If you were going to buy a house... (Seattle, Bellevue: real estate, apartment)

[VeronikaW]

If you were going to buy a house in this market, and your budget was around $350,000, and you worked in downtown Seattle, would you buy a nice single family new construction home in Everett, a resale in Mill Creek, or a condo in Bellevue? And why? Other factors include 2 small children and a possibility of selling in 5 years.

Thanks!

V. =)

[seattlenextyear]

What happened in Issaquah?

[VeronikaW]

Originally Posted by seattlenextyear

What happened in Issaquah?

The houses are too expensive. LOL

[kashleen]

Everett to Seattle commute is easy due to the bus schedule. You can be in SEattle - downtown area in short order.
Plus, I think Everett, your money would go further.

HOWEVER, I would prefer Issaquah.

[eskercurve]

Originally Posted by kashleen

Everett to Seattle commute is easy due to the bus schedule. You can be in SEattle - downtown area in short order.

If you consider sitting for an hour in traffic "short order"... I loathe to think what you think a long commute it. Bellingham to Seattle?

Sarcasm aside, it depends. For that much money now you can get a home in many parts of the city. Also, have you looked south of I-90? That area gets a bad reputation just because of the north-side mentality of the area. Check out Beacon Hill if you wanted to live in the city proper.

Also for the condo ... it depends if you don't care about having your own four walls. It'd have to be a big condo with two children.

As for selling in 5 years, I think the market will have recovered by then. Hopefully. So any of those locations will be good.

[70Ford]

I'm a pessimist with a wife and two kids. I don't think the market will recover in 5 years. We live in an apartment now. I want my own house. It's mine, dagsmabbit.

Get a house (and (hopefully) a yard. Condo's are what they are; your own little slice of a building owned and maintained by others. Others, who in this economy, might go bankrupt or be unable to pay their bills/condo agreements. That leaves you holding the bag.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

My wife likes to garden. I can't wait to see something she's planted growin in our yard. I can't wait to get the heck away from 400 people I don't know and don't want to get to know. Hrmmm...I'm getting negative here. Think I'll ***ACK!! !STOP THE NOISE YOU DOWNSTAIRS FREAKS!!!****

See? What I mean?

[seattlenextyear]

If I had kids old enough to play outside alone, I wouldn't pick the condo. The kids in our townhouse complex are SO BORED and don't have much yard space. They instead amuse themselves by playing such games as: "Let's see what's in the dumpster!", "Let's dig a hole in this concrete and throw gravel at each other!", "Let's bang these electrical and cable boxes with big sticks that we found!", "Let's chase cars as they leave the complex!", "Anything you put in the recycling bins is fair game for playtime!", and my favorite, "Let's run around and around this apartment building and scream really loudly!"

[Heiwos]

Originally Posted by VeronikaW

If you were going to buy a house in this market, and your budget was around $350,000, and you worked in downtown Seattle, would you buy a nice single family new construction home in Everett, a resale in Mill Creek, or a condo in Bellevue? And why? Other factors include 2 small children and a possibility of selling in 5 years.

None of the above. There are $350K-or-less houses in Bellevue now, which is better than a condo and better than being much further away. If the chance of selling in five years is significant, I'd just rent.

[70Ford]

ONe more note. People define "market recovery" as "where the market was when things began to craah." There were 5 years of super runup based on an unprecendented level of credit available to every Tom, Dick, Harry and Jane. If you convince yourself that that same level of homeownership can exist in 5 years, then you have convinced yourself of a full recovery. As I think that is patently impossible, I can't see the market "recovering" in 5 years. You'd have to do an abstract of how the market should have grown, vs. people's expectations based on what they have seen and reacted to for 5 years...(or so) vs. what they are expecting now.

Think about it. Is your mail coming tomorrow? Is it coming on Saturday? Sure, of course it's coming on Saturday! It always comes on Saturday! But....is it? Do you know for sure? Did you know they're trying to stop Saturday delivery? Do you know how often that is gong to be pasted on every media source for weeks leading up to it? And yet, you will have people (like me) who still go to the mailbox every Saturday, because we're idiots...I mean, creatures of habit.

I could figure out how much a house should "probably" cost and offer it, but in Seattle, it's gonna take a while to sink in. I'm willing to wait until the end of 2011 when the last great hump of those ALT-A loans implode and I can buy a nice foreclosure. Until that...I have earplugs....and kids of my own. "Hey, kids, why don't you go play outside by the next door neighbors? Stay close to us and them, OK? I need to keep an eye on you, OK?" "Oh wait! Here's some cap guns and a tambourine. Have a blast!" "

Just kidding. But, Oh God, how I've entertained the thoughts of me in my lederhosen, holding my castanets , standing outside my neighbor's door singing, "My Country 'Tis of Thee" at 150 decibels.... At 3 A.M.... With a rotating strobe light on my head..... While eating a delicious sandwich. That way, it comes out as "Mahummph Coountrrahh 'YUM! Tisshhhh Ahhfffff Deeeeee" and only gets better as my mouth gets drier.
That would be......fantastic.

[azoria]

If I were selling in five years....I would not buy.

Consider the Washington state excise tax of nearly 2% of the selling price (inescapable), the real estate commission for the seller of 3%, the possibility of having to cover the closing costs AND buyers real estate fees of an additional 3%. It all adds up to a payout in the many thousands of $$$.

Outside of those conditions, I do not believe that home prices here will recover in the next few years, certainly not enough in the next five years for you to recover the excise tax+sellers fees+buyers fees+buyers closing costs.

As miserable as it is to be a renter and have small children in the bargain, it is better to rent than to lose many thousands of dollars in various and sundry fees and taxes, nonwithstanding the actual paper profit that might be made on the property.