Existing home or land/build? (Prescott, Carefree: custom home, buying, to live)

[murtom1]

Greetings, all. We're two newbies to the Forum, though at 66 hardly newbies otherwise. We hope to be in the Prescott area this Sept./Oct. Quick background: we live in a rural part of Rhode Island (yes, odd as it seems, there are some) on 30 acres beside a little river. Ours dogs, both Labs, love it, and we still do. But, after 30 years in a state as blue as the sky occasionally gets in N.E., we've had it. Had vacationed for some years in Carefree area and loved it. Noticed all the nearly instant health benefits referred to by several posters here. Delighted to discover even 100F tolerable with little humidity.

So: we're hoping to find 5 acres +/- with perhaps a few trees and bit of geometry. When my wife plowed through home listings, she found that the 5-acre range invariably had a house with 3-5 BR's and 3+ baths. We're downsizing, so more like 2 BR's and 2 baths, 1800-2200 sq. ft. Are we unlikely to find a smaller house on 5 acres? If we were to buy land and build, is this now a bad time to do either or both? Thanks.

[wretched wrench]

A lot of that depends on how far out you want to live.

Check a couple of my posts on buying dirt and building,

[BriansPerspective]

Originally Posted by murtom1

So: we're hoping to find 5 acres +/- with perhaps a few trees and bit of geometry. When my wife plowed through home listings, she found that the 5-acre range invariably had a house with 3-5 BR's and 3+ baths. We're downsizing, so more like 2 BR's and 2 baths, 1800-2200 sq. ft. Are we unlikely to find a smaller house on 5 acres? If we were to buy land and build, is this now a bad time to do either or both? Thanks.

There are some smaller homes on large lots. It depends on your price range and desired location. People are starting to buy land and build again, so that is certainly an option. You can probably still buy a house cheaper than you can buy land and build on it.

[wretched wrench]

Originally Posted by BriansPerspective

You can probably still buy a house cheaper than you can buy land and build on it.

Yup. The trick is to find the house you love on the location you love.

[murtom1]

Thanks WW and Brian. We understood that it was a highly speculative question but were trying to see if there were a clear advantage one way or the other (price/availability). Given that there isn't, we'll poke around when we're there and see. A related question: if it made sense to build, have things heated back up to where good builders are likely to be busy with large custom homes or whole developments?

[wretched wrench]

Originally Posted by murtom1

...we'll poke around when we're there and see.

Good idea. Lots to learn, places to see.

A related question: if it made sense to build, have things heated back up to where good builders are likely to be busy with large custom homes or whole developments?

The good builders are likely to be busy with custom homes.

The lower-quality, lower bid corner-cutters are likely to be busy with whole developments.

[murtom1]

O.K., thanks, WW.