Home Prices Unfriendly To Working Families (Sarasota: 2014, purchase, median income)

[Frida7]

Originally Posted by beninfl

No, my idea of a starter home, and your idea of a starter home, are very different.

Hun, your ideas and mine are different in EVERY regard.

[mrviking]

Originally Posted by JanGG

Goods points from both sides of the isle. While I am slightly left of the center, I do believe in many opinions on the right. Today, I say the same thing about all the electronic 'nooses' young people need to have when they complain about not having any money. I still use an old Razr phone with pay as you go usage. You only need a state of the art phone with internet if it is required for your job or if you can afford it. Why does a 12 year old need this and what are the parents teaching them? Is it really necessary to be texting useless info 24/7? What a waste of time and lost production at work too, as this happens at work and school.

My brother in NY tried to hire a teenage kid in his neighborhood to rake leaves this fall. He asked ever kid on the block and they all said no to $15/hr! Either the parents are giving them too much money already or they are just plain lazy!

My first house was 2br/1bath, 820sf and we 'survived' with 2 kids, but it was what I could afford. Today we are trying to buy a house in LWR <1600sf and that is not easy to find. While we can afford the McMansion, I have no interest or need for a status symbol!

Agree, Its amazing how much less stress you will have when you don't play "keeping up with the jones's". The slightest interruption of money flow causes so much stress. So much of my early life I saved and paid cash for most things. Till I learned the good side to credit cards. The protection they give. With finances being such a big part of our lives, you would think that basic money practices would be taught in school. Instead our kids are taught useless crap to fill there heads.

[Luby162]

Lord knows i have spent most of my life broke and living paycheck to paycheck, we bought a small starter home in NY for 270kand 10k in taxes about 12 yrs ago and always knew we would retire to florida so never upgraded to a bigger home. I remember making 29k and being envious of ppl/friends with larger homes, we have a 3 br that we are still in today but now i am retired and heading south, we are getting a larger home than we really need we only need 3 brs but will have 4, For us it is about having the nice home we always wanted and could never afford. In florida my pension will go a lot further as well, it is not about keeping up with the joneses for us but rather getting what we have always wanted. We made some major sacrifices in yrs past but now we are finally able to afford something a little nicer, we actually downgraded from what we wanted to have built to a smaller home but it is still 2x the size of what we own now. For younger kids just starting out like we were , we lived in alts for yrs before we bought, save, save, save it will be well worth it someday.. keep your eyes on the light at the end of the tunnel…good luck

[beninfl]

Originally Posted by smith555

and the jobs?

If they didnt have jobs, they wouldnt be middle income, so that's irrelevant.

[DaGoose]

Originally Posted by Luby162

Lord knows i have spent most of my life broke and living paycheck to paycheck, we bought a small starter home in NY for 270kand 10k in taxes about 12 yrs ago and always knew we would retire to florida so never upgraded to a bigger home. I remember making 29k and being envious of ppl/friends with larger homes, we have a 3 br that we are still in today but now i am retired and heading south, we are getting a larger home than we really need we only need 3 brs but will have 4, For us it is about having the nice home we always wanted and could never afford. In florida my pension will go a lot further as well, it is not about keeping up with the joneses for us but rather getting what we have always wanted. We made some major sacrifices in yrs past but now we are finally able to afford something a little nicer, we actually downgraded from what we wanted to have built to a smaller home but it is still 2x the size of what we own now. For younger kids just starting out like we were , we lived in alts for yrs before we bought, save, save, save it will be well worth it someday.. keep your eyes on the light at the end of the tunnel…good luck

You bought a home for 270K with 10K in taxes on a 29K a year job??

[Luby162]

Originally Posted by DaGoose

You bought a home for 270K with 10K in taxes on a 29K a year job??

I do have a wife who works…..and made a lot more than me at the time….

[SandyJet]

Funny when my parents bought a home many years ago they owned one used car, had no cell phones, no cable, no internet, no fancy kid parties and never went out to eat and used coupons in the supermarket.

No going to supermarket, heck no dog, no cat, used clothes. And guess what after just 18 years in an apartment they bought their own home.

And guess what estate they bought the house from we heard the Parents saved up and bought the plot in 1909. Then saved up and had house built in 1923 then couple lived there till the Mom died a very old lady in 1973. They saved 20 years for house.

Today kids have cell phones, netflix, leased cars, getting nails down, having starbucks, shopping at mall, going to dry cleaners, going on vacation, wearing Uggs etc. etc. and complain it is hard to save for a home.

[MartyGras]

Originally Posted by SandyJet

Funny when my parents bought a home many years ago they owned one used car, had no cell phones, no cable, no internet, no fancy kid parties and never went out to eat and used coupons in the supermarket.

No going to supermarket, heck no dog, no cat, used clothes. And guess what after just 18 years in an apartment they bought their own home.

And guess what estate they bought the house from we heard the Parents saved up and bought the plot in 1909. Then saved up and had house built in 1923 then couple lived there till the Mom died a very old lady in 1973. They saved 20 years for house.

Today kids have cell phones, netflix, leased cars, getting nails down, having starbucks, shopping at mall, going to dry cleaners, going on vacation, wearing Uggs etc. etc. and complain it is hard to save for a home.

Yup...it's just about setting priorities....the housing market has always and will continue to be priced at a level that people can afford.

Gary

[Ragnar]

Part of the trouble is that folks in their 20's and 30's instantly want the lifestyle that their parents took 30-40 years (or more) to build and obtain, and these younger people overleverage themselves and go into massive debt to try to "be ahead." The very idea of a "starter" home and used cars is lost on so many of these folks these days. Just because someone will give you a loan doesn't mean you can afford it. And sometimes you have to move away and get your start in a less-desireable place because it is more affordable, then move back a few years later with a real downpayment in hand.

It's a frozen hell in WI right now so I spent a few minutes looking at Sarasota properties online today. Other than right by the water and on the keys, I was struck by how affordable everything looked relative to where I live now, and that's partly due to how much we've been able to save over the years while living below our means, even in a rather expensive Midwestern metro like Madison. Locals may decry that it's folks like us that move in and drive up home prices, but we've worked and cut our teeth living somewhere else and as a result we are in a position to live almost anywhere we want should we choose to make the move. And Sarasota remains a very desireable place to live.

[La-La land]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

It's a frozen hell in WI right now so I spent a few minutes looking at Sarasota properties online today. Other than right by the water and on the keys, I was struck by how affordable everything looked relative to where I live now

Me too, we live in a bankrupt lumber town in the Middle of Nowhere Ontario. And you get garbage compared to most of the listings in SRQ. Venice particularly, we're like 'look what $130k will get you in Venice'. The same money gets you a dive up here