zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Apr 18, 2011 6:59:20 GMT -5
I'm not thrilled about the HOA where we live now BUT it is there just for outside maintenance so I don't feel it's AS intrusive and we aren't cookie cutter houses so it isn't like we all look alike so have to stay that way. But most are and they can be really bad to deal with.
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kimber45
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Post by kimber45 on Apr 18, 2011 9:35:30 GMT -5
I was 25 and DH 24 when we bought our first and only home in 1991. We had been looking for some time and had actually looked at our place when it was first on the market but it was too expensive at the time. About 1 1/2 later it was foreclosed on and we got it through HUD for about $20k less than what the previous owners had listed it for.
We paid $62,500 back then for house, outbuildings on 11 acres, it is worth about 3x that now.
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hurley1980
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Post by hurley1980 on Apr 18, 2011 13:07:29 GMT -5
I did the apartment living for almost all my life, and it was such a pain. I hated all the restrictions, upstairs/downstairs neighbors, crappy landlords, constantly changing property management companies, rising rents, pet deposits, etc, etc.....
I thought about buying a condo, but I also don't like the idea of HOA's. When I decided to buy my house (at 29 years old), a one bedroom apartment was the same price per month as my 3 bedroom SF home. As a single woman, I was worried I might get in over my head because I had never even mowed a lawn before, and my house needed some fixing up, but I've quickly learned that I am handier than I thought, and anything I can't do myself, I can hire someone to do it for me. I'm having a blast fixed up my 50's bungalow, and I can paint the walls any damn color I want without the landlord getting pissed! It just makes sense for me. To each their own....
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Apr 18, 2011 16:57:44 GMT -5
Well - I'm sure the lifestyle choices you make at 25 will never change and homeownership will never be important to your generation, and we will just demolish all the houses in the country.
Only a handful of people were buying houses when I was 25, and now, we all own them. That is more of a 30 year old thing to do. Your peeps aren't helped any by the status of the housing market over the past few years. Maybe y'all will get there a couple years later.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Apr 18, 2011 17:04:58 GMT -5
Your peeps aren't helped any by the status of the housing market over the past few years. Maybe y'all will get there a couple years later. Are you kidding? The only group helped by the housing bust are young people, or life long renters. We didn't lose money when prices dropped. We don't have a house to sell in a crappy market before we can move or buy a new one. We can get a lot more house for the money now. It's a buyers market in general, so you see less stupid bidding wars and whatnot. We're the only demographic that was actually helped by the whole mess. The only downside is that it's a little harder to get approved for a mortgage now.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Apr 18, 2011 17:07:56 GMT -5
I agree that the bust is helping out anyone who wants to buy in the next few years - but now you have severly bitter people telling young adults that home ownership is a bad deal. Certain individuals won't fall for that, but I suspect that a bunch will.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Apr 18, 2011 17:13:42 GMT -5
but now you have severely bitter people telling young adults that home ownership is a bad deal. Maybe you're right. All I know is that the house we bought last year for $280k would have been AT LEAST $500k a couple years earlier and there's no way in hell we could afford that mortgage.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Apr 18, 2011 17:17:07 GMT -5
Ideally, it would have never ballooned up. You would have still paid around $280k, but the guy before you wouldn't have lost his tighty-whities on it. And the guy before that wouldn't be sitting on a huge pile of cash laughing at tighty-whitey guy. Then, everyone would still believe that home ownership adds social and economic value, but not the path to extreme fortune or failure.
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stats45
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Post by stats45 on Apr 18, 2011 17:23:48 GMT -5
We live in a relatively large, sprawling metro area and settling down in a house just doesn't make much sense right now. We both want to push hard in our careers for the next few years, and settling down in one place rather than another can mean higher commute times and potentially wasted transaction costs.
I think that people in their twenties live in a much more fluid, churning economy than people experienced three decades ago. Flexibility and the ability to take opportunities wherever they arise are really attractive to employers. We'd love to stay where we are forever, but we know that it is early in our lives to be making that kind of decision.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Apr 18, 2011 17:25:11 GMT -5
I hear ya, but we actually bought from the guy who should have made a pile of money but he never sold it to tighty-whitey guy during the boom. We paid a little less than he paid 12 years previously, but it was a short sale, so I think he was pulling out equity or something. In our case I think everyone made out all right except the bank. They took a hit.
Then again, they probably bundled the previous owners mortgages and sold them to a pension fund or something, so everyone directly involved with the house probably did alright. The only real hit was taken by some old retired geezers who probably live in another state and have never even heard of the town our house sits in. Ain't this country great?
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souldoubt
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Post by souldoubt on Apr 18, 2011 17:52:47 GMT -5
You can find apartments that allow small dogs but around here many require pet deposits, some require pet rent and having a small dog or cat will automatically put you out of the running for some nice places. When I was 25 I wouldn't have thought of buying because I wasn't financially ready to. I'm 29 now and after Jan 1 I plan to get pre qualified for a mortgage and start looking for a condo or townhome. Prices here are still somewhat overpriced in my opinion but I think they'll go down a bit more and I can find places right now that are in my price range. I'm going to be a picky SOB when looking and make sure I get something that I want and not something that just addresses what I need.
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Apr 18, 2011 23:00:34 GMT -5
I think it just depends on your lifestyle at the time. Before getting married, I lived in an apartment, and mostly loved it. I looked at buying a home shortly after DH and I first started dating, but decided at the time that I travel way too much, hate yardwork, and generally didn't want to deal with all the home repair/upkeep/maintenance issues.
DH, on the other hand, is totally opposite - he bought a house about two years after graduating from college. He loves home improvement projects (rebuilt the deck as the one the builder put in is about 1/10th the size of the deck DH built, put in pavers at the bottom of the deck, and refinished the basement in the last 3 years), and woodworking, so he really wanted all the extra garage space for his tools and working on projects. He also doesn't mind yardwork, and doesn't travel as much as I do, so for him, it made sense.
Now that we're married, I'm okay with home ownership - I wouldn't want to raise any future kids we may have in an apartment, and I can handle all the maintenance and upkeep since I have someone to share them with.
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ugga81
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Post by ugga81 on Apr 19, 2011 9:50:28 GMT -5
DH and I are "house" people. We bought our first home about 5 years ago and through a series of job moves we are on our third. Why houses work for us? 1) we hate the on top of your neighbor, can hear every footstep over your head or are worried about someone else hearing yours, type of living 2) We love having a big yard for our 80 pound pooch. 3) Space! Good Lord knows we don't need 2800 sq ft but damn it's nice 4) Noise- DH can play guitar at 2AM and it doesn't bother anyone (except me!) 5) Ease of parking/carrying in groceries/garaging- Yes, I know there are some rentals with attached garages, but we've lived a lot of places where parking is quite a distance from the unit and it you have a garage its even further. Plus, we always have parking for guests. Now I just back into the garage and can load groceries directly into the pantry 6)We love home improvement! Favorite channels DIY and HGTV. We love walking the aisles of Home Depot or Lowes and plan our next project. Our home is brand new but we're already planning some small projects. Nothing "needs" to be done right away which is even better. Our first big project- finishing the basement. 7) Monthly payment doesn't change- rent can fluctuate, our payment stays the same (although taxes can and do adjust). Eventually we "own" something though that contributes to our net worth
In our single and married lives we've rented and owned. I know I'm happier and feel more "centered" when we have our own home. During our last move we had about 3 months where we were "homeless". Some awesome friends of ours let us live in their large, very nicely finished basement. It was a godsend. Even still the not having it be our walls, hearing their kids running overhead, and hoping the dog wasn't barking while we were at work was stressful and I was SOOOO happy to get into our new place. We are definitely house people.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2011 9:58:34 GMT -5
Do you think that trend will continue or is it depending on where you live?
I think it's a generational thing. I wouldn't have a condo or live in an apartment. I just don't like people living that close to me nor do I like paying extra fees. When I was young everybody's aim (at least all of the people I knew) wanted a house.
I think more & more condo's are being excepted as something to buy & live in both by the younger generation & by the older ones that don't want the upkeep. Part of that could be the results of very high prices for land in larger areas.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Apr 19, 2011 10:18:37 GMT -5
I think it's a personal choice type thing. DH bought the house we're living in before we'd met. It's a decent enough fit, for now, so we're staying put. Plus it's dirt cheap. I've lived in an apartment complex; an upper flat and a lower flat. The best was the lower flat. The landlords lived above us but had converted the 2nd floor into a gorgeous living room/reception area and they lived on the 3rd floor. So there was an entire floor insulating us from each others sounds. In the other places, I got a lot of sounds from the neighbors (squeaky bed-springs every night plus guys that sounded like elephants above us and my landlord having screaming, drunken fights with her boyfriend at 3am below me) and I wanted to be able to vacuum when it was convenient for me without disturbing the other neighbors too. So my goal was always a house.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Apr 19, 2011 10:20:00 GMT -5
I think this generation will settle down and have families just as the last two hundred generations did. Maybe the percentages will go down a bit - but still the majority of 25 year olds today will marry, buy houses, and have children.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Apr 19, 2011 10:23:10 GMT -5
Then too, I grew up in a house where there was a subtle looking down on apartment dwellers among my family/friends.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Apr 19, 2011 11:10:55 GMT -5
THANK YOU. Although, it does depend on where you live. We live in a similar COLA to you (if our rents are any indication) and it doesn't make any sense to buy here UNLESS you want to live here forever, which DF and I don't. We want our first house to be our forever house, and that isn't in this state.
BUT - that would change if we lived elsewhere. I've lived in places where you could literally buy a nice four-bedroom detached house for less than $100k. If I still lived in one, I would buy a house every other month (well, not really, but you get the point).
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Apr 19, 2011 11:12:46 GMT -5
I went with a condo. The condo I bought for the price, I would no way be able to buy a house for that. My payment is as much as nice apartments. I was lucky to have a motivated seller. Paid 100k for 2 bedroom, 1800 sq feet, fireplace downstairs, attached 2 car garage, 17 feet vaulted ceilings with basketball, swimming pool, tennis courts on the property in VERY good and developing area. My property taxes are 1600 a year. My association fees are $150 which includes water, garbage, snow plowing, landscaping, bush trimming, any maintenance OUTSIDE of the condo. The just replaced my driveway, put the new roof, and replaced cedar siding with new one.
Yeah... or that. Thanks for killing me with envy first thing in the morning there, indebt ;D
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Apr 19, 2011 11:15:10 GMT -5
I think that is the way things are going. I think the next generation isn't going to be all that interested in having the perfect lawn or driving themselves crazy with conintuous home improvements. I think they are going to be much smarter about money, will use their money on things they really enjoy like eating out or traveling and not succummb to the the HGTV gotta have latest and greatest things in their homes. They are not going to want McMansions but reasonable size homes on reasonable size lots. That is the way of the future in my opinion. I want to live in your world, snerdley ;D
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on Apr 19, 2011 11:19:03 GMT -5
I don't think I'll be able to own a home until I wife up. As a single guy it's hard to do so. Getting that downpayment and having extra income will need to happen first and it's harder when you're single.
Someone called me DF's "wife-elect" the other day, and that used to be my favorite term but now I think strider might have coined a new one. LOL.
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oreo
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Post by oreo on Apr 19, 2011 15:50:57 GMT -5
This is definitely an individual decision. I have never lived in an apartment and can't imagine doing so. When I stay in hotels, I have to hear the people above me, below me, next to me, right outside my door going down the hall, and although I'm sure apartments/condos are built better than hotels, I'd be constantly worried about it. I bought my house when I was 26 and have lived in it for almost 20 years. There are times when the upkeep is tedious but I wouldn't trade it for anything. My son plays in the back yard every day (when it isn't too cold or raining) and loves it. I actually feel bad for children who have to live in apartments because I just don't think it would be as fun--at least not for an active boy like mine!
We also favor the larger dogs in my house I would not be happy being restricted to only a tiny, foo-foo dog (aka a barking cat)!
Where I live comparable condos are much less than houses.
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kgb18
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Post by kgb18 on Apr 19, 2011 16:06:27 GMT -5
Honestly, if it were up to me, I would have lived in an apartment forever, or bought a condo where you pay an association fee to have all the outside upkeep taken care of. DH wanted a traditional house, but when it comes right down to it, he doesn't really want to deal with the care and upkeep either. It's a PITA shoveling sidewalks, mowing grass, etc. It's the last thing I want to do with the free time I do have.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Apr 19, 2011 16:26:55 GMT -5
If you are willing to pay association fees, why not just pay a lawn guy? It is probably cheaper.
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kgb18
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Post by kgb18 on Apr 19, 2011 16:30:07 GMT -5
DH won't let me hire a lawn service. He is responsible for the outside. When we bought the house I told him that I won't do yard work. The problem is that the grass is usually 6 inches high before he cuts it.
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stats45
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Post by stats45 on Apr 19, 2011 16:33:09 GMT -5
I still think that much of home ownership is about children, school districts, and concerns about crime/safety.
It is easier for young people without children (or with very young children) to not care about living in a neighborhood with good schools. Depending on where you live, apartment living and good school districts don't always line up. Also, I think that many people have different standards of crime and their tolerance for contact with other people once they have children.
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973beachbum
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Post by 973beachbum on Apr 19, 2011 16:51:28 GMT -5
Why is everyone assuming that renting means living in an apartment? I read somewhere that 1/3 of all rentals are for SFH's. And the area I live in probably doesn't have 100 apartments total yet more than half of the homes that are lived in year round are rented. Ironically it is the more expensive homes that tend to be rented. The neighborhoods that are more modest have a much higher percent of owner occupied homes. Personally living in an apartment is looking better and better.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Apr 19, 2011 16:59:11 GMT -5
I bought a condo at 24, and I regret it now. I’ve been moving around so much to advance my career there really was no point in buying. But at the time they were offering 8k to buy a house…..
Anyway, I agree. I think home ownership is overrated. It really does tie you down to an area so you can’t move for better jobs or promotions as easily. Also, as a young person (and single) I don’t really have any desire to mow the grass or shovel the driveway or fix the roof or the hundreds of other things you have to do with a house.
Home ownership makes sense if you plan on living in an area for a long time. And owning a home outright can make a big difference in retirement. Not having a house payment is lovely, especially when living on a fixed income in your golden years.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Apr 19, 2011 17:12:17 GMT -5
"Df and I just did the same thing. gated community (neither of us liked that but the house was the best we could find)"
I never liked gated communities either. It's a huge pain to have visitors. My grandfather lives in a gated senior living community, it's always a song and dance to go visit and get past the guards. More hassle than it's worth if you ask me. I never thought they made much of a difference anyway, if someone was really determined they'd find a way into your gated community.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Apr 19, 2011 17:14:37 GMT -5
"There are apts that allow dogs with certain breed restrictions."
Most of the apartments I've looked at (at least in this area) will allow pets, but they just charge a higher deposit.
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