Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I recently thought about moving back to my hometown. But I haven't found any houses that were appealing to me. So I've decided to stay put for now.
Ideally, I want a time capsule house built before 1940, (with a preference for houses built betwe1900-1925) in a streetcar suburban setting, so I don't have a large yard to take care of, and can easily walk to some local amenities. I would like to see evidence that at least some neighbors care about their house. The house I'd consider buying would have to be pretty amazing, for me to consider being the first urban pioneer in the neighborhood.
I'm not too concerned about crime, as long as you don't need bars on the windows, and gun violence is rare/non-existant. And, I don't care about school ratings, because I don't have kids.
I live in an area that's had a lot of development and new homes being built. My house has been immune, but I've seen beautiful single properties turned into a dozen zero-lot homes, and the nearby neighbors get upset. Some areas were beautiful forests that were turned into apartments or office buildings.
Anytime I buy a home in the future, I'd like to make sure everything I see from my yard is already developed, so there shouldn't be any surprises down the road. Lots of blank fields or forests make me nervous for what's to come.
Also, a garage and a decent-sized yard for kids and dogs is a must for me.
1. Location. I live in a beach community - the ocean is a mile away.
2. Walkability. Where I live, I can walk to restaurants, market, bars (if I had to!), vet, post office, cafe, dentist, etc.
3. LIGHT. Does the house have good lighting? My house has northern exposure (not the best), but I remodeled it and added skylights and I have lots of windows. It's very good lighting now.
4. FEEL. How does the house feel to your body? I love the way I feel in my house. I feel safe.
5. Neighborhood. I have a nice neighborhood. Old fashioned. No two houses the same - which is how I like it.
This is a thread where there absolutely are no wrong answers as long as you are being honest with yourself.
If someone comes in and tries to rain on your parade, please refer them to this starting post and this comment: "When someone shares something that is of value to them and you don't agree, please don't try to put them down to inflate your own values. Accept that we are all different and at different stages in the life journey. Thank you."
I have lived in any number of places, and had a variety of experiences. I started to detail those, but my examples started to distract from the question.
What is it in the setting of a home that makes it valuable to you? I'm not talking about amenities that are something you can buy to make a home more comfortable or nice. I am more interested in what you value as surroundings. It might be restaurants, closeness to work, night-life, family, - anything.
[b]If you had your druthers, what would you want surrounding your home?[/B]
A golf course! The last 3 homes that I've bought and lived in have been on, or surrounded by, a golf course. I like to play golf (among other things) and I like to watch people play. There's just something relaxing and enjoyable to me in watching and playing golf.
I have found that my "desired" surroundings have changed over the years.
At the start, the rural town I grew up in was bereft of activity. The phrase "rolling up the streets at 5 PM" fit. This was also the era of blue laws. I was starved for interaction and any nightlife at all other than a school basketball game or night skiing.
Then I got to make my own decisions!
When I was in college in NYC, my dorm room had a great view of Manhattan and was only a block from a subway. A few cents and I was in Times Square or Chinatown or Broadway plays and loving it. It was exactly what I needed, even to the details of Cousin Brucie and quirky programming on WPIX.
Returning back to Vermont, Burlington was the only city of interest, and a third floor walk-up two blocks from the lake and across the street from a daily steam train excursion was great. Working a part-time job in addition to a regular one gave me free access to night courses at UVM and audit of others.
With a little more money, a small house out in the country with wood burning stove and a good sized garden, felt like I had space to breathe and still was close in enough to enjoy the city amenities - but I was still cold.
A move south got me another small house in a quiet subdivision in Birmingham AL, which was nice, but work had other plans.
Eventually, a move to south Florida and another small move put me within a half a mile of a place I had determined I wanted to live when on vacation and still living in Vermont. It was the south Florida lifestyle that had idyllic parts. Private pool in the backyard where swimming nude was possible, all sorts of fruit trees, good neighbors, close in shopping, and access to plays and classic music concerts and a number of bookstores with an amazing array of books.
Times change, and pools get to be a hassle, and cities get overbearing.
I now live quite rural on enough land that, as they say, "I can pee off my back deck in perfect privacy." I have my own forest and creek, have had a huge garden, and my noisy neighbors are tree frogs and various birds. My "pets" are wildlife that I protect but yet keep wild. There are inconveniences of course, as there have always been in any place I've lived.
I recently watched a program about multimillion dollar apartments overlooking Central Park, and thought "For all those millions spent, I can't imagine that it brings more joy than waking up, sipping a cup of coffee, and watching a doe and cavorting fawn a hundred feet out back, various birds at the bird feeder, and then in the evening seeing foxes dancing down a slope and enjoying the few scraps of dessert I have put out for them to keep them interested in providing pest control around my place.
The variety of places I have lived (and I have skipped over a number) and the experiences I have had make me think that I have been blessed sufficiently to at least partially make up for the tsuris I have had in life, a life that many would not have survived.
Location (prefer being in town/within a big city), safety (a subset of location, but I don't want to live in a crime-ridden area), neighborhood amenities and offerings (again, can be lumped under location, but I want to be around the "action" and good culinary scenes, building structure and soundness (I want my property to have good noise insulation and to be well-built), neighbors (I don't want neighbors from hell . . . I can't help who moves next door, but if I can get some insight on existing troublemakers that's critical). I'd also like a good view from my place, especially if buying in a high rise, which I prefer.
We want to downsize in the next couple of years and our joint requirements, ideally, seem to be:
An apartment at the nearby beach with an uninterrupted water view.
Walking distance to the train station but at least a two car garage.
Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a second living area and a large balcony.
Preferably a timber floor or even carpet as my arthritis cannot cope with very hard surfaces.
At least ten years old so not to encounter building defects.
No more than about thirty years old so as to postpone repairs from concrete cancer.
Above all, a northern aspect for winter sun and summer cool.
Finding something at a price we can afford will indeed be a challenge.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
