I need your opinion

[Keego]

I'm graduating college and moving to a new town to start my engineering job. I've got a cat, and I like cars, so I wanted to get a garage, and a townhouse/apt/house with a garage. This seems to be an insane requirement in the town I am moving to because it is so small (20k). I've got it down to two options, listed below:

Townhouse - $700/month

• Nice neighborhood, tract "townhouses," all about 5-7 years old.
  Away from the city (13 min to drive to work, all fast moving roads).
  The middle of a 4-plex (OXXO where the X's are the open townhouses)
  Property Management, their office is a couple of blocks away.
  Next to an empty lot - basically good for my cat to run around unmolested

House - $550/month

• I don't know the neighborhood because I didn't find out about this one until after I drove over there to look for places to live.
  About 6 minutes from work
  Has a new garage (built last year) and a fenced (thigh/hip high) yard.
  Old guy and his wife are renting it out, and they've never let cats in there before but they are not against the idea
  Again, I don't know the neighborhood, but I do know that the house is 3 blocks from the train line, and it is used regularly.

The main issue I have is that I've been in college for 4 years always scraping by and never having money. Then this job comes along and I'll be swimming in cash, but I stop to think about how much a difference $150 a month would make. With $150 a month I could buy an ipod, a video card, a freaking car payment, invest it, or even donate it.

Is $150 a month worth dealing with a train and questionable neighborhood? I talked to the guy at the house online and he says he never locks his doors and that his neighbors are nice.

The town has a crime problem because it's based on agricultural stuff, so I'm really freaking out about wanting a secure garage and neighborhood for my car, cat, and belongings.

 

[Juno]

Find friends to share house with to save money.

If you want some security, you might need to find a better place with low crime and commute to your job daily.

 

[Keego]

I will know noone in the town when I move in there, which will be a problem because I plan on travelling about a week every month. And, I just finished spending 4 years with various roommates, I want to live alone. Money isn't going to be a problem, but $200 isn't anything to sneeze about.

 

[KK]

where you moving to?

 

[Keego]

Klamath Falls, OR

 

[FoBoT]

go for the house, a little more privacy

 

[FrustratedUser]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
go for the house, a little more privacy

 

[BurnItDwn]

You may also want to consider purchasing a house rather then renting. If you plan on staying with the company and living in that town for more than a year or two. From the looks of things, one could obtain a house with a garage for under 100,000 out there. Even if you make 0 down payment, as long as you have good credit, and qualify for between 5 and 5.5 percent ... add tax, PMI, insurance, and you're payments would come out at under $700 per month. if the real estate market in your area is completely stagnant, you will still win out a little bit due to equity created by paying the bills. If the value of the home goes up ... when it comes time to sell, you'll have a nice big chunk of equity ready for the upgrade ......

EDIT:

Also,
Do you have any major unpaid debts? car loan, school loan, etc?
Generally it's best to spend no more than 25% to 33% of your gross income on rent/morgage ... that way you would still have a decent amount left over to live off of, and hopefully save/invest. Now if you have 100K of student loans to pay off, and a $400 a month car payment ..... then it's advisable to pinch pennies whereever you can.


Also, if I were choosing between the 2 options you mentioned, I'd go with the house. Generally, houses > Townhouses .... and townhouses > condo's .....

though not always the case ....

 

[Yossarian]

depending on how often the trains run that 2nd place could drive you absolutely nuts.

 

[Keego]

I plan on buying a house later - not in this town and not right after getting out of college. I don't have any loans to pay off, but I do want to be smart with my money.

 

[Ryan]

House - no neighbors to worry about. That's the only drawback to my townhouse

 

[Keego]

Well, I looked at the chatlog again, it's $550 vs $700, which makes me feel better about wanting the townhouse (because I originally just wanted to save money) The townhouse is double the commute time though

Here's a picture of each of them:
House | House2 | House3 | House4
Townhouse

I think I'm going to get a townhouse due to the iffy neighborhood and the proximity of the railroad to the house.

 

[Juno]

Why townhouse? Buy house and sell later.

 

[tami]

go for the house. you can always research the neighborhood on the internet or something like that, but if the guy doesn't lock his doors, then i think you have nothing to worry about.

jewno: he's renting the house, not buying it.

 

[Juno]

Originally posted by: tami
go for the house. you can always research the neighborhood on the internet or something like that, but if the guy doesn't lock his doors, then i think you have nothing to worry about.

jewno: he's renting the house, not buying it.

Damn it, he should have bought it and sell it for more profit.