old house vs new townhouse

[Greenman]

aka the best kind

Not necessarily true at all. Here in California you can often find older homes with Redwood siding that's irreplaceable. It's not just that it's Redwood, it's that it's old growth Redwood from trees that were a couple hundred years old. That stuff doesn't exist anymore. But beyond that, they generally (not always) are very poorly built, and unbelievably wasteful of material. Roof structures are where they cut the most corners, it's rare to see an old house that doesn't have a very serious sag in the roof.

I've rebuilt a lot of old houses, I've never worked on a single one that I thought was well framed, they simply didn't care about that back in the day.

 

[jagec]

aka the best kind

That's what I have too. 100-year-old exterior (AKA pretty, solid brick), but with proper insulation and wiring, decent kitchen, new bathrooms and more of them.

It's great.

OP, how much further from work is the old house? Commute time/distance is a HUGE factor in my book.

 

[nageov3t]

OP, how much further from work is the old house? Commute time/distance is a HUGE factor in my book.

it's all theoretical and we're at least another year away (knock on wood... if things get seriously worse with my landlady who has dementia, though, it might be sooner rather than later; one more call from the cops and we're done, it'll be time for her going into a nursing home and/or we move out) but right now, I've got a 40 minute commute and my BF has a 10 minute commute.

things will obviously get worse for him, since neither of us wants to move to another place that's 10 minutes away from his office, but based on the towns where we're looking, his commute will probably go up to 30 minutes and mine will stay around the same time. we've narrowed our search down to a few towns, though, and commuting time would largely be irrelevant in the house v townhouse debate (house = closer to the highways, slightly shorter commute for me; townhouse = closer to the train station, slightly shorter commute for my BF)

 

[Newbian]

Old house
I'd rather live in a cardboard box on the street than an apartment.

Has to have a basement or it's a no go.

 

[Dirigible]

But you gutted yours. It's a new house in an old shell.

Yup. And it was a giant expensive pain in the rear.

Worthwhile though.

 

[Blanky]

Old house, as long as I had some money and time + interest so that I could learn how to do things (assuming you're not at that point yet).

The problem with a townhouse is that unless you're in an area where housing costs so much you are, as a grown adult with kids, forced to live there, chances are you'll tire of it very fast and want to upgrade. An older house is something you can probably keep.

Many people buying their first house think it will suit them for far longer than it ends up suiting them for.

The more experience I have with neighbors the more I am convinced the less of them the better. With town homes you're on top of people.

 

[nageov3t]

the lure of a townhouse is strong after going to an open house this weekend

there's an appeal to having a place be 100% move-in ready with no real work/upgrades required... HOA fee definitely sucks, though, and I feel like it's probably abnormally high for this place in particular ($350/month) given that there's no common area like a pool/gym. I do like the idea of never having to worry about yard work or shoveling snow, though.

 

[JM Aggie08]

How much money would you be allocating for repairs/upgrades on the older home?

 

[Possessed Freak]

I live in a 1900's house. And there are a few fun things about it. NOTHING is square. NOTHING. Good luck replacing a door. Good luck on replacing windows *and* keeping the original framing.

Then there are the hidden gems. Like what passed as insulation over the years. And just how the renovations over time were conducted. How safe is that electric panel that was added? How about the additional bathroom... just how did they make it to the stack? Sinkhole in the backyard, well there was an out-house there.

 

[blackdogdeek]

nah... unless something radical changes (eg: I win the lottery and can afford a luxury condo along the waterfront) I'd just as soon GTFO of North Jersey (barring, say, finding the perfect house in a nice area like downtown Montclair)

I really miss living in Somerset, but that would be a bit of a bitch of a commute when I need to commute into Manhattan (and especially bad for my boyfriend, who commutes into Newark)

We got priced out of Montclair when we were looking 12 years ago. Houses were consistently going for about 20% above asking. It was insane. My SIL and her family lived in Upper Montclair on the other side of Brookdale Park from us (Bloomfield) but they bought well before the boom.

Have you looked at Maplewood?

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/28-Ball-Ter-Maplewood-NJ-07040/52635990_zpid/

 

[keird]

We bought a 200+ year old house. It has some interesting history to it. The electrical was re-done prior to us buying it. We had to spend $11,500 on a new leach field and $7,500 for new shingles on the roof. The funniest part is that it came with a 6,000 s/f unfinished church in the back yard. It was a failed convent. Meh. Sometimes I ring the church bell.

 

[nageov3t]

We got priced out of Montclair when we were looking 12 years ago. Houses were consistently going for about 20% above asking. It was insane. My SIL and her family lived in Upper Montclair on the other side of Brookdale Park from us (Bloomfield) but they bought well before the boom.

Have you looked at Maplewood?

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/28-Ball-Ter-Maplewood-NJ-07040/52635990_zpid/

the big problem with Maplewood is that it's surrounded by either really nice towns or really shitty towns without much inbetween, so you're either paying out the nose if you live near the Short Hills border or you're practically in the ghetto if you're by Irvington.

 

[BoberFett]

I live in a 1900's house. And there are a few fun things about it. NOTHING is square. NOTHING. Good luck replacing a door. Good luck on replacing windows *and* keeping the original framing.

Then there are the hidden gems. Like what passed as insulation over the years. And just how the renovations over time were conducted. How safe is that electric panel that was added? How about the additional bathroom... just how did they make it to the stack? Sinkhole in the backyard, well there was an out-house there.

What? You doubt the insulating value of shredded newspaper?

I owned and lived in a 1920s home for years, and while there were nice things about it, like the quality of the wood used, there are many things that are absolutely atrocious.

I think a lot of the people in here are just Vintage-Is-Better snobs.

 

[blackdogdeek]

the big problem with Maplewood is that it's surrounded by either really nice towns or really shitty towns without much inbetween, so you're either paying out the nose if you live near the Short Hills border or you're practically in the ghetto if you're by Irvington.

Yeah, it's the same problem we had/have trying to find a house in Glen Ridge with the border of East Orange.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Modern blown insulation is paper but, not newspaper. The lack of square walls, doors and, windows certainly isn't limited to old construction. I've seen many examples in brand new town homes, condos and, 'modern' house construction. Bad renovations are always an issue with older homes but, not inspecting new houses and expecting everything to be good is just as bad. Building codes are minimums not, the holy grail except to builders more interested in making a fast buck than in doing it right.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I lived in a townhouse, it was shitty.
I live in a house, its awesome, though maintenance is obviously more expensive and more involved.

 

[MrCassdin]

Having done both - new town house all the way.

 

[purbeast0]

that townhouse is a nice townhouse for sure. and it's a corner one too which is even more of a plus when talking about townhouses.

 

[fralexandr]

less shared walls = nice. not having someone living above you also = nice .
My sister lives in a 1960s condo under someone else. She got some blow in insulation done (walls + ceiling) and the upstairs noise from walking around, etc is a lot quieter. Most of the sound going through is lower frequency sound, and not as annoying.

I wonder what the decision would be between a Townhome/Condo with 0 shared walls, but a HOA vs a PUD/house with a shared wall and no HOA would be .
There're some weird properties that have no HOA but shared walls >.<.

 

[nageov3t]

less shared walls = nice. not having someone living above you also = nice .

I wonder what the decision would be between a Townhome/Condo with 0 shared walls, but a HOA vs a PUD/house with a shared wall and no HOA would be .
There're some weird properties that have no HOA but shared walls >.<.

yeah, I saw this weird foreclosure property on Zillow today that was a townhouse with no HOA/maintenance fees... makes me wonder how they handle stuff like asphalt repair, snow removal, common-area maintenance, etc.

looked pretty ghetto, all-in-all, and built in the 80's.... if we were to do a townhouse, it would have to be almost brand new (~10 years old) to justify the drawbacks. wouldn't do a condo period unless we're talking like a luxury highrise building on the waterfront with a NYC view, but that's way, way out of budget.

 

[lxskllr]

if we were to do a townhouse, it would have to be almost brand new (~10 years old) to justify the drawbacks. wouldn't do a condo period unless we're talking like a luxury highrise building on the waterfront with a NYC view, but that's way, way out of budget.

If you're halfway serious about a rowhouse, you have to take each on an individual basis, especially regarding neighbor noise. Some are terrible, and some pretty good. The nicer older units(<1930) tend to be pretty quiet. Newer units are more of a crapshoot.

 

[nageov3t]

If you're halfway serious about a rowhouse, you have to take each on an individual basis, especially regarding neighbor noise. Some are terrible, and some pretty good. The nicer older units(<1930) tend to be pretty quiet. Newer units are more of a crapshoot.

I like the look of them, but street parking is a huge deal breaker at this point unless the house was on a quiet street with all one-family houses.

it's a clusterfuck where we live now and I'd just as soon never have to deal with it again... if we're driving home and it's after 10-11 pm, we're usually parking +4 blocks away from our house (and the whole driving around looking for a space process itself is stressful when you're dead tired and just want to be home and in bed)

and our house is practically the ideal for our town, it's even worse on some blocks (my house is catty-corner to 2 blocks where there's no residential buildings whatsoever and includes a municipal parking lot, both of which combine to provide a lot of parking area... take that away and the "shit parking" time would probably change from 11 pm to 5 pm)

 

[alkemyst]

less shared walls = nice. not having someone living above you also = nice .
My sister lives in a 1960s condo under someone else. She got some blow in insulation done (walls + ceiling) and the upstairs noise from walking around, etc is a lot quieter. Most of the sound going through is lower frequency sound, and not as annoying.

I wonder what the decision would be between a Townhome/Condo with 0 shared walls, but a HOA vs a PUD/house with a shared wall and no HOA would be .
There're some weird properties that have no HOA but shared walls >.<.

They would have COA's or some agreement on those common items definitely.

 

[JackBurton]

Neither, I'd take a new house. Definitely some negatives with your choices. I used to live in a townhome. It was three stories which was a pain in ass, but I also had shared walls which sucked too. Not happy with the maintenance either. For older houses, there is a lot of work that normally needs to go into it before I can get things the way I want them, which will basically be like building a new house. But given the two choices, I'd do the older house, unless the other choice was a sweet high rise condo/apartment.

My house is a few months old, and wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[nageov3t]

Neither, I'd take a new house.

that would definitely be the dream, but such a house meeting my #1 priority (walking distance to a train station, ideally a train that has a "one seat ride" into Manhattan as opposed to the trains that make you get off and transfer to a second train in Newark/Seacaucus/Hoboken) either would be prohibitively expensive (+$500k) or just doesn't exist (in most towns, train station = downtown = oldest part of the city, which translates into older houses or new multi-unit developments)