work. In the Richmond area, $600k would get you a nice waterfront house (actually, you can get that for $500k), or a house with about 30 acres, or a house that's 5,000 square feet (not that anyone with less than 6 children actually needs 5,000 square feet).

nytraveler

kcapuani -

You're correct - housing is more volatile than the job market - and does rise faster. the key is to get into the market - somehow (work two jobs or whatever) and then you're on the escalator and its all to your benefit. My salary has gone up considerabley - almost tripled - since I bought my apartment - but the apartment is now worth 5X what I paid.

But the only way to win is to own something -at whatever initial sacrifice that takes.

JJ5

That's the key- get into the pool anyway you can. If you buy anything that appreciates in value, you are on the first rung up the ladder.

And the biggest downfall in my arena is not school loans, but new car/truck purchases made between the ages of 18 and 25. Vehicles do not appreciate.

Some parents I know have helped their kids combine (2 or 3 students)to buy a small house in a college town and use this for college lodging. A very wise and excellent choice, if students themselves can make payments, utilities and proper insurances/taxes can be packaged within the mortgage payment. When they graduate parents can be paid back or not, but regardless there is something to sell. Several of my cousins with big families have done this in Champaign and in Bloomington.

dcespedes

Over the weekend I watched a TLC home renovation program where I was shocked to learn that the couple's D.C. house--3 bedrooms, 2 baths, small kitchen, 1 living rm, 1 dining room, cost $750K. We were fortunate enough to be transfered to an area with affordable housing--if we were back in the D.C. area we could not afford to live in a house comparable to the one we own in San Antonio.

J_Correa

My husband and I just bought a townhouse in the SF Bay Area. It was a sacrifice to get into this market and we don't have much discressionary income these days, but to us, it is worth it. We know that as our place appreciates and our salaries increase with time, we will be in a much better position than if we continued to rent. Our mortgage payments are pretty big, but I don't really mind because I would rather live here than anywhere else. It's the whole cost of living vs. quality of life thing.

Vittrad

I would love to get into the Chicago market, but my school loans and a somewhat low paying academic job guarantee that for the time being I'm just going to collect rental receipts.

travelinwifey

Las Vegas real estate has changed a lot since the posting one year ago. A starter home now costs over 200k and the median is $254,000. About 8 years ago you could buy a 3500 sq. ft house for $250k, that house will now cost around 650k.

Annabel

Well, it's not here on Long Island, NY...a modest (small cape -1 bath)home in a so-so neighborhood goes for over 400K. A rare find is a home under 500K. Then again the cost of living here is very high as well. I guess if you go out to Suffolk county, which is more rural, the prices go down somewhat. But then again you are in no man's land and your commute, shopping, proximity to manhattan is drastically longer. And believe me the LIE and traffic here SUCKS! You really don't want to commute on LI, so the further east you go the less expensive it gets (relatively speaking).

nytraveler

I don;t wish to be critical - but I think some of the problem may be that parents sometimes raise kids as if they have trust funds - when they don;t. Life is hard - and unless you are a true trust fund baby - you are going to have to work your little heinie off to get somewhere.

Yes - this may require an arduous commute. Or it may require taking more than one job (I had college loans to pay off and worked two jobs my first several years out of school to get them off my back.) To say - well my job doesn't pay too well isn;t the answer. The answer is - get a second job. Or rise higher faster in your chosen field through excelling at some special projects or ??? There's always a way if you search hard enough - and work hard enough. The problem is - you can;t be super laid back - or party hardy - and still expect to get anywhere.

I think too many of us forget how hard it was for our immigrant ancestors - they would have been overjoyed at the lives we live and the leisure we have - and its up to us not to squander them!

JJ5

I just did a search for you Vittrad. There are single family dwellings with hardwood floors and all kinds of ammenities for under 150K in Chicago Lawn, Ashburn and several other not half bad areas. Fixer-uppers are even less. Some of those areas also have huge 4000 sq. feet homes for about 225 to 250K. Those areas are mostly well kept and transport to downtown isn't the worst. Traffic is bad, as it is everywhere in the Chicago area.

Our salaries have not doubled, let alone tripled, so I know how very hard it is.

Ann41

nytraveler, my husband IS one of those immigrants, and he makes a six-figure salary, and it's still hard to afford a $600,000 house. We did the long commute thing, and it's not worth it. Why sacrifice time with your family for walk-in closets?

cfc

New Yorkers must understand that their little world isn't the standard by which we figure out what real estate should cost elsewhere -- they have a VERY special case, beginning with the fact that the core of the city is an island and including the fact that the population density there is at least one order of magnitude greater than most of the rest of the country. Add to that the complete outfitting of the city with public transportation, compared to most of the rest of the country which is oriented to the car.

So you have a confined space into which you are pouring huge numbers of people -- of COURSE housing is going to be expensive. Then you have the fact that it's a financial and commercial center above all else, and you have a concentration of wealth that's unparalleled.

I feel for the people who are not participating in the great wealth that allows for high enough salaries to support million-dollar homes. Yes, you have made a "life-style" choice that sacrifices things like closets, cars, etc. -- some of which aren't honestly necessary to a good life. But don't fall into the trap of looking down your nose at people who have chosen other places, or (maybe more to the point) who were born and raised in a world or country or community or real estate market quite different from the unique place that is NYC.

flamingomonkey

Quote from JJ5
"I just did a search for you Vittrad. There are single family dwellings with hardwood floors and all kinds of ammenities for under 150K in Chicago Lawn, Ashburn and several other not half bad areas. Fixer-uppers are even less. Some of those areas also have huge 4000 sq. feet homes for about 225 to 250K."

I'm certain that those homes need work for that price. Plus, while those neighborhoods aren't half bad, that also means they're only half good. And the general trend is downward, not up. Somebody, (you?), had a post in another topic about their elderly mother still living in Ashburn, and it was explained in great detail about how bad that community and Chicago Lawn to the north had gotten. So, if you're willing to undergo major renovations and live in a marginal neighborhood without much hope of it turning around, then yes, you can get a home for $150,000 in Chicago.

Vittrad

.... and as a single woman with little descretionary income to devote to rennovations on a house (I actually have no desire to own a detached house) and no real desire to own a car, I'd rather rent an apartment in a closer in neighborhood that I like (Ukranian Village). I've searched the real estate ads quite a bit myself and I know what is out there, but there are certain trade-offs I'm not willing to make just so that I can own property.