I couldn't imagine that. Our house is 1500sq.ft., on four acres, near the lake. And we paid $117k.
You're a pretty big anomoly even by my midwest suburban standards. That's a lot of value for what you paid.
That said, $450K would buy most of the nicer highest income homes here. I would say the $60-80K range is probably the cheapest single family housing in my area.
LoL, those are really crappy 600 sq ft 1 bdrooms in crap places. There are condos in my city going for $900k+. I've seen 2BRs go for 1 million simply because it's a 1/4 acre lot (which means the Asians who want to move into a good high school area will buy them up and tear them down and turn them into a 5BR monster much like my parents did).
This is disgusting. I don't know when I'll ever be able to own a house.
Exactly why I left the SF Bay Area. I love that area, it's where I lived for my entire life, but my wife and I knew we'd never be able to own a home there. The final straw was getting approved for a $500K loan and then going house shopping and seeing rundown 800-1000 sqft condos with $400 monthly homeowners dues at the very top of our price range. We said screw this, and put plans in motion to move and now I'm typing this sitting on the couch in my own home in Raleigh, NC.
Same in Vancouver BC Canada...I am on the outskirts and you cant touch a house for $450k and up...I am going to be looking at a 5 bedroom house soon and I am curious to know what that will be ;(
Yep. Low income people can "afford" it if the lender's doing all that subprime shady things like interest only loan.
I've whined about this before, but here goes again.
That's just the way it is in California. A "single-family" home less than $500K is either less than 800 square feet, a complete and utter heap with structural damage, or it is rural with extremely poor commute access. Who would be willing to live there other than a family that has been low-income and is willing to put up with that crap? And, no, jobs really don't pay much more out here at all. We do have more intrinsically high-paying jobs (tech, entertainment, finance, etc) then many other parts of the country, which is how you fill so many $1 million tract houses, but your average joe working his average job simply does not buy a house here unless he has a spouse that makes much more than he does, he lives like a hermit, and/or he has a lot of help from family or inheritance. Those that attempt to bend these stipulations foreclose in five years. Upper-class jobs and wages mean middle-class living here. Middle-class means lower-class living. And those who work service jobs are simply fucked up the ass. That's why you get three families in that $450K "low income" house, because it takes six full-time salaries to pay the mortgage.
I currently live in the Bay Area and make what is considered a competitive wage for my field, which requires a college degree and a specialized professional skill set. I cannot buy an acceptable place to live on my salary. Ever. Acceptable to me means safe, clean, adequate parking, and no roommates other than my S.O. I save at a rate that will likely make me a multi-millionaire before retirement, but with rents high to match the market, I will never make up enough ground on a down payment to keep up with the market. I will always fall farther behind. Luckily my parents and my fiancee's parents have pledged to help with a down payment, which is extremely generous of them. But even then, we will need to wait indefinitely for our incomes to rise to cover the resulting jumbo mortgage, high property taxes, insurance, etc.
We are caught in the same place as many others of our generation, where we have plenty of money to buy late-model cars, big TV's, go out to eat, etc, but housing costs have inflated so far beyond that of everything else that we can't buy a traditional middle-class place to live even if we live very frugally and forgo all those traditional middle-class luxuries.
The middle-class baby-boomers (like my parents) are all fine, though, because they bought their houses long ago, have tiny little mortgages, and rode the wave of ballooning equity in the late 90's. They can sell and buy again with impunity, even though their incomes aren't really any better than anyone else's. Hell, I make more than either my mom or my dad make NOW. Yet they own two houses and plan to retire to beautiful Monterey, while a starter condo is merely a dream for me. If you weren't a land-owner already in 1995, you may never be able to catch up.
The obvious response is "so why live there!?" The answer is that aside from the housing situation, it is simply the best region in the country to go about the basic business of having a job, raising kids, etc. There are plenty of nice places to visit elsewhere, but to live full-time? California is tops. And there are just too many people with the same opinion.
Cliffs: Housing prices skyrocketed, leaving non-owners and children behind. Kids grow up, can't buy a home even though they make more than previous generation. Homes in ghetto cost $450K, and young middle-class workers choose to stay in apartments instead.
That's just the way it is in California. A "single-family" home less than $500K is either less than 800 square feet, a complete and utter heap with structural damage, or it is rural with extremely poor commute access. Who would be willing to live there other than a family that has been low-income and is willing to put up with that crap? And, no, jobs really don't pay much more out here at all. We do have more intrinsically high-paying jobs (tech, entertainment, finance, etc) then many other parts of the country, which is how you fill so many $1 million tract houses, but your average joe working his average job simply does not buy a house here unless he has a spouse that makes much more than he does, he lives like a hermit, and/or he has a lot of help from family or inheritance. Those that attempt to bend these stipulations foreclose in five years. Upper-class jobs and wages mean middle-class living here. Middle-class means lower-class living. And those who work service jobs are simply fucked up the ass. That's why you get three families in that $450K "low income" house, because it takes six full-time salaries to pay the mortgage.
I currently live in the Bay Area and make what is considered a competitive wage for my field, which requires a college degree and a specialized professional skill set. I cannot buy an acceptable place to live on my salary. Ever. Acceptable to me means safe, clean, adequate parking, and no roommates other than my S.O. I save at a rate that will likely make me a multi-millionaire before retirement, but with rents high to match the market, I will never make up enough ground on a down payment to keep up with the market. I will always fall farther behind. Luckily my parents and my fiancee's parents have pledged to help with a down payment, which is extremely generous of them. But even then, we will need to wait indefinitely for our incomes to rise to cover the resulting jumbo mortgage, high property taxes, insurance, etc.
We are caught in the same place as many others of our generation, where we have plenty of money to buy late-model cars, big TV's, go out to eat, etc, but housing costs have inflated so far beyond that of everything else that we can't buy a traditional middle-class place to live even if we live very frugally and forgo all those traditional middle-class luxuries.
The middle-class baby-boomers (like my parents) are all fine, though, because they bought their houses long ago, have tiny little mortgages, and rode the wave of ballooning equity in the late 90's. They can sell and buy again with impunity, even though their incomes aren't really any better than anyone else's. Hell, I make more than either my mom or my dad make NOW. Yet they own two houses and plan to retire to beautiful Monterey, while a starter condo is merely a dream for me. If you weren't a land-owner already in 1995, you may never be able to catch up.
The obvious response is "so why live there!?" The answer is that aside from the housing situation, it is simply the best region in the country to go about the basic business of having a job, raising kids, etc. There are plenty of nice places to visit elsewhere, but to live full-time? California is tops. And there are just too many people with the same opinion.
Cliffs: Housing prices skyrocketed, leaving non-owners and children behind. Kids grow up, can't buy a home even though they make more than previous generation. Homes in ghetto cost $450K, and young middle-class workers choose to stay in apartments instead.
I think the real problem is that the standard of living is decreasing in America.
No longer can the family with a medium household income buy a medium priced house, this was not the case 10-15 years ago.
No longer can the family with a medium household income buy a medium priced house, this was not the case 10-15 years ago.
Modelworks
Lifer
- Feb 22, 2007
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I've watched that show before.
I was shocked when they were talking about how they got this 3 bedroom home and only paid 400K for it !
The same house here in NC wouldn't bring 100K.
I just can't understand what people see in some of those houses.
I understand property values are based mostly on where the house is, but some of the values these places have is outrageous.
I was shocked when they were talking about how they got this 3 bedroom home and only paid 400K for it !
The same house here in NC wouldn't bring 100K.
I just can't understand what people see in some of those houses.
I understand property values are based mostly on where the house is, but some of the values these places have is outrageous.
I think this is the main reason the housing market is in such bad shape. They have simply priced themselves out of most people. My and my GF make about 100k a year and can't afford anything other than a shitty house in a bad neighborhood. This is why we still rent our condo.
No. That is not the case at all. A family with a medium household income expects to have a house like they see in the commercials - huge rooms, 3000+ square feet, the tiny 42" tv hanging on the wall. I blame it on entitlement mentality and the "I deserve it!!!!"
The "medium" home of today has become the mansion of 10-15 years ago. And the dumb people are gobbling it up.
a 450k house in nyc gets you near 9mm shots all day long, free car jacking, etc... or a tlc in a good neighborhood
Not really. Well maybe in where you live, but not in large metro area along the coast.
In the local market I live in, in Seattle, a 2000 sq ft cookie cutter home is 550k-650k in desirable areas with good school districts. They are by no means luxury, shit, they are 2 feet away from the next house. All new housing developments are like that in the area.
The American standard of living is decreasing, you can acutally afford a house with a decent sized backyard back in the day, even if you just had a manual labor job. Nowadays, white collars will be lucky if they can afford a condo as their first home, much less the blue collars.
I think that's what your missing. The expectation of what a "nice home" is. Your 2000 sq ft cookie cutter home at 550 means you should already be VERY well established - possibly mid 30s in age.
Your first home is not a "nice home", it's your starter home, maybe a 2 bedroom. But somehow folks think they "deserve" a "nice home". Putting the crate before the horse they believe. Want to live the same life they had when living with their parents they expect. THAT's what is wrong.
What is wrong is expecting to hop into the same lifestyle as your parents and house because you are accustomed to it without the 20 years+ that it took to get them there.
I live in the San Fernando Valley. Places like Eureka have very cheap houses, but does anyone want to live there? Yeah, I was generalizing, though. There are plenty of schools (private and public) in my area, and CSUN is a 2 minute drive away, which explains the high pricing of the houses. That, and the weather is perfect.
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