Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Massachusetts
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 04-28-2016, 01:47 PM
 
Location: 42°22'55.2"N 71°24'46.8"W
4,848 posts, read 11,746,463 times
Reputation: 2961

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by 3cents View Post
But the main point of my post is this: buy the cheapest reasonable house in a desirable town. I've recently tried to do a lot of what-ifs scenario. Interesting, if I were to downside to a 2-bed $450K condo, I would only be slightly better off financially 10 years down the road. But, I would be significantly worse off if I 'upgrade' to a $850K house say 5 yrs later when I can amass $200K for the down-payment.

So what is a cheapest reasonable house in a desirable town? Unfortunately, that's about $700K right now, in the bottom 1/3 to 1/4 of many desirable towns.
I completely agree, but I've taken flak in the past for saying this. Why would anyone with kids spend $600k on a big house in Framingham when they can get a perfectly suitable smaller home next door in Sudbury or Natick for the same price.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 04-28-2016, 02:34 PM
 
9,780 posts, read 7,034,824 times
Reputation: 11363
Quote:
Originally Posted by Parsec View Post
I completely agree, but I've taken flak in the past for saying this. Why would anyone with kids spend $600k on a big house in Framingham when they can get a perfectly suitable smaller home next door in Sudbury or Natick for the same price.
Priorities, Familiarity, Taxes, Commute, et al. There are a myriad of reasons why someone would do that.

Let's take the question a step further. Why would someone spend $600K on a house in Sudbury when they could get a perfectly suitable smaller house next door in Wayland for the same price?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-28-2016, 02:52 PM
 
15,684 posts, read 20,181,855 times
Reputation: 20853
Some people like certain towns over others? Personal preference?


I know there are some towns on the Top-20 MA towns to live in that I personally wouldn't want to live in. And on the flipside, there are some towns I would love to live in that probably don't even make the honorable mention list.

Last edited by BostonMike7; 04-28-2016 at 03:06 PM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-28-2016, 05:10 PM
 
Location: Westwood, MA
5,037 posts, read 6,868,020 times
Reputation: 5960
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3cents View Post
You know, you've provided enough in your post for one to calculate your gross using two simple algebraic equations.

Some people in their late 30s still can't comfortably afford a $650K house. I'm an example, as I've just started working for a couple of years due to that PhD and postdoc. I've stretched to buy a $650K house. The escrow is eating up a huge chunk of my monthly gross. But with proper budgeting, I think I can be on track to fund my own retirement and kids college.

But the main point of my post is this: buy the cheapest reasonable house in a desirable town. I've recently tried to do a lot of what-ifs scenario. Interesting, if I were to downside to a 2-bed $450K condo, I would only be slightly better off financially 10 years down the road. But, I would be significantly worse off if I 'upgrade' to a $850K house say 5 yrs later when I can amass $200K for the down-payment.

So what is a cheapest reasonable house in a desirable town? Unfortunately, that's about $700K right now, in the bottom 1/3 to 1/4 of many desirable towns.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Parsec View Post
I completely agree, but I've taken flak in the past for saying this. Why would anyone with kids spend $600k on a big house in Framingham when they can get a perfectly suitable smaller home next door in Sudbury or Natick for the same price.
As advice, it's either not very useful or not very good. Not very useful because what's "reasonable" and what towns are desirable is a pretty open ended questions. People in Hong Kong live in 200 sq. ft apartments (or less), so is that the goal? Is anything more excessive? Can you stretch to a SFH? As for desirable, where do put the cutoff? Wellesley probably is, but what about Needham? Natick? I guess Framinnghham isn't. Is there a list somewhere we can consult?

It's not very good advice because it totally neglects the idea that people value different things differently. Clearly it's not important to you to have a big house, but that doesn't mean no one can. The point of a house isn't to get a little more money in 10 or 20 or 30 years, it's to have a place to live and enjoy your life. Even if it were, I've never seen hard data that convinces me that "desirable" towns increase in value at a faster rate than normal towns. It goes against the other conventional wisdom to "buy low and sell high". It's such a pervasive sentiment thr it might be true, but it is clear that a total stock market fund with reinvested dividends has outperformed housing, so the best bet it to spend as little as possible on housing and just invest the rest.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-28-2016, 07:36 PM
 
3,268 posts, read 3,298,772 times
Reputation: 2682
The worst house in a desireable neighborhood in the boston area is still a going to cost a lot of money and likely require a lot of expensive work. Is this advice still worth it in the boston area? Seems like everyone wants something move in ready and even the homes that need work just seem so overpriced. Tough market to be a buyer in right now. I almost wonder if people are starting to buy a move in ready home in a cheaper/not the greatest neighborhood. Look at the market in dorchester. Many not so great neighborhoods are becoming better because people are choosing a cheaper neighborhood to buy in. Or they are just buying what they can afford.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-28-2016, 08:24 PM
 
23,072 posts, read 18,206,847 times
Reputation: 10636
Quote:
Originally Posted by FromEverywhereUSA View Post
Interesting convo... Okay if I add our perspective? Hubby and I both have Bachelor's degrees. He graduated with debt, I graduated with none. We never carry credit card debt and have in 8 years of marriage only purchased two items that were financed: a modest family vehicle and and a TV. We both work and we save well, but are still, at 32 and 38 respectively, unable to buy a home. Why?

Start with our industry: it's incredibly volatile. I've had 6 full-time jobs in 10 years, and that's not even including all the contract gigs I took to make ends meet. Hubby has had 4 jobs in the same time, plus contract work. What with the recession happening pretty much right after we graduated, I have never received a raise, ever. And because companies often folded up right under me, giving me little time to seek something new, I've also not consistently made more at each successive place I worked, so I actually make less today than I did 5 years ago. Every time one of us loses a job, we use up much of our savings while searching for a new one. We're fortunate that we've never gone into debt during a period of unemployment, but we've also never been able to truly get ahead with savings. It's like starting over every time. And with such an unstable income, locking ourselves into a mortgage would be a colossal mistake.

Then there are the places we've lived: early in our careers, we had to go where the jobs were, which meant, for a time, San Francisco. The housing and rental prices there are stratospheric.... we were paying way over the recommended percentage of income for our place there, even though it was very modest. Until recently, that was our only option, though. We got the chance to escape to Massachusetts and we took it. We spent most of our savings (again) in the process, but it was worth it for the lower(!) cost of living compared to SF. Now, I'm actively seeking to switch careers and get out of our unstable industry, but that probably means starting at the bottom again and working my way back up. I expect it will be a few years before we can even consider buying a home.

So, no partying, no significant debt other than one person's student loans, and we're still renting. We did go ahead and have kids but that's because neither of us were willing to put it off until we have more secure finances, because frankly, that may never happen and I'm not willing to sacrifice having a family for that. My kids may not have a back yard and I may not be able to put much away for their college funds, but I hope I can prepare them for adulthood in spite of that.

I think a lot of people on this MA forum, forget that the average employee in the area earns somewhere around $40-50k per year. It's easy to do if one works in a high paying field and who's acquaintances are all generally within the same vocation and/or similar spot on the economic totem pole. Not any single person's fault, just how things are today. It's apparent in reading the posts on this forum, people really do live in completely different worlds...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-28-2016, 09:28 PM
 
3,176 posts, read 3,664,567 times
Reputation: 2676
Quote:
Originally Posted by massnative71 View Post
I think a lot of people on this MA forum, forget that the average employee in the area earns somewhere around $40-50k per year. It's easy to do if one works in a high paying field and who's acquaintances are all generally within the same vocation and/or similar spot on the economic totem pole. Not any single person's fault, just how things are today. It's apparent in reading the posts on this forum, people really do live in completely different worlds...
This.

I make about that much with over 5 years experience and 8 years in the workforce. If I wasn't married I'd be living in a slumlord apartment with a bunch of roommates in Allston because it's all I'd be able to afford.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-29-2016, 08:21 AM
 
15,684 posts, read 20,181,855 times
Reputation: 20853
Quote:
Originally Posted by massnative71 View Post
I think a lot of people on this MA forum, forget that the average employee in the area earns somewhere around $40-50k per year. It's easy to do if one works in a high paying field and who's acquaintances are all generally within the same vocation and/or similar spot on the economic totem pole. Not any single person's fault, just how things are today. It's apparent in reading the posts on this forum, people really do live in completely different worlds...



Very good point. And you hit the nail on the head with people surrounding themselves with like people and not seeing how other people live.


I come here to read stories about other people living in the area, and it's at times an eye-opener.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-29-2016, 08:28 AM
 
Location: East Coast
4,235 posts, read 3,673,353 times
Reputation: 6458
Quote:
Originally Posted by massnative71 View Post
I think a lot of people on this MA forum, forget that the average employee in the area earns somewhere around $40-50k per year. It's easy to do if one works in a high paying field and who's acquaintances are all generally within the same vocation and/or similar spot on the economic totem pole. Not any single person's fault, just how things are today. It's apparent in reading the posts on this forum, people really do live in completely different worlds...
A while back I earned less than that and had $1200/month in student loan payments. No economic advice was helpful to me -- don't go to Starbucks everyday wasn't useful because I already wasn't going there. In some fields, it is even worse now -- plenty of people in my field make what I did but have even higher student loan payments. If I hadn't been married, I don't think I ever would have been able to live on my own, and certainly wouldn't have been able to afford to buy anything.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-29-2016, 08:46 AM
 
Location: 42°22'55.2"N 71°24'46.8"W
4,848 posts, read 11,746,463 times
Reputation: 2961
Quote:
Originally Posted by robr2 View Post
Priorities, Familiarity, Taxes, Commute, et al. There are a myriad of reasons why someone would do that.

Let's take the question a step further. Why would someone spend $600K on a house in Sudbury when they could get a perfectly suitable smaller house next door in Wayland for the same price?
For me personally there's not much difference between Wayland and Sudbury, but when we were looking in Wayland the homes in our price range were on tiny 1/4 - 1/2 acre lots which I didn't like. I get the point you're trying to make though - everyone has different priorities. I understand that. I just don't agree with other parents who think it's okay to compromise on their kids education in order to live in a bigger house. That's okay, there will always be something to disagree about.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Dm84 View Post
This.
I make about that much with over 5 years experience and 8 years in the workforce. If I wasn't married I'd be living in a slumlord apartment with a bunch of roommates in Allston because it's all I'd be able to afford.
Thank God for breadwinner wives In my social circle it seems like that is the case more often than not.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Massachusetts

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top