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Homeowners! Some questions...

L

lostmind

So fellow homeowners... how much did your house cost you, when did you buy, what's it worth now, where do you live, do you like the area, etc?

Just kinda curious to see how bad the market really is around the world/outside of my backyard.

I'll start:

$680k in 2006. Worth about $750k now, maybe a touch more. I'm in Port Moody, BC - about 20 mins away from Vancouver without traffic. I love on the side of a mountain, it's beautiful here and I do like it, but I dislike the weather. That's probably my only complaint about the area. Home specific complaint is that my yard is very tiny and the dirt here is not conducive to gardening. Crime is virtually non existent, my neighbours are great, we have a bunch of pretty decent restaurants here, quiet area, etc.

I feel home prices are a bit nuts here. I can't believe I am living in a home worth so much money when my salary really isn't so huge.

How about you?

Kind of an odd topic I know... it'll probably die a fiery death :)

But I'm kinda curious how much things are elsewhere, how life is, etc. My job lends itself to telecommuting very well.......
 
$68,000USD in 1996, worth 156K now. Parents own it not me. Land is almost a full acre that used to be a cow field but is mostly clay. Area is perfect place to live in knoxville. No complaints here.
 
About 15km from Brisbane centre. House is high set, about 30-40 yrs old, with a bif of asbestos thru it. It's draughty, but that's not a downside when winter gets down to about 22C in the day time.

Prices in my neighbourhood arent going backwards, but they aren't going up either. The market has stalled, but it is of no consequence as we are not moving anytime soon.

Like best? Good neighbours. Good mix of families, empty nesters and retirees.

Dislike? Crappy aluminium winows whose runners are all f%%$ed.
 
My parents bought a house yonks ago (1977) for £13,000 and sold it in 1988 for £84,000. Then bought another one for £84,000 in the same year and sold it in 2003 for £215.000.
 
Bought my house 21 years ago for $35,000, probably worth $85,000 now. If I could move the house and property up the road about a mile, I would be worth at least twice as much but I live in the "city" and thanks to the school district being so bad, it hurts.

On the plus side, it is paid off!

Mike
 
I bought my house in 2001 for $59k. That was under market value, but a home nursing firm had taken the house in lew of payment from the elderly owner, and they just wanted it sold. It was built in 1957, and is a small but sturdy house. It was a quiet neighborhood with good neighbors, mostly overlooked by developers and the infill crowd. In 2004 a house similar to mine sold for about $110k. Then development started on this end of town and the value of "pre-owned" homes dropped. Investors swarmed like sharks on a kill, and now we have several rental properties in this area. Rampant development is bringing the ills of city life this way, too.

I'm on a very large lot for an urban/suburban area, though, and I don't want to move further away from work, so I'll be staying put until I retire unless I win the lottery. I have no idea what the downturn has done to home values, but it doesn't really matter since I'm not going anywhere.
 
I bought my home in 2000 for 49,500. It's now worth around 56,000. It's an 1896 victorian cottage which translates into very little storage space, 2 closets in entire house and one of them is under the stairs. The plus side is it sits on a lot and a half and has a garage. In the next 2 years it'll be paid off. This is a settled older neighborhood in a small rural town of under 5,000 population. I'd like more room to grow but my motto is the more peppers we plant the less mowing the will be.
 
Got my 120 + yr old house in 04. By end of 06 it had almost doubled in value (the bubble). Now i'd get close to 50% above original price.

Dont care - I'm not moving again...ever lol
 
pepperfever said:
I bought my home in 2000 for 49,500. It's now worth around 56,000. It's an 1896 victorian cottage which translates into very little storage space, 2 closets in entire house and one of them is under the stairs. The plus side is it sits on a lot and a half and has a garage. In the next 2 years it'll be paid off. This is a settled older neighborhood in a small rural town of under 5,000 population. I'd like more room to grow but my motto is the more peppers we plant the less mowing the will be.
Click to expand...

Yeah, before this house I lived in a house built in the 1920's. There was only one closet, and the kitchen and bathroom were added on what used to be the back porch. First thing I did in this house was check out the storage space.
 
Don't own a house but i rent my house cheaper than most people.
What would normaly run at about 340 a week i get for 260. No complaints here :)
 
Pam, thats odd about 'pre-owned' homes selling for less than existing ones.

Here, it's kinda like the established suburbs are more sought after, and the developments are a little cheaper. What that does to the existing homes in the developing area is make them more valuble due to the larger lot size, and thus the speculator/developer interest in knocking them down...

The other thing I note is that property in the US seems to be waaaayyyyy cheaper than here. In a rural town/city here, such as Wangaratta in NE Victoria, 20K population, which has industry, employment, good school etc, you're lucky to get change from AU$200K! And then that's on the outskirts, and is a crap house.

RS
 
I live in the hunter valley area of New South Wales. I bought my house for $225000AUD in 2005. It's now worth around $290000, and will soon be getting me $285 a week in rent as I am living else where.

The area the house is in is a good area close to some of the best beaches, fishing spots and wine country in the world.

The only dislike is it is a small house that is about 40 years old.

The big plus is it has a massive back yard....
 
I can tell you about 6 years ago the landlord of my Mum's place bought the apartment for about $150,000 and not too long ago (before the economy thing) it was worth about $280,000. I have no clue about my house.
 
ring sting said:
Pam, thats odd about 'pre-owned' homes selling for less than existing ones.
Click to expand...


Developers overloaded the market with cheaply constructed homes, and realtors convinced buyers that pre-owned homes came with potentially expensive repairs. I looked at some of those new houses, and I swear, it felt like if you pushed on one wall, the whole house would lean. I've been in trailers that felt more substantial.

It's a racket, and one reason that we're in this financial situation. Dubya spun it as trying to make home ownership possible for every American, but in reality it was a way to make already wealthy developers and contractors even wealthier.
 
Pam said:
Developers overloaded the market with cheaply constructed homes, and realtors convinced buyers that pre-owned homes came with potentially expensive repairs. I looked at some of those new houses, and I swear, it felt like if you pushed on one wall, the whole house would lean. I've been in trailers that felt more substantial.

It's a racket, and one reason that we're in this financial situation. Dubya spun it as trying to make home ownership possible for every American, but in reality it was a way to make already wealthy developers and contractors even wealthier.
Click to expand...


Wasnt just dubya, but thats a different board and topic.

Homes in the us do seem alot cheaper than other places around the world RB, watching house hunters international opens my wife's eyes all the time.
 
Yah, I've been checking out home prices across the USA. Wow, in some places you can buy a brand new house under $75k in a decent area. WTH?

I see people driving cars on a daily basis worth more then that. Insane.

I couldn't imagine the freedom not paying a mortgage would afford me. Seems I've been paying $2500+/month since 2001/2002 when I bought my first home.
 
2500 a month seems wayyyyyy expensive. but at 750K for your house.....

Monthly mortgage is 750 bucks here and we are quite content until I graduate.
 
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