My condo is worth over $400,000 ...

which, believe it or not, is not much in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My condo is a fourth floor walkup, 2 bedrooms, one bath, a tiny kitchen, no parking, laundry in basement, and is 880 sq. feet.

What can $400,000 buy in your neighborhood?

great landscaping. That's close to the city. More farther out.

My house is a 2BR, 2bath, 1 car garage garden home. It was a little less than $100,000. There is a house just like mine across the street. It's selling for $110,000. I could be a minor slum lord for $400,000. :evilgrin:

row houses in the city go for $15-$20k. Every week there is at least one or two for $2,000. Yep, that is not a typo.

Of course, there are NO JOBS in York. Pa is 48th in job creation out of 50 states, and York County is dead last within Pa.

Walmart greeter, anyone?

houses. With swimming pools. 2 car garages.

but my neighborhood has everything from one bedroom condos for 200,000 to massive brownstones for up to 8 million.

Or two nice sized houses

http://www.hrmls.com/erinmelton/cgi-bin/aa.fcgi?+NzU2OTY4YzAzMzQ4ZGFkMjA2MDViMDlkZTkyMGZkMWUSlI0jaK45u%2fJdbTxZKqz3Jf0LH9GThhSS%2fCmcDvIS4XKyZMLR

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8008924/

Pity the poor first-time home buyer in California. With the median price of a home in the Golden State crossing $500,000 for the first time, getting into that “starter” home requires perseverance, luck and a willingness to think small.

Maya Vestal, 25, who works for a biotech company, took the plunge this month with her boyfriend, plunking down $585,000 for a 1,200-square-foot home near San Jose in a neighborhood she describes as “not great.”

Frankly, the three-bedroom, one-bath house doesn’t sound all that great either. Built in 1940, it needs about $50,000 worth of work including new plumbing, new wiring and a new kitchen, she figures. “The only thing we’re keeping are the floors, which are beautiful, original hardwood.”

Together, Vestal and her boyfriend, a 25-year-old city worker, earn more than $100,000 a year, but the new $3,800 monthly mortgage payments will eat up nearly 70 percent of the couple’s take-home pay. “It’s a lot of money, and it’s really scary,” she said. “We really like to travel, and we probably won’t be able to do that so much.”

earlier this year, he had a terrific offer there, my skills are quite mobile.

Virtually the EXACT same house we own is SIX times higher. Almost the exact sq footage, architecture, lawn, even the same builder. It was a virtual twin.

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/investing/articles/0,15114,1061371,00.html?cnn=yes

Zareh Tahmassebian is on the way to look at two of his houses in Phoenix. He is lost. Most people don’t get lost driving to their own residence, but then, Tahmassebian has never actually been to these particular homes. There are a few reasons for that: (1) He has no intention of ever moving into them, (2) he lives in Las Vegas, not Phoenix, and (3) he owns six other houses—and a half share of seven more—in the greater Phoenix area. "Sometimes it’s hard to keep track," he says.

Tahmassebian, just 22, is a big, affable guy who dresses the way a budding young speculator should: black trousers, a blue-and-white-striped shirt, cuff links, a Cartier watch, black suede loafers, and rimless purple sunglasses. The son of Armenian immigrants, he has spent the past four years in Las Vegas working as a mortgage banker, a job that he says paid him $250,000 in salary and commissions last year. He has taken the day off to fly to Arizona for a "frame inspection." The houses he’s inspecting are somewhere inside the Cholla Ranch development that’s being put up by KB Home, one of the nation’s largest builders. Right now he’s in the general area—cruising southeast down Highway 10 in a white Chrysler 300M rental car—but lacking specifics. "Is that Tempe?" he asks. "I think I have some houses there."

After several uninterrupted miles of cactus, desert, and tumbleweed, it becomes clear that he’s missed the turn, and he exits the freeway while dialing his broker. "Papa John!" Tahmassebian says into his cellphone. "Where are my houses?" To get more help, he dials KB Home on another phone, and soon he has a gleaming silver clamshell at each ear. For a moment the car drifts dangerously across the exit ramp, until I reach over to grab the steering wheel. "It’s okay," Tahmassebian whispers, nodding toward the place where his trousers meet the bottom of the wheel. "This knee can drive."

When we finally arrive at the first construction site, on Paradise Lane, Tahmassebian begins his inspection. "See this wood?" he says, gesturing to the slatted frame of the unfinished house. "This wood made money for me! I don’t own it—but I own the rights. I put a 10% deposit down, I haven’t even made a mortgage payment yet, and it’s already gone up $45,000. What a country!"

:grr:

It makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. He just bought one house in Mesa, and is planning to buy a couple more.

I'm seething about this. :mad: :mad: :mad:

It's killing me, and I told my husband why.

two apartments in each house.

nice location low taxes excellent schools..etc etc

180

semi-rural idyll in which I live. :(

We considered moving to Orange County earlier this year, then found that virtually the exact same house we live in now cost SIX times as much there.

We stayed in Phoenix, where we are trying to pay down the mortgage as soon as possible.

A giant brand-new house with a lake view. Maybe five bedrooms, four baths, custom built. Huge gourmet kitchen. Large backyard, complete landscaping and a pool with a hot tub.

My house is 12 years old, four bedroom, two bath, almost 2000 square feet, on a decent-sized lot, nice floor plan, mature landscaping, huge kitchen, two living areas, two eating areas, two car garage, bay windows, fireplace, wood blinds throughout. We paid $130,000 for it in 2001.

CAVEAT: Texas has one of the HIGHEST homeowner's insurance rates in the NATION. We don't have a state income tax, but we have fairly high sales tax rates AND high property tax rates because we have no state income tax. And because it's such a fucked up system, our schools are WAY underfunded and in financial crises, just the way the right wingers like them to be.

$400,000 would buy you something nice in Ryan Place, or Mistletoe Heights, or Monticello, three of the nicest older home districts in FW

3bd 2bath houses with basements, 2 car garages on 1/4 acre lots. In a decent neighborhood 10 miles from downtown. Life in fly-over land has some blessings.

I read that NY Times article yesterday about how much house prices have increased over rents in certain cities. In some cities, house prices have doubled in five years while rents have not changed. By a certain measure, real estate in these locations is over-valued about as much as tech stocks before 2001. If I had property that has increased that much in that kind of market, I would think of cashing in; selling and then renting.

I'm right next to you in Somerville and it's not much better here.

In my current zip code, there are very few single-family houses going for anywhere near $400,000. (There are very few single-family houses, period -- an investment duplex goes for around $300,000. I toured a single-family a few weeks ago, and it was around $250K for a 4bed, 1 bath enormous Victorian.)

Some of the trendy waterfront condos (1,500-2,000 square feet, 2-3 bed, 2-ish bath, parking, elevator, etc.) go for around that much.

3/2 craftsman bungalow on about 1/8 acre (if that). The kitchen hasn't been updated since the '40s, either.

I can't afford them here. :(

and they have sold for almost 300,000 and thats for about what you have... They look like they will be nice, they are supposed to be open by mid-june. The local business were invited to help lay some bricks for the building because it used to be a really great theatre back in Vaudeville days.

if you had another 25k.

Sheesh, we bought the least-expensive home on the block, and the prices for everyone has gone up, hence our value has jumped too.

RL

Condos are about $200,000, but they're generally larger than yours and would be at most 3rd floor, as I don't think we have any four story residential buildings in this neighborhood.

But in some nearby neighborhoods you could get a very nice, new, brick 3-4 br two story with attached garage and full finished basement. The lots are not very big, though. This is in a suburb south of Birmingham, AL.