Good or Bad neighborhoods (Savannah, Gray: hardwood floors, rental, crime rate)
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The streets with State names are part of the Avondale area. some of which has been going downhill rapidly. It's just a chancey thing. We could see a turn around, and the area get better, but for now, your guess is as good as anyones.
I think it is funny how in one city a street like Pennsylvania Ave is thought of as run down & a bad neighborhood but in another city Pennsylvania Ave is completely opposite. Where I live now Pennsylvania Ave is one of the most desirable streets, the houses are from 1900's to 1930's all of them well built & been well cared for, most of the houses are just now starting to come on the market because the original or 2nd owners are dying off.
Here streets that have number names or has "main" in it's name (Main St, North Main, South Main, etc...) are typically not the best places to live, the houses are older & at one time nice but the families died off in the 70's & 80's. They were sold or turned into rentals, not cared for at all, some of them the front yards were paved to make parking areas, a large number of them the front porch was closed in to make the home bigger. Things like that.
What still amazes me about Savannah, no matter how desirable the city gets & how much the cost of living goes up & how more & more homes keep climbing toward that $1 million mark, you still have a good deal of homes under $100,000 & not all of them are run down shacks. I have seen some really awesome houses for $30,000 or less.
From what I have learned, the population of Savannah is somewhere around 132,000, the population of Asheville is around $75,000. In Asheville the number of homes on the market right now with an asking price of $100,000 or less is 75, The cheapest of those is a mid 1970's single wide trailer with .18 acres of land & they want $20,000. The Number of Homes over 1 million is 97. The most expensive home on the market right now is $10,000,000. It is a 9000 sq ft Victorian built in the 1890's.
In Savannah the number of houses $100,000 or less is 479, the cheapest home right now in Savannah is $12,500. The number of homes over 1 million is 102 with the most expensive is $6,500,000. built 1937, water front, 3700 sq ft.
I'm very curious to know where you've seen an awesome house for $30,000 or less.
814 East 31ST Street $49,500
920 East 38TH Street $45,000
516 East Anderson Street $44,00
919 East HENRY Street $39,900
1605 Grove Street $34,000
1213 East 31ST $30,000
2120 HARDEN Street $14,900
I should have actually said, $50,000 or less. If I was in the position to buy a house today I would buy any of the ones listed above. Now my definition of awesome & your definition awesome may be completely different. But from my perspective all of those houses are awesome deals. Where I live now non of those houses would be on the market for any less than $100,000.
Just so you know where I am coming from with my thoughts of those houses being awesome for the money, here are a few address in Asheville of houses that are currently on the market. You can go on any real estate site & check them out if you are curious.
231 Cedar Hill Road, Asheville, NC 28806............................. 39 Ramoth, Asheville, NC 28804
Now, you have me curious as to where you are finding your information. I looked up the first one, one 31st street, on the tax records. It has a 137,400 appraised value. 24,100 for the land, and 113,300 for the house.
Perhaps the figure that you have is the balance due on a loan???? It would be a bargain at that price, but that's not a good figure as to what the house should sell for.
I think I am a very astute buyer of property. Everyday I, or people that work on my behalf, look at properties in the Victorian district. In the past year I have bought quite a bit and I believe I have bought wisely.
In the list that was posted (seemingly awesome) there are some real NASTY houses. I have only been in one of them which is 3rd down from the top. (rather not place address in my posting). This house is owned by another guy who thought he could "do it himself". What you don't see in the pictures is the left hand side of the house propped up as it is about to collapse Go across the street from the house and you will see the house listing. Inside has nothing. No plumbing, electrical, walls, nada so to speak.
So what's so awesome about paying 44K? I looked at the house in the summer and then it had been on the market for quite some time.Must be that you need to put 150 into it? Then you have an awesome house for 190 which you could have bought anywhere for 130.
House on Anderson is a scary dump. Pictures look good on-line but they're old pictures. It needs a new roof built onto the house, back of the house has settled noticeably lower than the front...inside there are holes cut in floor and then repaired with plywood - also the windows have 1/2" to 1" gaps and no screens. It needs bulldozed and built new. Great fireplaces though. Looked at some of the other houses from the road and wouldn't get out of the car. Sorry!
I am not just some do it yourself. I had my own business of restoring houses. Not just remodeling houses. I would not accept a job if the house was newer than 1950. I specialized in restoring a house back to exactly the way it looked the day it was built. When I was finished the only thing in the house that would look like it was newer than the year it was built was the kitchen appliances. Everything else would be authentic to the age of the house.
As I stated before my definition of what is an awesome house may be completely different that what awesome means to you. For me that definition means, good bones, great style, built before 1950, & priced well (in my opinion) for its condition. As I have stated before, I live in Asheville NC. You asked what is so awesome about paying $44,000 for that house, well here where I live now that same house would sell for well over $100,000 in its current condition, if the house was demolished & the lot was completely vacant, over grown & filled with junk & abandoned cars it still would not sell for under $44,000.
If you look up some of the houses I mentioned in Asheville & surrounding areas you will see for around $44,000 I could buy a 10 year old single wide trailer in a trailer park. The biggest issue with all of that is that here in Western NC the average pay here is about half of what you can earn in Savannah. Where in in Asheville I can not dream of owning an older house, but in Savannah I would be able to afford to buy one & fix it up.
The house on Anderson is a perfect example of how beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. You describe it as a scary dump, but I see it as a gorgeous & can just imagine all the things I could do to it to bring it back to the way it once looked. Make that home one of the neighborhood jewels. I am a purist when it comes to house restoration, I do not see that house as what I can make it, I see it as what it one was & how I can make it like that again. I would not tear out walls & make the living, dinning & kitchen all one big room, I would not turn one of the bedrooms into a huge spa bath, I would not put in all new modern lighting & I would not do all the typical decorating "up grades" most people would do, I would also not do anything to the house with resale value in mind. I would make the house look EXACTLY the way it did the day it was originally built. The only thing modern in the house would be the kitchen appliances & what ever furniture or things I bring into it. I have no desire to buy or live in a new or newly remodeled house, something I could just buy one day & move right in the next day. I want a house with a soul, something that has history & a life longer than me.
Last edited by WNCbadwolf; 02-14-2011 at 09:16 AM..
I am not just some do it yourself. I had my own business of restoring houses. Not just remodeling houses. I would not accept a job if the house was newer than 1950. I specialized in restoring a house back to exactly the way it looked the day it was built. When I was finished the only thing in the house that would look like it was newer than the year it was built was the kitchen appliances. Everything else would be authentic to the age of the house.
As I stated before my definition of what is an awesome house may be completely different that what awesome means to you. For me that definition means, good bones, great style, built before 1950, & priced well (in my opinion) for its condition. As I have stated before, I live in Asheville NC. You asked what is so awesome about paying $44,000 for that house, well here where I live now that same house would sell for well over $100,000 in its current condition, if the house was demolished & the lot was completely vacant, over grown & filled with junk & abandoned cars it still would not sell for under $44,000.
If you look up some of the houses I mentioned in Asheville & surrounding areas you will see for around $44,000 I could buy a 10 year old single wide trailer in a trailer park. The biggest issue with all of that is that here in Western NC the average pay here is about half of what you can earn in Savannah. Where in in Asheville I can not dream of owning an older house, but in Savannah I would be able to afford to buy one & fix it up.
The house on Anderson is a perfect example of how beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. You describe it as a scary dump, but I see it as a gorgeous & can just imagine all the things I could do to it to bring it back to the way it once looked. Make that home one of the neighborhood jewels. I am a purist when it comes to house restoration, I do not see that house as what I can make it, I see it as what it one was & how I can make it like that again. I would not tear out walls & make the living, dinning & kitchen all one big room, I would not turn one of the bedrooms into a huge spa bath, I would not put in all new modern lighting & I would not do all the typical decorating "up grades" most people would do, I would also not do anything to the house with resale value in mind. I would make the house look EXACTLY the way it did the day it was originally built. The only thing modern in the house would be the kitchen appliances & what ever furniture or things I bring into it. I have no desire to buy or live in a new or newly remodeled house, something I could just buy one day & move right in the next day. I want a house with a soul, something that has history & a life longer than me.
Not to belabor the point but a "price" on a house is not for the bones, charm, style, etc. it is for the package. That is to include: nabe, school district, dollars to repair, future value, safe/crime scale of 1-10 and on and on. You making a comp to where you live now is flawed logic and I can't see where you're going with this conversation. Sorry.
BTW if you want to see real awesome prices ie: $3500 for a former bank building with 18 ft. high ceiling get a hold of yesterday's magazine section of the NY Times and read about the town in Pa. (I believe it's called Braxton or something close to that)
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