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Hello here! Im new to this forum. I am a young guy getting a job but have no place to live as a half decent house here in South Florida is more than 1/4 million! So I have been searching on the MLS and realtors for a nice city with affordable houses/homes.
I have been considering Houston but my mom's friend said the crime has shot way up and property values are crashing because of all the immigrants that moved from New Orleans when it got wiped out. How much truth is there to that?
Ironically south California is an option because of the plethora of high paying computer and technology jobs which happen to be my carreer of interest! Ill have to get a mobile/manufactored house there, but its the same story if I stay in south Florida and jobs here dont pay well! Is it true the crime rate is elevated in much of California? How does it compare to south Florida? What advantages and disadvantages will I have in south California vs. south Florida?
I can get a mobile home for $30k plus $399 lot rent in south Florida while mobile homes are 120k plus $700 lot rent in south California! But I heard Cali pays almost twice the salary for the same job so once I quickly pay off the mobile home, ill be able to retire much earlier!
I prefer a nice warm climate similar to south Florida, to live in a medium or large city with good jobs and salary and lots of fun things to do in said city. I need cheap, affordable houses or homes below $100,000 as I am not a rocket scientist, movie star, celebrity athlate or famous surgeon. I am just your average guy who wants to work in the computer industry(estimate salary 30k a year) I want to live in a low crime area too. I was born and lived in south Florida but houses there have become unaffordable for over 90% of us here! The cheapest houses here are 3 times what I can realistically afford!
I can consider a mobile home as an option, theres a nice mobile park close to my parents house and close to many jobs with several mobile homes for sale cheap at $6000 to $30000! Lot fees is $399 a month which beats the $1200+ apartment rent anyday which I cant afford nor do I want to pay such high apartment rent as ill have no money left for anything else. If I want a house, I am going to have to move out of state. What options do I have, what cities? How is life in said city? Thanks for reading my dilemna(which is a dilemna for most others too!)
On the main page of this site is all manner of data for most cities in the nation, crime, income, housing costs, and much more.
For a book on the topic, check out a copy of Cities Ranked and Rated, it has much the same data that you can leaf though. The data is nicely organized and presented in useful ways.
Denver may be affordable for you, has a pretty good chunk of IT work and has tons of fun stuff all year round, and at night.
Have you checked out Austin, TX? I personally know nothing about it, but I see it listed all the time on lists of good places to relocate. The economy is supposed to be good, and there is supposed to be a lot to do there. I am sure the climate is warm there!
Wow I cant believe crime is more than double in my city vs. Los Angeles and nearly triple of San Diego!
Looking at the front page of this website, I dont get enough information and most of the info is years old. The best information I can get is talking to those with personal experience living in their own cities or who have lived at a city for a while.
The income stats tell me nothing, I need to know what the same job gets elsewhere, not what the city median income is. Do I stand correct that as a general rule, California's income is almost double of Florida's?
Thanks, I will check Austin Texas and see if there is anything decent for $100,000 or less.
How many of you would reccomend I move to south California for the milder summers, much lower crime rate and much higher salary vs. south Florida where I currently live?
Just a note on mobile homes - they are (in most places I know of) a dreadful investment, and you are highly unlikely to ever profit from, let alone sell, one. Do your research very, very carefully.
IMHO, it is better to buy a fixer upper home - HUD, bank repo, etc. That way you own the house and the property it sits on and you're not beholden to the vagaries of whoever owns the mobile home park.
I'm speaking from my own research (I once considered it) and the experiences of some people I know who made the mistake and lost big-time.
Southern (and most of) California is insanely expensive. Don't forget to factor in property taxes, when choosing a locale!
I'll leave your other questions to those who actually live where you're interested in, just wanted to chime in on the mobile home thing.
I am not in the business to invest in real estate, just want something to live in that wont put me in debt. I know California is insanely expensive, but mobile homes there are affordable at around $100 a square foot and cheap lot rent(1/3 as much as renting an apartment!)
The property taxes, insurance, HOA, maintainence and bills on a house far outcost the minimal expenses of a mobile home. I would still buy a house if I could easily afford one, houses would need to be cheap enough and/or I would need a job that makes very, very good money. This wont happen in Florida or Cali, but maybe somewhere out there such as Houston or up north. There are many factors to decide, one thing I like about california is jobs dish out almost double salary!
Wow those are some nice houses for only $200k! Thats less than $100 a square foot! The same houses here are near half million(~500k)
I used the morgage calculator and it said I can only afford $26648 of house! Thats based on a $30,000 annual salary with another $300/month profit in stocks. I put down all other expenses like taxes, food, cloth, electricity, gas, etc. I would need to make about $80,000 a year to afford that $200,000 house!
Ditto what 210 says. There are some homes for $100K or less; however, these are usually in lower income areas in southern San Antonio. Most houses now start in the 130's (1300SF on up). Some builders to look at would be DR Horton, Armadillo, KB Home, and Centex. This is for new homes. You can also look at existing homes as their prices have not risen as fast as new homes.
Wow those are some nice houses for only $200k! Thats less than $100 a square foot! The same houses here are near half million(~500k)
I used the morgage calculator and it said I can only afford $26648 of house! Thats based on a $30,000 annual salary with another $300/month profit in stocks. I put down all other expenses like taxes, food, cloth, electricity, gas, etc. I would need to make about $80,000 a year to afford that $200,000 house!
Why don't you just move to the location you're truly interested in, and that seems to be Southern California judging by your comments in posts above. But, wait to buy a home. Your priority seems to be your career and building a nestegg. Housing is a terrible thing to buy right now almost everywhere in the country, but Southern California is one of the areas which bubbled the most and is in freefall, like Florida, right now. Keep in mind that if there are far more homes for sale than buyers, even if you buy a very cheap home, your mobility can be threatened for job opportunities that arise by the difficulty of having your money tied up in a home in a sinking market. I'd skip the Mobile Home idea..just a waste of money you'll never sell. Rents are a great bargain and I'd simply find an apartment somewhere safe, nice, comfortable, and at a reasonable price and skip home ownership until your career anchors and the housing market hits bottom with real bargains coming up. Then again, if you choose Texas, the advantage to being a renter there and working there (Austin comes to mind for me with computers, etc.), is that there is no state income tax, and if you rent, you avoid high property taxes. Yes, Texas has cheap housing, but it also rivals New York among the nation's highest property taxes. My advice is forget home buying for now. It's the wrong time and you're not in the right position to make it work yet. Rent and work in either Texas or CA.
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Crime stats are right under your nose
