I refuse to play the house bubble game! Wont buy overpriced house! (contingencies, 2015)

[Sgoldie]

If I told you that the average price of a house in rural cities in northern central (and western) NYS was $65K you wouldn't believe me. That means half the houses are sold for more and, half for less. Throw in plenty of lakes, rivers, and mountains and you'd be even more incredulous. Now if those houses were two story 3-4 bedrooms you'd think I'm fibbing. Not so.

Prices are higher across the nearby border in Canada (their southern shore and the locale of their largest cities). Just bring your own job, a four wheel drive for the snow, and a pleasant attitude, one that doesn't drive up prices here either.

[Need_affordable_home]

30 years ago, there were still expensive cities. Sorry but I dont believe you could get a mansion or whole apartment building for $40k in a highly desirable city 30 years ago. My dad was thinking of settling down in San Jose, CA before I was born and houses were already a quarter million. NYC was even more expensive and was a huge metro city much longer than 30 years ago. Prices were just not as inflated as they are today. The small cities and rural towns hardly went up in value while the big cities went from expensive to ridiculous!

Big cities today are a place for the rich upper middle class and upper class with enough money to enjoy a nice house in a nice neighboorhood as well as enjoy a good lifestyle despite high costs of living. Us middle class people have been squeezed and priced out of popular metro cities. No matter, we will just take residence in smaller cities where prices are still reasonable and sell when those small cities grow and prices become too high for us to afford to stay there. We will keep the equity profits saved for retirement.

$65k is not unusual for small cities and rural towns, in fact you can get those prices in metro cities in Texas and Georgia if you dont mind living in questionable neighboorhoods. Theres over 100 houses available in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio all for under $50k. Only reason I choose not to live there is safety comes first and I can do without the high crime.
Oil city has lots of sub $50k houses without the crime or urban sprawl

[poprocksncoke]

NAH, weren't you the one that was talking about buying a house for 16k?

[Sgoldie]

OK, maybe it was 35 years ago. My Manhattan landlord was begging me to buy the place, all rent controlled apts in a good neighborhood. NY wasn't so nice as it is now, it was dirty and the crime rate was not good then either.

He must have been in San Jose after the escalation began. It happened quickly. I had a beautiful three bedroom ranch with fireplace for $70,000. There were a few large expensive mansions in the hills west of there but the average was much more like mine.

Why not just buy and stay there till the house is paid off? If you've bought already increased prices aren't going to effect you, and if you plan on cashing out equity for profit you'd have to find an even cheaper place which may not be possible/desirable.

Pop- No that wasn't me. The chepest I've seen around here was a two story fixer-upper-dump for $20K and that was because there was no living heirs.

[Need_affordable_home]

Originally Posted by poprocksncoke

NAH, weren't you the one that was talking about buying a house for 16k?

If I find a nice house that needs no or little repairs, ill take it! Ive noticed that houses under $25k sell quickly, one realtor website(sorry not allowed to link you guys it) shows every house >$25k sold except one and its $9900 and needs major TLC and its a pretty small and ugly house to begin with. If I can get financing, ill be able to afford a $50k house, otherwise I might have to buy that $10k house with 100% down(sorry, renting costs wayyyyyyyyy more than buying, why rent for a year when I can pratically buy it for a little more than a year's worth of rent?) The amount they charge for rent is outrageous! Ive seen owners offer owner financing(very high interest!) for less than what others charge for rent! The best is just to buy 100% down in cash. I am motivated to move out asap and whatever money I have, thats going towards whatever house I find unless I can get financing.


Was Manhattan really that cheap 35 years ago? Its hard to believe, I dont believe it in fact. San Jose may have been experiencing a house bubble when my dad was thinking of locating there. He ended up getting a house for $65k in West Palm Beach and prices were good till around the year 2000. I wonder if Manhattan was a town 35 years back and is why prices were so low, it wasnt a desirable place back then. Theres many towns today that could become metro cities in the future and house prices become insane. I will relocate out because big cities have high crime, taxes, pollution, traffic and other problems and I want to "sell high" and cash the equity into another town where prices are low and put the rest of the money into stocks that are low but poised to rise!

[officeOfRedundancy]

The only place I can afford to buy right now would be ghetto. No thanks, not today when crime and chaos is rampant. At least with renting, if you get a psycho neighbor you can always move. With a house you're stuck until you can find a buyer. Sure sales are through the roof, but only in the nicer burbs.

[Igor Blevin]

Wow. How many pages did you have to go back through to find a post from the 2006 housing bubble? That is crazy, or cool depending on how you look at it.

[adjusterjack]

It's true. The meteoric rise in house prices has far outpaces the rise in middle class incomes.

I bought my first house in 1977 for $27,500.

My salary that year was $15,000. More than half of the house price.

Sale price in 2004 was $170,000.

My salary that year war $45,000. Less than 1/3 of the house price.

Today that house is valued at $510,000. More than 5 times the average middle-class income. And it's only a two bedroom, 2 bath house built in 1946 on a small lot.

That's more than my current house (3/2, 12000 sf lot) and my current house is getting close to twice what I paid for it 2 1/2 years ago.

I'd like to know where one can buy a house for $50,000 that's not in a slum or a cold-water shack in some boondocks.

[Sand&Salt]

Originally Posted by Igor Blevin

Wow. How many pages did you have to go back through to find a post from the 2006 housing bubble? That is crazy, or cool depending on how you look at it.

Really, lol! I was almost through the first page, wondering what on earth I was reading ($50,000 houses!) until I glanced up at the date. Must have been one of the first C-D posts there ever was....crazy indeed.

[JonahWicky]

I bet the OP wishes he/she had bought one of those overpriced houses back in 2006!