How Much Home Will $250k Get You in Your Metro Area?
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In the Twin Cities area, $250,000 is only going to get you crappy working-class homes in the outer-ring suburbs, a 50s rambler, a bungalow in an area with high crime, tiny condos, or dumpy fixer-uppers.
So what would say are the priciest neighborhoods and suburbs in Minneapolis-St. Paul? I'm thinking Chicago has the most expensive upper class suburbs in the Midwest, but probably the Twin Cities'(Minneapolis at least) proper have an overall higher median or average home value? Zillow says the average or median home value in Minneapolis is $285k (it's 242k for Chicago).
A Zillow search for houses priced between $200k and $250k in the city of Philadelphia returns 532 results right now.
The great majority of them are two-story rowhouses or twins ranging in size from about 1,000 to 1,500 square feet, built anywhere from the 1920s to the 1970s. Most of them are in South Philadelphia or, like this one, in Northeast Philadelphia:
A good number of them have been recently renovated, like this one in West Oak Lane, most of which lies in my ZiP code (East Germantown station, 19138):
The large number of decent houses in decent neighborhoods in this price range may help explain why Philadelphia has a reputation as one of the most affordable of both the nation's largest cities and of the cities of the Northeast US.
The Triangle is a market different from most of the rest of the country in that multiple areas are "central"...
I showed this house yesterday. It is in a very nice neighborhood but in what is considered by many to be the "wrong side" of the city of Durham. It is probably one of the nicest homes I've seen in this price range in a while and will most likely have multiple offers and sell for a tad over list price by the end of this weekend;
This home; in what's generally considered the more-desirable/higher appreciating area of Durham on the SW side of the city (but still a suburban setting) is in one of the most popular "starter" neighborhoods in the suburban section of Durham and the Triangle area overall. Awkward layout IMO (saw this one too; almost put an offer in myself) but still relatively rare to find a 3 bed/2 bath with 2 car garage in that price range.
The downtown/near Duke campus section of the city of Durham is booming with new construction and renovated bungalows. Hard to find anything near there for under $300k but here is a Bungalow that grandma has probably lived in for several decades and needs to be brought into this century but is in PRIME location. Street parking only
In Chapel Hill; the fairly affluent college town with "the top rated" school district in the state; SFH's under $250k are virtually unheard of and usually have pretty big caveats to them. This one is in livable condition and not in a floodzone (usually the only way a SFH in CHCCS is going to be priced this way) but definitely needs a little more help getting out of the 1980s and it only has 2 bedrooms.
This house in North Raleigh (the suburban section of the city very popular with families) is on the same street I lived on through about 3rd grade. This house was built in the early 90s and not updated since. A similarly sized house with more updates and not with the unpopular split-foyer floorplan in that same neighborhood would probably go for at least $30k-$50k more.
Inside the Beltline "old Raleigh"...nothing in a neighborhood that is already "there"
In neighborhoods Inside the Beltline that are more up-and-coming; this house is a rare find. It's built by Habitat for Humanity; apparently buyer does not need to qualify for that program though (don't know how this house found that loophole)
In the story-book boom-burb town we moved to when I was in high school (during the housing bubble years), Apex, NC....$250k could comfortably get you into a "forever home" with at least 2500 sq ft, 3 bed + bonus room on a .3 acre lot that was only a couple years old. Now those same houses that haven't been updated since are selling in the $400s and $250k gets you this tight little ranch starter home on a postage-stamp lot.
At the most, a 1-2 bedroom condo/apt in good condition. You may stumble upon a dumpy 2-3 bed single family home somewhere sketchy in Jersey, but that's about it.
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