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what's up with ~1500 sq ft houses?

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My house is a little over 1500 sq ft. 3bd, 2ba. From the outside, it looks small because the houses next to it are much larger 2 story houses. But from the inside, its very roomy because of the great room style floor plan. Very large master bedroom too, because the builder rolled one of the potential bedrooms into it.

Its plenty large enough for one person, myself. And my mortgage is only ~600 dollars, with insurance and taxes. Not a bad deal. Previous place was a ~700 sq ft apartment for 835/month.
 
People spend way too much of their income on houses. We bought our house for $117k, it was 1.36 times our gross income. Looking to buy a nicer house much closer to work around $160k, it will be about 1.30 times our gross income.

And yes both of my houses will be in the 1500sq.ft. range. I like smaller houses. The selling price is less, taxes are lower, heating and cooling are lower, maintenance and furnishing are lower.
 
Jumpem said:
People spend way too much of their income on houses. We bought our house for $117k, it was 1.36 times our gross income. Looking to buy a nicer house much closer to work around $160k, it will be about 1.30 times our gross income.

And yes both of my houses will be in the 1500sq.ft. range. I like smaller houses. The selling price is less, taxes are lower, heating and cooling are lower, maintenance and furnishing are lower.
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:thumbsup:
 
shadow9d9 said:
Location: Too afraid to say

Lol.

NJ is actually quite beautiful in 99% of the state. If you ignore the refineries put there by New Yorkers on the edge.

Get the benefits of both Philly and NYC, the beach, small towns, young people, non hicks. Can't ask for much more. I've lived in hillbilly hell. I'll never go back.
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areas that are shitholes: newark, camden, paterson, east orange.
that's at least 25% of NJ pop.
 
Jumpem said:
People spend way too much of their income on houses. We bought our house for $117k, it was 1.36 times our gross income. Looking to buy a nicer house much closer to work around $160k, it will be about 1.30 times our gross income.

And yes both of my houses will be in the 1500sq.ft. range. I like smaller houses. The selling price is less, taxes are lower, heating and cooling are lower, maintenance and furnishing are lower.
Click to expand...

What are you supposed to do when a shitty house in a shitty suburb costs $400k?

Not all of us live in bum-fuck-Idaho.
 
You grew up in syosset was it? They have plenty of ranches there that size. Our first house was nearby - a 1327 sq ft ranch with no basement, and 1 bath. Perfectly livable with small kids. We moved and bought a 1500 sqft ranch (yes over $400k) and building that up to 2900 sqft in a couple months.. Better town, settling in long term.

We watch those hgtv shows and there are huge houses in the high $100s... Kinda ridiculous. But it's not in very populated areas. Wouldn't even consider it.
 
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Jumpem said:
People spend way too much of their income on houses. We bought our house for $117k, it was 1.36 times our gross income. Looking to buy a nicer house much closer to work around $160k, it will be about 1.30 times our gross income.

And yes both of my houses will be in the 1500sq.ft. range. I like smaller houses. The selling price is less, taxes are lower, heating and cooling are lower, maintenance and furnishing are lower.
Click to expand...

when did you buy your house?
 
Jumpem said:
People spend way too much of their income on houses. We bought our house for $117k, it was 1.36 times our gross income. Looking to buy a nicer house much closer to work around $160k, it will be about 1.30 times our gross income.

And yes both of my houses will be in the 1500sq.ft. range. I like smaller houses. The selling price is less, taxes are lower, heating and cooling are lower, maintenance and furnishing are lower.
Click to expand...

Jumpem said:
In 2006.
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at the peak of the market your house was only $117k? What's it worth now $35-40k?
 
alkemyst said:
at the peak of the market your house was only $117k? What's it worth now $35-40k?
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A realtor said she would list it at $129k. I'll probably list at $120-125k for a quicker sale.

Upstate NY house prices never went way up like other parts of the country, so they haven't gone down either.
 
 
alkemyst said:
at the peak of the market your house was only $117k? What's it worth now $35-40k?
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In case you haven't figured it out yet...not every place in the country took the kick in the crotch that FL, AZ, NV and CA did during the housing bust. Your property values got their asses kicked. We get that. But not every place in the country sunk with you.

There's an entire middle part of the country that remained fairly steady or took a minimal decline, mostly in the higher end housing. Entry level didn't get too out of hand.
 
BlahBlahYouToo said:
from the heating your house thread, i noticed quite a few people listing sq footage of their houses in the 1300-1700 sq ft range.
that seems incredibly small for a house.

i have a 2 bed apartment that is 1200 sq foot. i can't imagine an entire house being only 100 sq foot larger. that's barely an extra bedroom larger than mine.
can y'all with small houses post a pic of the outside?
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My 2 bedroom house is less than 800 sq ft.
 
rh71 said:
You grew up in syosset was it? They have plenty of ranches there that size. Our first house was nearby - a 1327 sq ft ranch with no basement, and 1 bath. Perfectly livable with small kids. We moved and bought a 1500 sqft ranch (yes over $400k) and building that up to 2900 sqft in a couple months.. Better town, settling in long term.

We watch those hgtv shows and there are huge houses in the high $100s... Kinda ridiculous. But it's not in very populated areas. Wouldn't even consider it.
Click to expand...

I grew up in Syosset in a ranch. My parents still live in the same house. Was a little tight at times with 2 siblings and only 3 bedrooms, but we made it work. Plus, there is a finished basement which served as a computer room/play room/exercise room. Now that myself and older brother are out of the house and my little brother will be hitting college soon, the ranch is perfect for my parents - not too big, not too small.
---
Personally, I don't see the need to have a ginormous house. More work to take care of it as you get older, more expensive utilities, higher property taxes, more furniture needed to fill space in extra rooms....
 
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vi edit said:
In case you haven't figured it out yet...not every place in the country took the kick in the crotch that FL, AZ, NV and CA did during the housing bust. Your property values got their asses kicked. We get that. But not every place in the country sunk with you.

There's an entire middle part of the country that remained fairly steady or took a minimal decline, mostly in the higher end housing. Entry level didn't get too out of hand.
Click to expand...

didn't know we were talking cowtowns and banjos.
 
spidey07 said:
3 bedroom 1st house is normally 1300-1700 sq ft.

And posting in a stupid thread. And to slow your brag roll my house is 3000 sq feet and mortgage is 1200, likely less than your rent.
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I was going to say I thought the average house was around 1500ft? I know my first two houses were.
 
Fritzo said:
I was going to say I thought the average house was around 1500ft? I know my first two houses were.
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This is ATOT. They all make 130k+ and anything less than 3000 sqft is small.

Reality says even at 130K salary you shouldn't be buying a 3000+ sqft house unless you want to be house poor, of which most of america is.
 
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