[Mrs. P]

Originally Posted by Rachael84

Yeah, but I'm assuming that's in SC. On Long island, most people don't buy their first home until they're in their 30s. It's rare to find someone in their mid 20s buying a house on Long Island.

Your assuming a little wrong. He lives in NC. I bought my first house 6 months after I was married...23 years old.

Almost all my friends and co workers had houses before they reached 30.
I myself was one of those on my second house at 28. Not as big and nice as my sons, and I could only afford one house at a time. Maybe it's that way in your area, but where I grew up 30 was kinda old to be buying your first home.
Then again that would have a lot to do with how much it costs to buy a home as well.

I know my friend Melissa who lives in this area is from Long Island, and she said the reason she moved here was she got about 1000 times more home for 350,000.00 than she would have in Long Island. She misses home, but she doesn't miss the cost of living or the weather....and actually? She's in Orlando right now vacationing.

She likes NC FL and Long Island.

[Mrs. P]

Originally Posted by DailyJournalist

Offcourse, its not hard to buy one of these southern econo-box homes.

His 1st house 165,000 is 2200 square feet ...what would that cost in Philly or NYC or Long Island. And yep it is one of those slap them up put them in a community type houses. It is why he chose it to be his rental property.

The 2nd home however is a custom brick home even bigger, with hardwood floors and it sits on an acre. How much would that cost in Philly? LOL never mind I've seen HGTV househunters

He worked hard and he started small and moved up and bought quality.

Actually having been to Philly myself several times, I don't understand the big pull for that place either. But hey each his own.

However don't ever think everyone lives in an econo box, and make uneducated assumptions.

[Rachael84]

Originally Posted by Mrs. P

Your assuming a little wrong. He lives in NC. I bought my first house 6 months after I was married...23 years old.

Almost all my friends and co workers had houses before they reached 30.
I myself was one of those on my second house at 28. Not as big and nice as my sons, and I could only afford one house at a time. Maybe it's that way in your area, but where I grew up 30 was kinda old to be buying your first home.
Then again that would have a lot to do with how much it costs to buy a home as well.

I know my friend Melissa who lives in this area is from Long Island, and she said the reason she moved here was she got about 1000 times more home for 350,000.00 than she would have in Long Island. She misses home, but she doesn't miss the cost of living or the weather....and actually? She's in Orlando right now vacationing.

She likes NC FL and Long Island.

Ok, well NC...pretty much almost the same thing. Many people from LI are buying houses there. It seems nearly all people can buy there once they get married. On LI, it's much harder, just like I said. Most married couples need to rent for quite a few years to save up for a house. The COL is much higher here.

[TriMT7]

I told myself to stay away from this thread, to let it continue its devolution into the typical and predictable without me....but curiosity got the best of me!

Originally Posted by Rachael84

^^The way you write your responses isn't very mature. You can't be taken seriously when you write the way you do.

HAHA, from almost anyone else that might actually be humbling. But, if only I could say what I REALLY thought about the teachers that I have interacted with from New York on this forum. So far there's only been one of them, and I am NOT impressed by the consistent lack of sophistication in thought process exhibited by same. I'm sure not every teacher from New York is like that, but "mature" and "taken seriously" is definitely not adjectives I would assign to the responses of this particular person. Certainly nothing the New York school system would ever brag about!

I won't name any names though, because that's violative of terms of service.

Originally Posted by Raechel84

Second house? I highly doubt that. Based on how many times you say you aren't jealous, leads me to believe you really are.

Haha, you never disaapoint, do ya?!

I have no reason to lie about my home buying history. It's all available in public record. The first one was a townhome that looking back was quite a gamble. I shocked my mother when I randomly called her one day and told her I was buying it back in 2005. In retrospect I had no idea what kind of potential-for-disaster it was at the time, but I was able to time the sale in 2007 at the exact peak of the market in my neighborhood in Tallahassee, and learned a lot of valuable lessons along the way. (I checked recently and the "new owners" have the home up for sale now for months....30,000 less than the price they bought it from me. I was very very lucky).

Since I now have a real job after my seven years of college and grad school, I was able to take advantage of the misfortune of a miserable (former New Yorker, btw) flipper who thought he could buy a house in a historic area in West Palm Beach, slap some new cabinets and granite in the home and sell the thing for 200k more than he paid for it just months before. He couldn't, so I bought it for a lot LESS than he paid to begin with.



But hey people, this is what REAL people are doing, not just "the rich" or silver spooners. I just think the poster I was originally responding to didn't realize that "Little precious" wasn't that special by "buying a house" at age 26.

I have a friend who is now buying her FOURTH house at age 30 (3 in FL, her first in Vermont at age 22) who is a flight attendant (in other words, not raking in the bucks) and whose family does not come from money. It's called hard work, dedication, and perseverance. Oh yeah, and she was able to put more than 20% down and buy three blocks from the water (all while paying for her own wedding out of pocket from profits from previous homes sales to boot) with this latest purchase. Her latest home is ALSO a short sale and is priced less than her last house..... even though now she has the benefit of her fiance's income.

Her fiance, btw, is probably the only person in this world I AM jealous of, because he makes comparable money, went to less school than I did, and works 8-4 with an hour lunch!

[Pooring Footers]

Unfortunately, many smaller FL cities are filled with the same malcontents that reside in larger FL cities, but definitely stick to smaller, northern FL towns if you really want to experience some (or what's left) of southern hospitality in FL.

Originally Posted by Mrs. P

I've said it from day numero uno.....I have no intention whatsofreakinever of living near a large city ever again. I certainly wouldn't leave the Charlotte metro area, just to move into another cluster of big city dirty air, traffic, etc etc ....I have always planned in living in a small town. I've done the big city thing both in the North and the South. Been there done it, yawn, I'm sick of sitting in traffic. Like today, I had to <shudder> go into Charlotte. 12:00 lunchtime it took me 35 minutes to get from Arrowood Rd to Tyvola Rd...a mere 5 miles. On a Saturday. I'm sick to death of it.

Small town will fit me fine. So will tropical weather. I've came here to ask questions about areas, flood ratings and the like, so I can get a ball park where I want to visit when I come down to purchase.

[Pooring Footers]

"Believe me most of FL and the country could care less about NYC and the 'superiority' complex of it's participants...


Whooooooowwwwweeeeee! Like it!

[TANaples]

Originally Posted by Pooring Footers

"Believe me most of FL and the country could care less about NYC and the 'superiority' complex of it's participants...


Whooooooowwwwweeeeee! Like it!

I just plain don't like subtropical weather and the lifestyle that goes with it. I would have been happier if the job had taken us to anywhere in New England. I liked Maine. You cannot get anymore extreme than Maine from Florida, or from NYC.

[Pooring Footers]

TANaples, I dont know who the other poster was referring to re: the superiority complex, but I wasnt referring to you at all. I just wanted to make that known

[ngrome]

Originally Posted by TriMT7

What's your point? Having an end of year test automatically = good schools? Not saying New York doesn't have good schools, but the tired out meme and blanket statements regarding how "bad" schools are in Florida gets kind of old.

Again, the original point stands: Florida has numerous public schools in the Top 25 in the nation, and numerous others in the top 100. The system as a whole for high school education was ranked #19 in the nation by the survey. Not too shabby, and better than most other sunbelt meccas.

I attribute some of this improvement in education due to the migration of some school children from other parts of the states, such as up north.

When we moved here over 10 years ago, my son was going top ranked elementary school, 99% above all other nationwide. When he started going to school down here, I was very concerned with what we had done because over 10 years ago, the schools in FL did have a bad reputation.

In many of his classes, my son was going through curriculum that was covered in his earlier grades up north, showing that FL was behind. In fact, they had put him in an accelerated plan because he was learning a little faster than the rest of his classmates. But up north, he was just one of the other kids, not considered a gifted student or anything like that.

Thank goodness for honors and AP classes down here, because that's what he chose to do when he went to high school, finding that the regular curriculum was not very challenging.

With the migration over the years, lots of new schools of had to be built. Lot's of school children from outside of FL, that may have come from better school systems, started going to these schools, raising standardized test scores overall. I would say that hiring some new younger, enthusiastic teachers due to the number of schools sprouting all over the place had something to do with the improved test scores and learning as well.

But the improvement in education in FL just didn't come all from within, I would attribute part of that to the migration of an improved student-base from outside the state, better parenting in some cases, and improved teacher training and instruction.

[ngrome]

Originally Posted by DailyJournalist

Parading your kids around NYC is more constructive than parading them around a strip mall swamp.

Come on, haven't you been to the Sanford Flea Market?!