My house was dirt cheap. Less than $50,000 for 3 bedroom/2bath 1700 sq ft. I live in extremely LCOL. About 60% of housing in my town is less than $100,000.
I have to admit I've wondered this myself. Of course you have to take into account different costs of living and different home sizes and the fact that some of us are on our second homes and others are still in their starter homes. Still, I think it's interesting to see across the board in very general terms.
It's not much different than listing salaries in the MM class post yesterday; of course those depend on location and field as well.
Like jillian, we have such a range in prices and sizes. In my town, depending on which side of the state highway you're on determines the price. We live in an older neighborhood, with 1/2-5 acre lots, older, nicer homes and ours was the least expensive when H bought it 8 years ago.
eta: we have a 1900 sq ft house on 1/2 an acre, 3 bed 2 bath, pool and paid 100k for it.
Go to city-data.com and type in your town. It will tell you the median home price in your area and the COL index. The median for my town is $393K and the COL index is 132. 100 is average so its a HCOL area.
I pay $1400 for a 2 bed, 2 bath but we got a STEAL. Its $10 over the price of Section 8 housing here. We rent a guest house on a farm.
We just custom built a 3Br/2.5 bath 2200 sq ft ranch in a nice development. 1/3 of an acre was $42k, construction all inclusive was $208k (driveway/landscaping/well, not incl appliances or water softener), so $250k total.
I also rent. I pay $1000 for a 2 bedroom townhouse that is worth about $110,00. So basically the owners are making a killing off us.
Hey, if we end up moving and you want to rent our house... let me know. lol
From what I have seen from pictures you've posted your house is a million times cuter than ours. But if I'm moving somewhere else in town (hopefully not, I'm trying to get out of here when I graduate this summer) I think it would have to be for a significant price reduction. Rent is definitely more expensive here than I expected.
We spent a little over $300k for a 3BR 2BA duplex that needs updating in a transitioning neighborhood. Previously we rented a condo less than a mile down the road and the nicer ones there were selling for $250kish. We are definitely in the cheapest neighborhood in our area. Homes are at least $600k with most being over $850k easily.
Special Snowflake. Your survey didn't go low enough in price. Just bought a foreclosed house, 1720 sq feet, $28K. Looking at a few 2,890 sq ft homes for $40-49K. Beautiful hardwood floors, woodwork, detailed ceilings, etc.
We are buying within an area with a bad reputation, but some beautiful, well maintained, historic areas where residents take security and protection of the neighborhood and the great houses seriously. Cross 2 streets away, and foreclosures are still $300K and more.
We're actually working on buying more as rentals right now, but they're moving quickly, esp when they're in the $16K and lower for immaculate houses. If we find one we like more, we'll move and rent our current place. We have one short sale that we think our offer may be accepted by seller, though who knows if bank will accept. If that goes through, we'll move basically into our backyard haha. (a few doors down)
ETA: I'll try to do some before and after renovation photos once we get a few more rooms actually complete. Most are nearly there.
We have put about 10K into the house this winter to get it to liveable.
I live in southern mass. for a newer home say 3 bedrooms, two baths about 1500-2000 sq would go between 300 and 375k
Add another bedroom and 2500 sq and it brings it up to about 400's. Example a friend of mine just bought a four bedroom 1900 sq house with a fairly small lot. Its a nice house but needs some cosmetic work. She paid 440k That seems to be the average for a newer home. (by newer I mean built in the last 15 years
It's now addicting. We can't stop shopping real estate.
There are some insanely huge, beautiful old brick houses for so cheap.
We saw one we couldn't do... it would have been amazing but would have taken over 100K to bring it back to grandeur. That one went for $37K for a 5,200 sq ft mansion. Add on to that, the sq footage of the entire 3rd floor (not counted in the sq ft), and the basement that had a ballroom and a water fountain. That one was in a bit sketchier area though, where fewer people have repopulated, so fewer people around to keep an eye out for your place. The one kitty corner from it was absolutely beautiful - and I read on the city blogs that it went for $7,800 a few years ago. However, that one was looted, and all the former inlays and trim work had been stripped.
Ours isn't nearly as grand, but it is very nice. The doorknobs and basement copper were stripped back when the HUD cleanout crews were coming back in between initial clean out and first bank inspection. But overall, not bad.
We're a little less picky about the neighborhoods for rentals (though still looking mainly w/in the same region). Our immediate neighborhood averages higher than the ones right around us. It's crazy - you find some houses for $14K that are in the same condition as a house for $34K on the same street. And poor owners down the street, listing for $54K and up are probably getting screwed with the cheaper listings.
ahhhhhh. We look at about 15 houses a week. Some we offer on, some we don't. We've probably made about 20 offers since New Years, but may be only getting 2 of them so far (possibly)
dh wants me to grab another degree and licensing haha. (I have a collection that I don't use). However, I think the real estate licensing is more involved than I feel like doing. (more for personal business use than to do it for a living) (he'd be better at it, but he hates doing school work which is why he's trying to get me to do it. lol)
That's pretty awesome. And exciting. I don't have the ball for any of that. I can barely bring myself to offer on something that is move-in ready. lol
It's easier when they're so damn cheap.
I don't even take pics to compare any more.
We walk in, take a look around, and then I like to say, "Ok, let's buy this one"
hhahahahhahahahha like I'm picking out bananas at a grocery store. It does crack me up. I got ballsy early in our search. There was one house that we bid on without going inside. I drove through the neighborhood the night before and heard they were callign for best and final offers. We wrote a bid at 4:50pm and got it in by 5pm deadline. We went in the house the next day, haha. Didn't get that one - it was a damn steal in that neighborhood.
Our current house - we saw that by flashlight when we put in the offer. Things are going SO quickly here, you have to move on it if interested. This is a nice turnaround for MI. However, things are still going way too cheap. These are houses that had a $200- $300K price tag when we moved to town 9 years ago.
The 'burbs have much higher prices. TONS higher. our current neighborhood is pricier than much of Detroit b/c we're bordering on a very nice suburb that has crazy high prices. I'm a short walk to their nice shops, and all through nice neighborhood, no sketchy areas in my path.