Madison: Houses For Less Than 600,000??? (Shorewood, Maple Bluff: landscaping, neighborhoods, buy)

[Midwesterns45]

One of my moving options is to Madison, wi.
I have a relative who lives on the west side of town off of South Midvale BLVD and her neighborhood is ideal(pretty houses, parks, trees, sophisticated neighbors you know the deal etc) and I want a house that goes for no more 650,000 I'm a single journalist who makes a good salary...i work all day and i need a good place to come back to??
CAN I AFFORD TO LIVE HERE AND GET BY WITHOUT WORRYING FINANCIALLY??

[Harpoon]

$650,000 should give you plenty of options for a fantastic house in Madison.

[ComfortablyNumb]

Are you kidding? You could even afford to live in some of the nicest neighborhoods (Shorewood, Maple Bluff, around the Arboretum) for that...

[MidwesternBookWorm]

If you can afford that kind of house price on a journalist's salary, you must be working for a pretty high-falutin' media outlet.

$650K would buy you two and a half or possibly three homes in my neighborhood. I don't live in the fancy part of Madison, but we like it here. Even in the ritzy parts of town, that kind of money will buy you a lot of house.

You know, you can get a pretty good idea of property values here at the City Assessor's website. Madison assesses at fair market value, or at the assessor's estimate of FMV, so if you do a "query by address range", you can get a sense of home values on an entire street. Go here to see what kind of home prices to expect in Madison: City of Madison: Assessor's Property Information

[geoflo]

I live 25 minutes south of Madison in a 3 BR, 2 full bath ranch. Huge yard with professional landscaping. Ceramic tile in kitchen, pretty-close-to-finished basement. The house is 7 years old. Moving to Ohio, I am selling home for $190,000...don't look in Madison. You can get a lot if you go a few miles.

[Harpoon]

Originally Posted by geoflo

I live 25 minutes south of Madison in a 3 BR, 2 full bath ranch. Huge yard with professional landscaping. Ceramic tile in kitchen, pretty-close-to-finished basement. The house is 7 years old. Moving to Ohio, I am selling home for $190,000...don't look in Madison. You can get a lot if you go a few miles.

True, you can get a lot of house if you live that far outside of town... but then you are left with a 50 mile daily commute, which isn't that appealing to most people, especially with $4+ gas. If you have the money to live in a similar house within the city limits that would get my vote, that way you are still close to everything else like restaurants, culture, etc.

[radraja]

This is WI. $600k is considered rich in WI. You'd be fine.

Although, I'm wondering how you plan on making that kind of salary in Madison? Madison is a small city...this isn't a major newspaper or anything. Journalist salaries don't tend to be particularly high.