My parents always advised me to purchase the most reasonable house in the nicest neighborhood I could afford. It has worked out well for me every time.
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I bought this thing today.
- Thread starter hrodbert696
- Start date
My parents always advised me to purchase the most reasonable house in the nicest neighborhood I could afford. It has worked out well for me every time.
Congratulations on your new home!
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Cool. Better to have the smallest house on the block - helps on resale value. As my wife just said, use it in good health.
Property values? Mortgage payments? Property values be damned ! Start up a garage band or two.
(Nearly) Every house in New England is built with a front door that nobody actually uses. So you need some other door to actually get in the house. The front door is where you put your seasonal decorations, etc. Sometimes the front door lacks a porch or steps for 2-20 years after the house is built, so it's a long way down if someone inadvertently leaves the house that way.
Don't count your MIM fender's before they hatch - houses do have a way of finding their own things to spend your money on. And GAS just becomes Garage(shop/studio/etc/) Acquisition Syndrome, which is generally a lot more expensive of a habit.
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My first house was the opposite. My wife and I were young and dumb and bought a great house in a downward trending neighborhood. Then we compounded the mistake by not seeing the signs and staying a year too long. Long story short we have to rent it to low income housing because we owe $20000 more than its worth, thanks to drug busts and the great idea to start including foreclosures in the real estate assessments.
My current house, definitely the opposite. Experience comes at a painful price.
Sorry to hear it. That's more like the first house we owned, in Indiana. We could see the neighborhood was in "transition" but couldn't tell if it was on the upswing or downswing. Bought it for a song and hoped we'd make money when we left (I was in grad school at the time). Instead, the neighborhood went downhill. The year we left was 2007, when the housing market collapsed, and we could sell it at all. Had to move anyway for work, wound up renting it out to people on public assistance who proceeded to totally trash it. When they left we didn't have money to fix everything wrong with it so it could pass inspection to rent out again, and wound up with no option but to let it go to foreclosure, which happened about 2012. That's why this one is all on the Mrs.' credit, the foreclosure still shows up on mine.
I concur with owning the smallest house in a nice neighborhood. We own one of the four smallest houses in our neighborhood (all built by the same guy, two floor plans) and are getting ready to sell. It's very likely we will sell our house for 37% more than we paid for it in 2012 while others in our neighborhood are only selling for 10-20% more than when they were built 5-9 years ago. Hopefully we can pull something similar with our next purchase.
slobake
resident ... something
We did the opposite, but not intentionally more like dumb luck. We bought a house that we could afford in a rough neighborhood close to 30 years ago. There was a crack house two doors down, several gang shootings and lots of police activity. Things changed some for the better and some for worse.
The prices are astronomical now. I couldn't afford to live where I do if I hadn't bought my house when I did.
Several years ago we saw our neighborhood listed as the hottest real estate market in the country.
I don't get it, I like where I live but there are a lot nicer neighborhoods around here.BTW, they are all small houses where I live.
- Dec 21, 2007
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- Lark in the Morning Instructional Videos; Audix Microphones
We did the opposite, but not intentionally more like dumb luck. We bought a house that we could afford in a rough neighborhood close to 30 years ago. There was a crack house two doors down, several gang shootings and lots of police activity. Things changed some for the better and some for worse.
The prices are astronomical now. I couldn't afford to live where I do if I hadn't bought my house when I did.
Several years ago we saw our neighborhood listed as the hottest real estate market in the country.
BTW, they are all small houses where I live.
Wasn't there a news story about a classical upright bassist in the San Fran area who became an instant millionaire just from selling his house? Same kind of a thing, bought it at a reasonable price in the 60s or 70s and now it's worth a fortune.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
We bought our house in a blue collar neighborhood in the late 1980s. Everyone in the neighborhood (including me) had an old pickup. It was that kind of place. Not a bad neighborhood, but nothing fancy. I'm the only person who lives in a house in the area who has a utilitarian van with nothing fancy about it at all. It sure has changed a lot. The odd part is that we are always picking up messes left behind by people who live in vans and campers that park around a small city park and a school in the blocks around our house. It was economically very cohesive when we moved in. Now it's a study in contrast. I don't know what to think of all that.
slobake
resident ... something
My neighborhood was once a very blue collar/family community too. There were still one or two people from that era when I moved in. One guy had worked his whole adult life a Schlage locks. I doubt they make those locks here anymore. There were bus drivers and meter maids as well. One guy was an air traffic controller. I was a telephone tech. Those folks have all died off or moved on.
There was the next era when we moved in. One house was a family of drug addicts who had inherited the house form their parents. Always was afraid they were going to burn down the neighborhood. Also some rentals with scary people living in them.
The small business district was really run down too. Things started noticeably changing when we got a nice grocery store in the business block. The library was renovated, a local park was cleaned up and the drug addicts have mostly disappeared from the park. People feel safe taking their children there now.
The down side is that it is more difficult to park now with all the BMW's and Audi's on the street. Most of the new people that move in are the same color as me (if you know what I mean) I prefer diversity. There also seems to be more of a sense of entitlement with some people than there was before.
Things change, I just go with it and do my best to keep the neighborhood a community.
slobake
resident ... something
Haven't heard it but I wouldn't be surprised. My house is now worth four times what I paid for it. I have done some upgrades too.
What a great way to start the new year. So glad things worked out for you.
