Is it still possible to afford a home?

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: mrchan
The bubble is (slowly) popping in CA.... You get can a brand new 1400 sq. ft 3 bed 2.5 bath house in the low $300k range less than 10 mins from downtown Sacramento. If you're interested, send me a PM 😉

Sheesh. $300k still buys an older condo here in LA (at least in desireable areas). I'm still sitting for a little while.

 

[ponyo]

Most of Atlanta is still cheap. I would like to buy a vacation beach home in Florida but current prices scare me away. I'm just saving and investing much as I can so I can take advantage in the next 2 years if the bubble finally pops down there. You have to have money in order to take advantage of any bargains.

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: kranky

Where I live (Pittsburgh), we have one of the most affordable housing markets anywhere, and I'm glad for that. I'm less than two years away from having our home paid for.

I'd like to move back up north to that area. Pittsburgh has cleaned up nicely.

 

[axelfox]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Do you not have a clue what you're talking about? How are houses not affordable for most families? And you need to realize the cost of housing depends a great deal on the area that you live in. Affordability depends on down payment and length/monthly cost of your mortgage. A $200K house here in Dallas gets you a brand new 2-story house, or a nice 1 floor 4/5 bedroom house. The "ghetto" around here starts at $50K. My parents live in a 27 year old house that still has it's original carpet and is valued around $85K.

To say one has to be a PhD to afford a house is the stupidest fvcking thing I've ever read.

Winnar. But I've met alot of PhDs that don't make alot of money 😀.

There are alot of ways to finance a house, so there is a pay structure for pretty much every income level.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

I just got a house in a North Dallas,TX suburb. 3 bed 2 bath 1500 SQ ft for $108K.

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: Naustica
Most of Atlanta is still cheap. I would like to buy a vacation beach home in Florida but current prices scare me away. I'm just saving and investing much as I can so I can take advantage in the next 2 years if the bubble finally pops down there. You have to have money in order to take advantage of any bargains.

Depends where you want to live I guess. If you want a decent bungalow in Inman Park, Virginia Highlands, etc. area you're looking at half a million at an entry level.

In my experience anyway.

 

[xrax]

Texas home values are hurt because the property taxes are so high.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Naustica
Most of Atlanta is still cheap. I would like to buy a vacation beach home in Florida but current prices scare me away. I'm just saving and investing much as I can so I can take advantage in the next 2 years if the bubble finally pops down there. You have to have money in order to take advantage of any bargains.

Yeah, but Atlanta prices are rising pretty quick. Townhomes are selling for much more than what I bought my first house at 5 years ago in the same area.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: Descartes

Originally posted by: Naustica
Most of Atlanta is still cheap. I would like to buy a vacation beach home in Florida but current prices scare me away. I'm just saving and investing much as I can so I can take advantage in the next 2 years if the bubble finally pops down there. You have to have money in order to take advantage of any bargains.

Depends where you want to live I guess. If you want a decent bungalow in Inman Park, Virginia Highlands, etc. area you're looking at half a million at an entry level.

In my experience anyway.

Of course that's true. That's why I said most of Atlanta. There are always exceptions and certain parts of the city will be expensive for most. But as a whole, Atlanta and the surrounding surburbs are still relative bargain.

 

[imported_Tick]

We who live in tucson laugh at you all. Here there are starter homes for 75k, and very nice homes for 275k. The mansion level homes are only going for 550k.

 

[radioouman]

It is diffcult to afford a decent home where I am. My wife and I have a combined income of about $90k, and we are fairly stretched to afford to make our payments on the house that we bought 3 years ago for $149k.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Originally posted by: mrchan
The bubble is (slowly) popping in CA.... You get can a brand new 1400 sq. ft 3 bed 2.5 bath house in the low $300k range less than 10 mins from downtown Sacramento. If you're interested, send me a PM 😉

Can I take half of that? I can live with 700 square feet, 1.5 bed, and 1.25 bath (a normal bath and a urinal in the hallway? That'd own) 🙂


There are some townhouse type setups that I've been watching for some time that are starting to slowly come down. They're about $190k for 840 square feet. If I can get one for $170k, I'll probably get into one. There's one listed for $182,500, so they're getting closer. And there's more of them coming up.

 

[LeonarD26]

I live in upstate New York (Albany area). Prices over the last few years have grown to the point where many people are forced out of the area. My wife and I earn ~125k combined. We have a nice 3 bedroom we bought 2 years ago for 250k. New 3-4 bedroom, 2500-3000SF home will go for 400K now. Taxes are crazy too. I really hope we see a slow down. We do pretty well for ourselves, and I can't imagine what a young couple starting out has to go through...

 

[puffff]

Originally posted by: radioouman
It is diffcult to afford a decent home where I am. My wife and I have a combined income of about $90k, and we are fairly stretched to afford to make our payments on the house that we bought 3 years ago for $149k.

i'm curious why you'd say you're stretched to make payments... i'll make some assumptions, like you got a 30yr fixed mortgage at a relatively low interest rate (since it was 3 years ago), but i cant imagine your monthly payments to top $1500. making 90k, considering your tax exemptions, you should see (again, i'm making really rough estimates here) $5k a month after taxes. that leaves a lot of money leftover for other bills?

my parents bought a 200k house when their yearly gross was < 50k. not only did we never feel poor, they managed to pay it off in less than 15 years. to me, coming up with downpayment should be the most difficult part of buying a home.. the payments should be a breeze after that?

 

[mrchan]

Originally posted by: radioouman
It is diffcult to afford a decent home where I am. My wife and I have a combined income of about $90k, and we are fairly stretched to afford to make our payments on the house that we bought 3 years ago for $149k.

$150k @ 7% interest for 15 years = ~$1400/month
$150k @ 7% interest for 30 years = ~$1000/month

$90k -30% = $60k/12 = $5k/month.

It's not your mortgage causing you problems........

 

[mrchan]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth

Originally posted by: mrchan
The bubble is (slowly) popping in CA.... You get can a brand new 1400 sq. ft 3 bed 2.5 bath house in the low $300k range less than 10 mins from downtown Sacramento. If you're interested, send me a PM 😉

Can I take half of that? I can live with 700 square feet, 1.5 bed, and 1.25 bath (a normal bath and a urinal in the hallway? That'd own) 🙂


There are some townhouse type setups that I've been watching for some time that are starting to slowly come down. They're about $190k for 840 square feet. If I can get one for $170k, I'll probably get into one. There's one listed for $182,500, so they're getting closer. And there's more of them coming up.

Sorry, you can't buy half a house 🙂 Find a roommate! heh

 

[isasir]

I wonder how overvalued (if at all) the New York/Long Island/Upstate market is.

I'm looking to buy a house this year (ideally), but the average price of a house in Nassau is $480,000. 🙁

My alternate option is to buy a co-op now, and hope the market does drop a bit, and invest my money elsewhere in the meantime. Then in a year or two (or longer) buy a house.

 

[radioouman]

Originally posted by: puffff

Originally posted by: radioouman
It is diffcult to afford a decent home where I am. My wife and I have a combined income of about $90k, and we are fairly stretched to afford to make our payments on the house that we bought 3 years ago for $149k.

i'm curious why you'd say you're stretched to make payments... i'll make some assumptions, like you got a 30yr fixed mortgage at a relatively low interest rate (since it was 3 years ago), but i cant imagine your monthly payments to top $1500. making 90k, considering your tax exemptions, you should see (again, i'm making really rough estimates here) $5k a month after taxes. that leaves a lot of money leftover for other bills?

my parents bought a 200k house when their yearly gross was < 50k. not only did we never feel poor, they managed to pay it off in less than 15 years. to me, coming up with downpayment should be the most difficult part of buying a home.. the payments should be a breeze after that?

I pay $1440 per month which is about $350 more per month that I have to pay.
But factor in two car payments, utilities, food, and gasoline and it becomes fairly tight.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: theknight571
I don't know about housing bubbles..but I can tell you that our house has depreciated in value over the past 4 years.

We refinanced 4 years ago... last month we went to take out some more equity for some fixups... the appraisal (sp?) came back 20K less than it did 4 years ago.

Now the question is did we get a "crooked" appraisal before... or did the "market" really drop that much?

Needless to say... we're putting off the fixup's for now.

Um, you do realize that your house is not an ATM, right?

 

[radioouman]

Originally posted by: mrchan

Originally posted by: radioouman
It is diffcult to afford a decent home where I am. My wife and I have a combined income of about $90k, and we are fairly stretched to afford to make our payments on the house that we bought 3 years ago for $149k.

$150k @ 7% interest for 15 years = ~$1400/month
$150k @ 7% interest for 30 years = ~$1000/month

$90k -30% = $60k/12 = $5k/month.

It's not your mortgage causing you problems........

Nope. It is transportation. Two car payments (one at $375 per month, the other is $275 per month). Gas ($300 per month for me, and about $150 per month for the wife.) Maintenance and insurance.

 

[FoBoT]

depends on where you live
there are places in the US where you can make good salary/wages and houses are not $200K

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: notfred

A statistic I saw yesterday says the average salary (not starting pay, but average overall) for software engineers in california is $90k. That's not bad. If I can make that, and marry a woman who makes even half that, We'd have an annual income of $135k. Spend 1/3 of that on housing, and that's a $3750/mo mortgage payment. A lot of lenders (in CA, anyway) will let you base your monthly payment on up to half your income now, and they're also offering 40 year mortgages, which would let me buy something nicer.

A couple of points:
First, lending policies appear to be tightening up, meaning they won't let you get away with quite what they have in the past. Second, if you do the math, the 40 year mortgage will only give ou slightly more to work with per month yet vastly increase the amount you pay in the long run.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: Tick
We who live in tucson laugh at you all. Here there are starter homes for 75k, and very nice homes for 275k. The mansion level homes are only going for 550k.

Heh, my parents live there. The Oro Valley area is nuts, though prices are starting to drop the past few months. Look at the huge developments off the North side of Tangerine.

 

[dandruff]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
but tell me if I?m wrong.

hello insulated dumbtard, u r wrong. hth.

 

[SampSon]

There is no bubble for 98% of the market. The people in thoes market who are desperate to sell made stupid purchases based on hyped speculation. They should and will get burned.