Man, that HGTV show "what you get for the money" makes me want to move to the woods...

[aliceinwonderland]

makes me want to move to the woods...

Did anyone see the show tonight:The difference between Somerville, Mass, Chicago, IL, LA, CA on one hand, and Raileigh (sp?) on the other was astounding in terms of what you get for 700 000 USD...This is like watching real estate porn, I swear...:):)

e.

[heatherlynn]

My friend always give me the rundown on this show because she knows I can't stay up that late! I wish they had it on at an earlier time.

H-
Heather
dd 3/98
ds 8/04
and #3 edd 11/05 (it's a girl!)

[MartiesMom2B]

Oh I wanted to see that to see how the Raleigh housing compared everywhere else. I know that my house would probably go for more than double what I paid in the DC market.

I just want to add that $700,000 is going to give you a hell of a lot of house in this area. Kristi's Yamaguchi didn't even pay that much for her house here in Raleigh.

-Sonia
Mommy to my Strawberry Shortcake lovin' Martie

[bunnisa]

We have about 4X the house here in TX that we could have had in the Detroit area! When we were house hunting, occasionally I'd type the same parameters into the search engine on realtor.com for our old neighborhood. What a difference! Of course, our baseline had to change when we moved, because things are just different here. There's a lot more land and everything's relatively new. I do miss the old houses in MI. We lived in a house built in 1905 and all of our friends had really cute 1920's bungalows.

Although with the nice home comes the sacrifice of certain luxuries: Trader Joe's, Aldi, awesome Middle Eastern food, great Indian restaurants, great Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Ethiopian, Sushi, Thai...

(((Sigh)))

Bethany
mom to William 6/03
and another little one due late Feb '06!
http://lilypie.com/days/060226/0/8/1/-6/.png

[jojo2324]

I haven't had a chance to watch that show yet, but I know that if they ever came to my area, the audience would just die laughing. (Eastern Long Island)

I don't think we're ever going to be able to afford to buy. :(

[Melanie]

I'm going to have to TiVo that show. It sounds interesting. I guess they leave the prices out of House Hunters b/c it would date it too much and they rerun forever, but I wish they would tell them.

[aliceinwonderland]

that was exactly my point...they showed this rather new (by my standards) home in a new develompent that theysaid was carved out from the woods, it had an acre, and everytthing was just gorgeous...

must-remind-self I need to walk to my next drink/cup of coffee :)

[HannaAddict]

I love your phrase that it is like watching "real estate porn." Almost moved to NC in 2003 and it was crazy what we could have bought versus Seattle. But a lot different lifestyle, the burbs versus walking to both Starbucks and independent coffee store, etc. But I do sometimes dream of double sinks in a master bath . . .

Kimberly
DS 3/18/04

[aliceinwonderland]

and a bath in my bedroom :)

mumbles to self: "must resisit the burbs, you do not drive!" LOL!

e.

[jesseandgrace]

I thought the real estate market in Boston - Cambridge was shocking UNTIL we got to the San Francisco Bay area where it is outrageous. You can not buy a run down 1200 square foot house in my town for under a million dollars even if you wanted to. Perhaps you can find a condo, but certainly not even a dumpy house. It is UNBELIEVABLE!

[heatherlynn]

That's so funny Jennifer. We moved from the Bay Area a few years ago to Massachusetts and we thought we got a bargain for our 1600 sq ft duplex here. Everyone here thought it was crazy expensive, but we thought it was pretty reasonable.

H-
Heather
dd 3/98
ds 8/04
and #3 edd 11/05 (it's a girl!)

[tigalig]

Eri, I live in the woods and it's nice here. :) Very nice. :)

[alexsmommy]

If you're still considering Chicago - then it depends on the 'burb - in good old Oak Park you usually have to cross into at least the 600K range for a bathroom in the bedroom - or do extensive remodeling. Yep - we're looking for a larger home and I'm bitter. One of my girlfriends says she walks around quoting me saying, "Since when did half a million bucks get me sh** in the housing market?" Grrr. I can't watch this show. DH keeps reminding me that although I'd give up a lot, I would have had a really nice house if we had moved to Atlanta...I don't want to know what's possible. I just built up a private practice and we aren't going anywhere soon.
Alaina
Alex 2-4-03

[aliceinwonderland]

yes we are very much considering Chicago. Honestly it's our first choice and it is very likely we end up here. I'm excited to be close to the in-laws (they live in Indiana) as I love them and they LOVE my son and will be so helpful. Most importantly (for DH), Erik will be raised a Cubs fan, even though he went to his first Red Sox game when he was 2.5 months :)

Anyway, we are doing extensive research on Chicago, and the only hopeful news is that, compared to Boston and NYC (our other two choices for places to move to) Chicago actually looks affordable!
I like Oak Park in that schools (MAJOR consideration, obviously) seem to be great. But then I'm told that some areas of OP can be shady, so who knows. We have plenty of time, though, and I'll likely spend next summer here in Chicago as well.

e.

[aliceinwonderland]

not if you can't drive ;)

e.

[NEVE and TRISTAN]

I can't sing from the roof tops that it is the perfect place, or the most wonderful...I'd pick Annapolis I think for me...

but it is a nice place with nice homes-nice people and centered around family honestly. Rush hour traffic ends at "normal" times...people get off of work it appears to me at a good 5...you can get in your car and go drive to catch lunch and be back in your hour...

but like many have said I really miss the diversity and the easy walks to foods and coffees...
I would love to be in an area where if I want Indian food I can go...if I want peking duck I can go...here it is not so easy to do that.

Now I do have to say that now the housing market here looks sooooo much better than other parts of the country- and it is!!!! BUT when we bought we could have paid about the same amount to live in the DC area for the cost of our home BUT we would not have had the golf course in our backyard etc...

My parents home in Mount Vernon , outisde of DC (some of you have been) has more than doubled since we moved here 41/2 years ago...so 4 1/2 years ago I could have put my money on their home and had 1 1/2 acres in the DC area where now I'd have to pay 1,000,000 and be in a bidding war.

They are redoing Raleigh to have small outdoor cafes etc... when we first drove to down town I said "this is all there is????"...but they are working on it....

Also beaches and mountains are 2 hours away. Big selling point to us.
Many where I live have their main homes and then a home at the beach...it is not uncommon here to have both, sometimes they are family homes since folks tend to stick around but non the less many in my neighborhood run for the beaches on weekends. So a lower main house payment affords one that luxery.

Also jobs in my opinion do not pay less here...both Steve and I received more money actually in coming down here, so you don't necesarilly take a pay cut unless things have changed some in the other markets- which they must have to support the cost there.

Raleigh is nice but you do lose some diversity luxery...Chapel Hill is the closest you will get to that here I think.
Neve
Reichen (6), Karsh (3), Tristan (2) and baby girl Bronwyn born March 10th!!!!

[aliceinwonderland]

it does sound like a nice place for a family.

The beach thing--I think that's the case in many places--In Boston every friday there was the mad rush for the Cape, traffic was horrendous getting on that bridge. And some go up north to Maine (the cool people, my ex boss would say :))

edited to add: I don't think everyone could afford having a second house there, but just that even those who did not (like us!)someohow managed to get down there on a very regular basis!

e.

[slknight]

And some go up
>north to Maine (the cool people, my ex boss would say :))

Actually, the really cool people live there year-round. ;)

[aliceinwonderland]

hehe, Susan, all the people I know that live there are actually pretty cool :):)

e.

[jk3]

I'm sorry I missed that show. That's right up my alley. I'm fascinated by real estate, especially comparing different areas.

We moved into our house 3 years ago and it has literally doubled in value in that time. We thought we were paying a lot for it at the time but I'm glad we went ahead with it since we clearly could not afford anything now. All 4 bedroom homes, even tear-downs, start at close to a million dollars at this point. We looked into moving to a few different locations (Charlotte, NC, West Hartford, CT and Columbus, OH). In all of these places we could've sold our current home, bought a house twice as big and possibly brand new with at least twice the land if not more (our current lot is .13 of an acre!) and socked away a lot into our savings. It is fascinating!

As an aside, when I was in college, I lived in Somerville and rent for a fairly nice 5 bedroom Victorian house was only $1,000 a month. We each paid $200/month. This was only ten years ago and I'm sure the situation is quite different now - especially with Davis Square becoming so hip!

Jenn
DS 6/3/03

http://lilypie.com/baby2/030603/2/5/1/-5/.png

[aliceinwonderland]

There are some funky architectural things going on too, eye candy (I don't like to live in modernistic stuff, but it's fun to look at). A very good friend of mine is in the process of divorcing his wife and he moved into this really odd-looking new building there(the architect lives there too and lets some rooms out).
Anyway, by way of comparison, we lived in a house in Somerville (close to Davis Sq too) that had sort of been subdivided into apartments, one floor per apartment, and the apartment above us (2 bedroom/2 bath) rented for I think 1300. Ours was much cheaper as we took over the lease from good friends who moved to Sarajevo, and the landlord lives in Texas and was so very nice.

So moving to the Philadelphia area (where we bought our 1st and current house) was such a bargain for us: the monthly payment, even with very high (comparably ) interest rate is lower than any rent I've paid here in the US!! And yet we'll move again in 2 yrs.

e.
PS If I lived in Boston right now and had a ton of money I'd buy a church and spend the rest of my life making a house out of it. Catholic church sold/is selling a bunch of property due to the sex scandal, and even before that, some adandoned churches (like in South Boston) were being turned into condos.

[alexsmommy]

If you do decide to come our way, make sure you talk to me or Tara for the "insider" research. I've lived here my whole life so I can tell you the things no one mentions. Saying that, overall, I love, love, love Oak Park for the schools, diversity, ability to walk everywhere and the family type community. So we're staying. Now to find a four bedroom house we like and still be able to eat each month...
Alaina
Alex 2-4-03

[tigalig]

I'm sorry. I did not realize that you cannot drive. You're absolutely right then. I'm in my car for twenty minutes every single day, just to get to civilization. I'm sorry again for not knowing...

[aliceinwonderland]

LOL, why should you be sorry I am a freak of nature that at 27 yrs old have never learned how to drive and have no desire to do so (honestly, I've never had to until now. And now my darling husband drives me around).


FIL threatens to take me to the corn fields of Indiana and teach me. My money is on Erik learning before I do :)

eri
"I can't learn everything" ;)

[murpheyblue]

I used to live on Claremont Street and DH lived on Jay, right across from the old Salt and Pepper cafe. God, I miss those biscuits! Too bad they closed or I would have them shipped corss-country.

[nov02mom]

I am totally addicted to this show and House Hunters!!! We just got back from vacation and every show I tivo'd is something along those lines.....I live in NC (near Charlotte- although I'm from Raleigh) and I am constantly taunting my NY and Cali. friends with house listings here!!! LOL I am mean, but I just think they should move here!!!!

[jesseandgrace]

Yup, we will move back again in ther next year, and I can't wait to think I am gettinng a deal :).