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Please take into consideration that, though you "plan" to remain in the home for 20 years - things have a way of changing. Resale always has to be in the back of your mind. If it were my personal decision I don't believe I would care to gamble on the questionable neighborhood improving. Take a breath, sit and picture yourself in both homes. Try to picture your daily routine.Drive (if you haven't) around both neighborhoods at different hours and see how it "feels". When you arrive home at the end of the day you need to look forward to your home and neighborhood! Best of luck - let us know what happens!!!!
We had a similar decision when we moved, and selected the bigger house, better commute, not as great of a neighborhood. It was a snap decision, and of course now I am second guessing the decision.
I am in the group that says you need to keep looking. If you are in a hurry go with the HOA community. While you don't have kids, being in a good school district keeps your options open for families that purchase homes.
Your commute might be better, but you might lose some of that benefit when you need to go shopping. Look at how often you go to the grocery store, etc and think about whether or not you will have any gas savings.
The odds are, you won't be in the house for 20 years. Every buyer says the house they're buying is their 15-20 year house. National averages are there for a reason, and the average is about 5 years.
I'm a Realtor, and thought I would be in my house for at least 7-10 years even though I know the averages. It's now 3 1/2 years later, and my husband has been relocated to Austin. We just put about $20k into the house, and now we have to sell.
You won't be there 20 years, so don't think of it in those terms.
Positives: Better neighborhood/community. The housing tract is surrounded by lovely hills and scenery. People are very involved in the community. There's an HOA that keeps the neighborhood very nice. Shopping here is much better. Very safe, very clean neighborhood.
Negatives: I'll get less square footage for my money ... nearly 400 square feet less. The home is 20+ years older so there will be a lot more maintenance. The HOA can also be a major pain to deal with ... very annoying. Some of my neighbors are hard core right wingers which is not my politics. Normally this wouldn't matter except they also run the HOA which would control my proprety. We're on private water, which makes me nervous. Slower internet connection. Commute is 15 more miles to work which normally wouldn't be that a big of deal except when gas prices skyrocket again. And there's lots of horse property nearby with lots of flies.
How many updates does the house need? Has it been maintained?
You can think of it this way, houses were built better back then.
Either some of the mechanics will be newer or they will be so old they'll need replacing.
You can put love & sweat into this house. You know you're going to be there for a while, you have time on your side.
Location.
When you say private water - what does that mean? A well? We had one, the water was so much better.
Comparing water pressure from the old house with well to the new house with city water, not that much difference, in fact, we're the most disappointed in the pressure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sheri257
House #2:
Positives: Commute would be cut in half to 15 minutes instead of a half hour so, gas savings. Brand new house, gorgeous design, more space (400 sq ft). It already has an air conditioning unit which my husband wants so ... definite money savings there both with utilities and with maintenance. No HOA so more control over my property. I know some of my neighbors, they have events like Halloween block parties, monthly neighborhood watch meetings, etc. No horses and no flies. City water, faster internet connection.
Negatives: No scenery except some mountains in the distance, just another flat housing tract. Shopping sucks. We'll have to drive 15 miles for groceries. The immediate neighborhood/community is nice but not as nice as the other one. However the town, overall, is trashier. No HOA so the neighborhood could deteriorate. More crime: there's been a couple of break-ins where people left their garage doors open and a laptop was stolen.
New doesn't equal better.
We just moved from a 1970's built house to a 2007 built house.
While the kitchen seems bigger, I'm having problems fitting our stuff.
The cabinets are new and while not cheap, scratch easily.
The drawers are not as well made as the drawers on my wood cabinets were.
Positive - laundry on the 2nd floor. Love it.
Schools - this could go either way with the house you're looking at.
We looked in one town that was building up, the high school got bad reviews.
Now, the next thing to consider is, can the school handle the new construction? If not, they may need to build new schools, and who knows, by the time you sell, it could even out.
Sounds like you may need to do some more looking.
While you don't have kids, you have to consider the school system for resale.
You can put love & sweat into this house. You know you're going to be there for a while, you have time on your side.
Location.
When you say private water - what does that mean?
We are NOT fixer uppers, far from it. It's just not our thing and would like to avoid it if possible.
Water is provided by a private company. There's no problems that I'm aware of. However, I'm worried about it because we previously lived in an area where one of the towns relied on private water. The owner of the company was a drunk, the water supply got bad enough that it literally was brown coming out of the faucets.
The residents tried to get the EPA to address the issue but they didn't. Everybody's property values plummeted. So ... you usually don't have to worry about water as much when it's run by the city ... which is the case with the newer property.
Luckily we were renting at the time but I've never forgotten what happened to those property owners.
Sheri, I would keep looking..If you are not a fixer upper type, then don't buy a fixer...older homes, more can go wrong, but newer homes, be careful about the builder and quality. Schools always trump house..Always.
I don't think you have found the right house, you will just know it when you do!
I agree with dogmom, neither is probably right for you unless you are willing to settle with house 2.
If it was me I would keep looking.
It took us 7 months to find our house but we did
It sounds like #1 is the winner, #2 is settling.
Here is a thing to do have your agent search allof neighborhood 1 and see if there are other options, maybe even above your price ( they can come down) with the larger size. I suspect the area is better and the price is simply higher by having smaller homes. I see that regularly here in Orlando. rule out neighborhood 2 and search others more similar to #1.
I notice a lot of people seem to be hung up on resale value so ... Just FYI.
Both neighborhoods sold for the same during the boom (about $550K) and both neighborhoods are selling for the same during the bust (about $250K).
So there really isn't much difference as far as re-sale one way or the other.
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