Buy a house in Lansing? advice? (Grand Rapids, East Lansing: rent, credit, buying a house)

michigan83 · 08-13-2009, 06:22 AM

I'm currently working in East Lansing at a very stable job.

Question: With the low housing prices, tax incentive, etc... would it be a good idea to buy a house in Lansing?

The problem is that I eventually want to be in the Grand Rapids area. If an opportunity comes up to do that after 3-4 years, I'm going to want to move there. Could I possibly be looking at housing prices that have dropped even further? Could Lansing go completely down the tubes during that time frame?

Just curious if anyone has any opinions on the subject. I've been weighing the good and bad for a while, and I can't seem to figure this out.

jeanniepep · 08-13-2009, 07:32 AM

It is a good time to buy IF you're planning to stay for 5-10 years minimum. There are great deals to be had right now, but the market is probably going to stay down for a long time so you will probably have trouble selling it in 3-4 yrs.

One possibility is that you could buy now, then rent the place out when you move to GR. Plus if you're a first-time-buyer, you'll have that $8K tax credit to consider (which you will have to give back if you move in less than 3 years). For all the hassles involved with buying a house, you might want to just consider renting in Lansing right now and buying in GR later. I just bought a house in Ferndale, and between gun-shy banks and burned-out realtors, it was a LOT harder than it needed to be. I don't want to go through that again anytime soon.

GalFriday · 08-13-2009, 10:47 AM

Why not move to GR now, or at least closer that way. It's about a 45 minute drive from there to Lansing. You may have a longer drive now, but consider it a trade for trying to sell a house you don't want in a few years when you don't know what the market will be like.

Sparrow_temp · 08-13-2009, 09:35 PM

There's going to be more job opportunities in the GR area. Housing is a buyer's market at the moment but there are a lot who still believe that things will get worse in the coming years. Rent a house in Lansing until you're ready to move to GR. I don't think there is any such thing as a stable job these days and you might want to have the option of moving to whatever portion of the country an opportunity may pop up in.

michigan83 · 08-13-2009, 11:15 PM

Thanks for the replies everyone! Kind of what I was thinking already, but it's good to hear other people's opinions.

Quote:

Why not move to GR now, or at least closer that way. It's about a 45 minute drive from there to Lansing. You may have a longer drive now, but consider it a trade for trying to sell a house you don't want in a few years when you don't know what the market will be like.

That's basically what I'm doing now. I live halfway between the two (renting for very cheap). The long drive wears on me a little bit, but I could also buy a house here and then work in either place.

I don't buy the 45 minutes thing though! ... that can be done maybe if you're going from 28th street to the far west side of Lansing. But I live right by I-96 and drive 80 mph all the way, and I can't do it in less than 35-40 minutes. And that's starting about 35 miles east of downtown GR.

Again, thanks for the replies everyone. I am now leaning towards renting in Lansing or sticking with what I'm doing for now.