Am I missing something? (2009, house prices, construction)

[Hntr]

We have a thousand gallon propane tank, which we purchased to get a lower price on propane fillups. They really sock it to you on those rental tanks. We fill it once a year, in fact just last week. Cash price for anything over 600 gallons was $.94.

[yo vanilla]

Originally Posted by Hntr

In the small towns you can probably buy a nice three bedroom ranch for anywhere between two and three hundred thousand, taxes will be around four thousand, homeowner insurance another seven hundred to a thousand. Living in the larger cities will probably increase the price of an equivalent home by twenty-five percent and the taxes along with it.

I don't know what kind of small WI town you're living in but that's way on the high side if you ask me. In the fox cities with about 300K people, $200-$300K will buy you a brand new 2000+ ft, 4 bedroom, 3-4 car garage house in a new development. Spend more than that and you're getting something pretty extravegant. $150K or $180K will buy you the nice average 3 bedroom ranch in a clean part of town. My house in Appleton is on the low side. Old but clean part of town, 4 bedroom, 1600ft, 1 car garage, worth around $100K, taxes are $2K. My morgage with escrow is $804. Small towns have always been less expensive than that in my experience.

Original poster, here are my expenses which should be fairly average for a medium WI city:

Home, see above. Mine is the low side keep in mind.
Heat/electric: $230/month, thats in an old house with natural gas and central air. We keep the thermo set 69-70 in the winter.
Water: $60/month
Food: $200/week and I buy all the expensive stuff
Daycare: $1500/month, 2 small fulltime kids
Car insurance: $120/month for 2 newer Japanese cars, full coverage, clean records
The most expensive restaurants in Appleton barely get over $30/plate
93 octane was $2.31/gal this morning

Hope that clears it up. And we still have good schools and many of the top 10 rated safest cities in the US. Of course those costs go up when you get into the two bigger areas (Madison or Milwaukee) but not all that much.

[Hntr]

Originally Posted by yo vanilla

.........$200-$300K will buy you a brand new 2000+ ft, 4 bedroom, 3-4 car garage house in a new development.

Exactly what I said, "you can buy a nice home for two to three hundred thousand". I wouldn't count on the four car garage though.

I'm sure you can find some nice homes for 150-200k in the cities and out here too.


I live in the boondocks between Stevens Point and Waupaca.

OK, I entered 150-250k on this search, Waupaca and within a 20 mile radius (at ten miles I only found three homes), three bedrooms, 1.5 bath, no preference for acreage, age 0-5 years.

This is what came up:

Waupaca, WI, Real Estate Listings and Waupaca, WI, Single Family Home for Sale - REALTOR.com®

[yo vanilla]

My friend for instance bought a brand new house just off Mason St on the NW side of Appleton about 3 years ago, $250K, 4 car garage. Nice fixtures, granite counters, etc. Not the only one in the neighborhood. Another friend built a similar one with a 4 car in town of Menasha off Midway rd. Lots of new homes have them, though some have 3 doors with one stall being two deep (like both of theirs).

[Hntr]

Originally Posted by yo vanilla

My friend for instance bought a brand new house just off Mason St on the NW side of Appleton about 3 years ago, $250K, 4 car garage. Nice fixtures, granite counters, etc. Not the only one in the neighborhood. Another friend built a similar one with a 4 car in town of Menasha off Midway rd. Lots of new homes have them, though some have 3 doors with one stall being two deep (like both of theirs).

Well, I don't understand what the problem is.

I used the price of a new home as a benchmark so the OP would have a reference point. The have nice new bedroom homes in CA, I'm sure she knows what they go for, now she knows what nice new home goes for in this area.

It seems you have a need to debate, well I don't. Otherwise I would be in the Great Debates forum.

[yo vanilla]

All I'm saying dude is that $200-300K for the average ranch around here is a higher than average price. Two more new home examples: my wife's sister and her parents each bought a new construction ranch, 1500ish sqft within the last few years, one outside of Oshkosh and the other in Kaukauna. Each was around $160K.

[Hntr]

Post some links.

[BacktoNE]

It looks like OP has moved on to investigate Oklahoma. Remember, she didn't want a college town, bars or strip clubs in or near her new home town. Between those 3 things, WI is pretty much eliminated. I hope she finds what she is looking for, it won't be easy.

[susancruzs]

I have to agree that is tricky, not just in Wisconsin, small town America in many states seems to have more than a fair share of bars!

She set the bar pretty high in terms of wants and needs so you're right, won't be easy!

[BacktoNE]

Absolutely. Bars are everywhere. I should Google "dry towns" and see what pops up.

I was thinking about the college campuses. It's no secret that we don't particularly like it here, but the access to continuing education would be something I would give WI high marks on. There are campuses everywhere, or so it seems.