housing prices (buy, selling, live)

[Zippy7fo]

Originally Posted by TuborgP

Everything said is accurate except for comments about greed. Remember the words location, location, location and in Maryland location has education as a subset. You are talking about some of the best school sytems in the country with some of the best teachers etc etc etc. Well educated people want good schools and will pay to live where they are.

Greed for money and power played no part during the housing boom??? Just all basic economics????

[togoornot]

Thanks again everyone.

We will be coming back down again for another house hunting trip. Our realtor has narrowed some areas down for us, I don't know exactly where yet though.
The homes we are going to have to look at in our price range are much older than the one we live in currently.

My wife said she was speaking with someone in her office who has a friend that lives in Gaithersburg (sp?) and that basically if you don't make at least $70k a year, don't plan on owning a single family home, that many families live in Townhomes there?
Townhomes are becoming more popular here, but for the older folks, not for families with children.

I still can't believe the difference in housing costs. I know that parts of NY are expensive, near NYC, Long Island, but not here in Western, NY.

[ChosenGSR]

Originally Posted by togoornot

My wife said she was speaking with someone in her office who has a friend that lives in Gaithersburg (sp?) and that basically if you don't make at least $70k a year, don't plan on owning a single family home, that many families live in Townhomes there?

I think that's pretty much true. This of course completely depends on your lifestyle but in general I would agree. You take $70k after tax and 401k contribution and you end up with ~3.6k/month, most people with single family homes are looking at 1.6k-2k/month mortgage payments, that's super tough to pull off. And I am not even talking about popular areas like howard county, those are simply out of reach for most of us.

[hokiejane]

Originally Posted by togoornot

My wife said she was speaking with someone in her office who has a friend that lives in Gaithersburg (sp?) and that basically if you don't make at least $70k a year, don't plan on owning a single family home, that many families live in Townhomes there?

That's the exact reason why I left Montgomery Co. (where Gaithersburg is) many moons ago. I know I'd never be able to afford a single family home down there. I ended up finding a job in Baltimore and moved north of there where I could.

As I said before, with your job being in Frederick, you'll have many more options. And do check out Thurmont and Emmmitsburg as another poster suggested. It's beautiful out that way.

[kevinm]

Real Estate agents are NOT GREEDY. The home owners are the greedy ones who set the price that they want for their house. Agents only market the property at the price the owner wants.

[Zippy7fo]

Originally Posted by kevinm

Real Estate agents are NOT GREEDY. The home owners are the greedy ones who set the price that they want for their house. Agents only market the property at the price the owner wants.

Lmao......Real Estate agents played a HUGE hand in this mess. Greed for commission and the inability of people to say no and lenders ability to finance the loans with low to zero liability. Now its coming out R.A.'s were recommending gawdawful loan packages to homeowners who weren't qualified in the first place just as long as they could get the sale/commission. Plus its in the interest of R.A.'s for the owner to sell the house at maximum value because thats more money in their pockets....

[balto charlie]

Originally Posted by Zippy7fo

Greed for money and power played no part during the housing boom??? Just all basic economics????

Capitalism IS greed. Get the max for ALL transactions. I don't think this is good but it is our ecenomics.

[TuborgP]

Originally Posted by Zippy7fo

Greed for money and power played no part during the housing boom??? Just all basic economics????

I think we differ on what is greed. Trying to mazimize profit is capitalism and the system that made us a 20th century super power. I am not selling my house for altruistic reasons so you can have a place to stay. I am selling it to use the capital for another purpose. I don't consider that greed. I do consider it wealth accumulation. Home equity has solidified many a middle class retirement.

[carebear1970]

Personally, and yes I have lived in Maryland all my life, its sucks here. The people are rude and I know you will be working in Frederick, but Frederick isn't what it used to be. Its called the Monkey County people moving up here flooding our roadways and raising our house prices. About 10 years ago you could buy a house downtown in Frederick cheap, but now all the implants came up here and live there and what happens, boom the prices go up. Who would have thought million dollar condos on South Street. That is just stupid. It's jst so people can say they live in "Historic Frederick" which is where I work and nothing to be glorified. I live in Ballenger Creek and its way over flooded here too. We are moving out of Maryland to a place you expect an overflux of people and high prices because it's about 50 times bigger than this state. And all the people commenting on the beautiful Chesapeake, well if you want to go swimming or boating in a contaminated bay more power to you. Deep Creek is nice, but that is over runned by people with their vacation homes. Personally, if I stay here, which is a big no, I will move to Garrett County outside the Deep Creek area where the people are nice and the roadways are just like back in the day here.

[hokiejane]

Originally Posted by carebear1970

Personally, if I stay here, which is a big no, I will move to Garrett County outside the Deep Creek area where the people are nice and the roadways are just like back in the day here.

And then you'll be one of the "implants" in Garrett County that all the long-time residents will complain about. You know...the ones who will be moving in and raising their housing prices and flooding their roadways.