|
10-15-2014, 06:40 PM
|
|
|
|
140 posts, read 389,013 times
Reputation: 228
|
|
|
Here's my dilemma: I'm an interior designer (high-end contemporary designs). Living in a beautiful house to me is something that is like air, I must have it. I can't stand ugly, boring houses (traditional architecture, walmart-style interior furnishings etc).
The housing market is horrible in my city. 99.999% houses are extremely ugly (to me, I'm sure most people love them) traditional cookie-cutter style or hideous ranchers with too numerous architectural issues to list.
I do occasionally find inspiring houses, but the problem is that they are extremely rare and are never in a truly good location. Usually in a ok neighborhood (nothing really bad, just kind of low middle-class at best). We have a kid and education is a priority for us. We won't let our baby go to nothing but the best school.
So here are our choices:
1) buy an interesting house that we will love in an ok neighborhood (very low crime, just ugly, not walkable etc) and try to transfer the kid into a better public school (don't know if it's going to be possible) or, at worst, get her into a private school, but that's (based on our situation) is about $4000/yr extra. HOWEVER, the house of equal size/architectural value will be good 40-50k less than in a good neighborhood. For now we're only talking elementary school (it's possible we'll move out in 5-8 years) so private school arrangement is only for elementary school years. The particular house we're looking at at this time has assigned elementary rated at 3 (one of the worst schools) located next to one of the best middle and high schools (both rated at 8), typical for our city. We figure, we'll spend about 30k on private schooling. BUT the house will cost us good 50k less, so at worst we're making even, at best, actually saving money. Of course the nature of the neighborhood will make playing in the street impossible... I guess she'll have to find something else to do.
2) buy a godawful "nice" house in a great neighborhood. Wide quiet walkable streets with gorgeous houses, nice neighbors, no traffic no crime, kids playing/riding bicycles in the streets, old people walking their dogs, garage doors open 24/7 without anyone prowling through them... you know, the iddylic neighborhood picture. But I'll be spending most of my time INSIDE the most hideous, inanely designed house (they're all like that here) that I will hate and that will cost use 40-50k more... (let's say a 175k vs 225k house) You can only do so much with the house...
What would YOU do? I know my situation is different being a designer and thus putting a priority on something that most people don't care that much about... but still, I'd like to hear what you think would be the best choice.
|
|
10-15-2014, 06:57 PM
|
|
|
|
Location: El Dorado Hills, CA
3,724 posts, read 9,572,311 times
Reputation: 3914
|
|
|
Location location location.
|
|
10-15-2014, 07:10 PM
|
|
|
|
4,787 posts, read 11,144,472 times
Reputation: 12744
|
|
|
Option # 2
|
|
10-15-2014, 07:20 PM
|
|
|
|
3,248 posts, read 5,153,479 times
Reputation: 9279
|
|
|
Always buy in the best neighborhood.
You can change ugly but you can't move the house (usually).
|
|
10-15-2014, 07:26 PM
|
|
|
|
5,075 posts, read 10,430,990 times
Reputation: 4662
|
|
|
Buy the $225K house and tear it down, rebuild something that suits your taste.
|
|
10-15-2014, 07:28 PM
|
|
|
|
Location: Westwood, MA
4,747 posts, read 6,244,624 times
Reputation: 5672
|
|
|
Its hard to judge based on your description, but I'd probably choose option 2. I think there's a limit to the return of a better neighborhood (i.e. is the best neighborhood really much better than the fifth best neighborhood), so it's really up to you to decide if you're at that limit.
I'm surprised that as an interior designer you can't make any house look at least acceptably good.
|
|
10-15-2014, 07:29 PM
|
|
|
|
18,087 posts, read 17,551,830 times
Reputation: 25191
|
|
|
I would pick a poor house in a nice location any day over a nice house in a poor location.
|
|
10-15-2014, 08:34 PM
|
|
|
|
9,485 posts, read 12,705,988 times
Reputation: 20135
|
|
|
you're asking us if you should chose your desire for an architecturally beautiful home over your child's education?
Really?
|
|
10-15-2014, 08:38 PM
|
|
|
|
Location: Berkeley Neighborhood, Denver, CO USA
17,190 posts, read 27,300,567 times
Reputation: 31634
|
|
|
Excellent school district.
Save money and make the house the way you want.
|
|
10-15-2014, 08:45 PM
|
|
|
|
Location: Englewood, FL
1,268 posts, read 2,866,772 times
Reputation: 1115
|
|
|
My background is in interior design although I'm now in the construction business. I know your predicament.
Location is always more important than the house in the long run so it's important to keep your long term plans in mind. For me, I know I will never be happy until I can build a house with everything just the way I want it. With that in mind, we bought a very small house in a million dollar neighborhood. In other words....a tear down. And we live in it. I know it wouldn't make sense to renovate it, so I've done what I can with paint and decor. It has harvest gold cabinets and daisy laminate countertops. It's hard to deal with it some days, but I keep my eyes on the prize.
As a designer, you can make anything look good. Buy in the better neighborhood and make the house your own.
|
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.
|
|
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.
