Real Estate pricing in your area?

[CanadianChief]

Prices are crazy up here. I live in a 1040 sq ft bungalow on a 40x110 ft lot and the place cost me $140,000 eight years ago. Today my house would sell for around $260,000.

If I wanted to upgrade to a 1400 sq ft house I'd be looking at over $350,000.

No thanks.

[BlackHelicopters]

Prices here are way up. Tornado does that.

[KChiefs1]

I've been told that real estate is hot in the CoMo area. Agent told me that dozens have houses have sold recently in less than a week.

[Spott]

Buying a 3br 2 bath 1500sf house in a nice neighborhood in Florida for 84k in a couple of weeks. This area was completely oversold a few years ago and houses are now about 30-40% of what they were then although the prices have been going up in the last few months. Can't wait to have a house payment of 140 dollars a month.

[TinyEvel]

Was a report in the L.A. Times this morning that median home prices rose 20 percent over a year ago. Median being in Southern California, it's the price that 50 percent of homes sold are below that price, and 50 percent of homes sold are above that price (includes condos and townhomes)

The median prie was 300,000 average. this includes L.A. proper, inland empire (prices dropped) Sn Diego, Orange County (rose significantly) etc.

This 300,000 price seems like a bargain to me, as in West Los Angeles/santa monica a 3-bedroom home about 1600 square feet goes for 850K - 1.1MM.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by TinyEvel

Was a report in the L.A. Times this morning that median home prices rose 20 percent over a year ago. Median being in Southern California, it's the price that 50 percent of homes sold are below that price, and 50 percent of homes sold are above that price (includes condos and townhomes)

The median prie was 300,000 average. this includes L.A. proper, inland empire (prices dropped) Sn Diego, Orange County (rose significantly) etc.

This 300,000 price seems like a bargain to me, as in West Los Angeles/santa monica a 3-bedroom home about 1600 square feet goes for 850K - 1.1MM.

But you get to ride your bike year-round.

[Fairplay]

Originally Posted by TinyEvel

Was a report in the L.A. Times this morning that median home prices rose 20 percent over a year ago. Median being in Southern California, it's the price that 50 percent of homes sold are below that price, and 50 percent of homes sold are above that price (includes condos and townhomes)

The median prie was 300,000 average. this includes L.A. proper, inland empire (prices dropped) Sn Diego, Orange County (rose significantly) etc.

This 300,000 price seems like a bargain to me, as in West Los Angeles/santa monica a 3-bedroom home about 1600 square feet goes for 850K - 1.1MM.

Talk about californication, my house is bargain basement price in comparison to the 3 bedroom home/ 1600 feet.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by TinyEvel

Was a report in the L.A. Times this morning that median home prices rose 20 percent over a year ago. Median being in Southern California, it's the price that 50 percent of homes sold are below that price, and 50 percent of homes sold are above that price (includes condos and townhomes)

The median prie was 300,000 average. this includes L.A. proper, inland empire (prices dropped) Sn Diego, Orange County (rose significantly) etc.

This 300,000 price seems like a bargain to me, as in West Los Angeles/santa monica a 3-bedroom home about 1600 square feet goes for 850K - 1.1MM.

Boston is right up there with the most expensive real estate in the country. In the really nice towns around here, a 25,000 sq. ft. lot (no house, or a house you PLAN to knock down) is still over half a mill.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by TinyEvel

Was a report in the L.A. Times this morning that median home prices rose 20 percent over a year ago. Median being in Southern California, it's the price that 50 percent of homes sold are below that price, and 50 percent of homes sold are above that price (includes condos and townhomes)

The median prie was 300,000 average. this includes L.A. proper, inland empire (prices dropped) Sn Diego, Orange County (rose significantly) etc.

This 300,000 price seems like a bargain to me, as in West Los Angeles/santa monica a 3-bedroom home about 1600 square feet goes for 850K - 1.1MM.

That does seem really cheap. I wonder if it's like Denver, though, where there are lots of sales in cheap neighborhoods that we don't see. I think Denver's median is around $200,000 or a little higher, and that's around the price of a 1-bedroom condo in my part of the city. However, you go out near the airport and there are 3-bedroom homes galore that were foreclosed on in the low $100s.

[JF08]

I wish I could buy a house for under $200k. I'm in San Diego, you can't get anything decent for under $400k. Even at that price, you're sacrificing something (neighborhood, size, lot, etc).

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by JF08

I wish I could buy a house for under $200k. I'm in San Diego, you can't get anything decent for under $400k. Even at that price, you're sacrificing something (neighborhood, size, lot, etc).

But you get to ride your bike year-round.

[Bugeater]

I still want come live with sec and be his groundskeeper.

(no homo)

[seclark]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

I still want come live with sec and be his groundskeeper.

(no homo)

hell, come on down and try it for a weekend. your competition is my 85 year old great uncle, though. fyi, today he's bagging up 3 dead coons that were getting in the trash cans. I value that.
(no homo back)
sec

[mr. tegu]

Originally Posted by TinyEvel

Was a report in the L.A. Times this morning that median home prices rose 20 percent over a year ago. Median being in Southern California, it's the price that 50 percent of homes sold are below that price, and 50 percent of homes sold are above that price (includes condos and townhomes)

The median prie was 300,000 average. this includes L.A. proper, inland empire (prices dropped) Sn Diego, Orange County (rose significantly) etc.

This 300,000 price seems like a bargain to me, as in West Los Angeles/santa monica a 3-bedroom home about 1600 square feet goes for 850K - 1.1MM.

That sucks. The house we just bought in OP for about $210,000 built in 1996 is 2300 square feet plus another 1,000 or so in the basement should we get it finished. I am sure most of KC is the same way.

I couldn't stand to live somewhere were the price per square foot is $400. We aren't even over a hundred.

[Rain Man]

I don't know if this is relevant, but I'm an evangelist against commuting, so I'll present it here.

Assume that you have a 30-minute commute for 15 miles each way. What does that cost you?

Assume minimum wage for your time at around $7.50 an hour. So that's $7.50 a day for the round trip. Now assume 30 miles at an average vehicle cost of 50 cents per mile for maintenance, fuel, and replacement. That's $15 a day.

So you're paying $22.50 a day. If you work 21 days per month on average, that's $472 per month.

How much extra house can you get for $472 per month? Keep in mind that interest is tax deductible and that a house will generally appreciate slightly.

If you take what you would spend on a house, you can add $210,000 to the purchase price and still break even if the house is walking distance to work. The math goes like this, with a few assumptions.

Price increment: $210,000
Monthly payment (30 year loan at 3.75%): $972
Interest writeoff (assume half of payment is interest, and you write off 30% of that: $145 a month subtracted from your cost.
Appreciation (assume 2% over a given year on the price difference: $350 per month subtracted from your cost.

Total: $477 a month total cost.

Now, this is from a total wealth perspective. The house will cost you more cash flow because you're not getting paid minimum wage for your commute and you don't get immediate cash from appreciation, but if you don't like my analysis you can adjust downward and not pay the whole $210,000 to adjust that out. There's an increment on taxes and insurance and maintenance and stuff, too, that I'm ignoring for convenience, but you get the point.

Commuting is a terrible financial investment. It's essentially wasted money unless there's some absolutely compelling reason you have to do it. I recognize that there are some compelling reasons sometimes, but when you run the numbers it's far better to invest your wealth in real estate rather than gasoline and antifreeze. Assuming that you aren't also using the antifreeze to kill annoying people.