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Living in the climate I live in now where it snows/gets icy very rarely.. I would certainly buy a place without a garage. I don't care for street parking though, so I would prefer at least a driveway.
However, in a snowy climate with a lot of inclement weather, I would much prefer having a garage.
I live in Oakland and thankfully not had a problem.
That said just about everyone I know that parks on the street has had problems... mostly sideswipe damage to cars being totaled...
Can't street how important it is to have at least off street parking and even more so with density increasing... hard to find a street spot the last few years.
I only recently bought a car, so far hasn't been an issue. It's just the way I was raised, even if I lived alone on a mountain somewhere I'd want my wallet, ID, whatever important items near me. And if I'm taking those important things out, might as well lug the whole thing. But my paranoia isn't what this thread is about
I like how you don't want to "dig [your] car out of the snow" but are fine with digging your entire driveway out of the snow....
I have a fairly short driveway but it's still a whole lot easier to clear that than it is to dig a car out. I speak from many years of living in Boston without a garage and have dug my car out more times than I want to count.
And if I had a longer driveway, I'd have a plowing service come and clear it when needed.
A lot of the newer starter homes in the under $600K range do not have any parking spaces. This development really got under the neighbor's skin as there is barely any room to park a car on the street in front of each of the homes:
Nope, I still say it's STUPID. Just because the market is full of stupid people who prefer the garage turned into a bungalow or whatever, does not mean doing it is not stupid.
The only way it's not stupid is to do it and then sell out, move to a more reasonable COL area.
My house is only 1,400 square feet for a family of five. I would say 2/3rds of neighbors made attached garage living space. Nearly all illegally.
You need an engineer, architect,drawings, licensed plumber estimates, licensed electrician estimates, contractor estimates and permit fees just to submit an application for an extension.
The extension always goes way over budget then your taxes skyrocket. You house value does not shoot up extra square feet as taxes shoot up.
Lots of folks buy a large Amish type shed, they convert garage and leave door on it from outside so tax man dont see.
When they sell, they "gift" the garage conversion as is with no CO or tell new owner, cut sheetrock behind door and convert back.
The vast majority of neighbors have leased cars or used cars.
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