emma1420
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Post by emma1420 on Feb 5, 2015 10:00:32 GMT -5
That is a gorgeous house!!! I change my mind. Move. Send poptart to a private school . That house has my dream kitchen/family room space.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Feb 5, 2015 10:02:08 GMT -5
I would count myself lucky to own any one of those. I've looked at a lot of houses, and can say that the pictures never tell the whole story. Also, one of my pet peeves is no window in the bathroom, or a window in the shower/bathtub enclosure. I need my natural light for makeup application, dammit! ETA: Another weird thing that was a requirement for me was a backyard facing south or west. Garage preferably on the north side. I really wanted good sunlight to enter the house and for afternoons in the backyard. Unfortunately, the house I bought has so many large trees surrounding it that it negated most of the benefits.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Feb 5, 2015 10:51:55 GMT -5
We live in an area with great schools. We have no kids and don't plan on any. That being said, good schools usually equal good neighbors and neighborhoods. Not a given but the odds are there. The kids don't fear walking the halls or using the bathroom. Both my kids went to a magnet within a regular middle school. The school system put that magnet in a ghetto on purpose to raise the scores. For three years DD couldn't use the rest room, even at those TIMES of the month. She wore a tampon and an overnight Kotex. DS was used as a battering ram to run down another student. Changing classes so even the halls weren't always safe even though teachers were supposed to be monitoring the halls. Never, ever, compromise a good school for a house.
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Feb 5, 2015 12:09:14 GMT -5
I get that the better schools equal better housing value. That's actually part of the problem. To afford a nice small house in the really good school districts, we have to stretch ourselves financially in a way I'm not super comfortable with. For example, this house came on the market two days ago.
It is 3bd/1.75ba/1530sqft with a 4000sqft lot. It is in a very desirable neighborhood with EXCELLENT schools. Price: $549,950.
That's $125k more than the 5bd/3.5ba/3600sqft home in my neighborhood. I can make a $550k purchase price work with some fancy accounting that also leaves us with very little cushion- something I'm not super comfortable with. (Please remember that I am supporting a family of 3, hopefully 4, on a single income of $86.6k, in Seattle. So while we have very little debt, allowing us to take on a bigger mortgage, we still have less than that article said you needed to live comfortably in Seattle )
This place does have an open house this weekend, and we'll totally go see it. But it will also almost certainly be off the market in less than 2 weeks, and we're 4 weeks from having our condo on the market.
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emma1420
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Post by emma1420 on Feb 5, 2015 12:18:23 GMT -5
That is a very cute house, but I really understand why it's so challenging when you know you can get something so much bigger and nicer in your current neighborhood. Are there no compromise neighborhoods anywhere around? Something that has a reasonably good school district (but perhaps not a 9 or 10), and is a bit more reasonably priced? Or do those kind of neighborhoods increase your commute?
Is there anyway to build up a cushion reasonably quickly again if you were to move into a house that had one of the higher purchase prices? Are townhouses or duplex an option in any of those areas? Something that might be a bit more affordable and provide the space you want?
I don't know how anyone affords those prices there. I'm in the midwest (so we have cheap housing), and you can't borrow more than 3 times you income most of the time.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Feb 5, 2015 12:24:51 GMT -5
SOME places in the Midwest are affordable but in the same vein, if you want good schools and neighborhood, you pay for it. OP, will your husband ever be working? You might find housing more affordable then.
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muttleynfelix
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Post by muttleynfelix on Feb 5, 2015 12:30:18 GMT -5
Not always. 2 of the houses I posted go to the "best" high school in the state of Iowa as ranked by US News and World report. Some of the places have fairly high taxes - $4k on a $200k house, but still affordable.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Feb 5, 2015 12:34:35 GMT -5
Well, ours is valued at $500k and our taxes are almost 6k. I think it's a lot for nothing more than good schools but it is what it is. We hardly live in a mansion. It's 3 bedrooms total. 2 down with a bathroom. 1 up with a bath and a half. 2 car garage. Nice lot though.
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Feb 5, 2015 15:40:34 GMT -5
emma1420 - So, one of the challenges of being married to my actual husband (who I love dearly), is how he thinks about things. He sees the school ratings as being on a normal distribution (the bell curve), and so in his mind, anything from a 3-7 is pretty much the same thing, as they are going to fall under the bulk of the normal distribution. It isn't until you get to the outliers that you really start seeing differences. He figures 8 is actually good, and that 9 is exponentially better than 8, and 10 exponentially better than 9. In his mind, if we're paying for a school, we should be paying for at least an 8. One thing to remember here is that all the school districts are "open" school districts, at least as the high school level. Families can request that their child go to any school within the district, and if approved, the district provides transportation. None of the schools in my current district are rated above a 6. However, if we move into Seattle, we can request schools for her that are rated highly, no matter where in the district they are. However, you are given preference for a school if it is your neighborhood school, and it can be really hard to get a white, middle class, not super high performing, child into the best high schools in the area if it's not their neighborhood school. We are looking at other areas. The problem is that the Seattle area has a few really nice neighborhoods (West Seattle, U-District, Greenlake, Ballard) in the heart of the city that are quite expensive, and otherwise has mostly mixed use neighborhoods. To get to the type of neighborhood I think you're thinking of, we'd actually have to go further out than we currently are. (Where there are some absolutely gorgeous houses at prices we can afford, with decent schools, and a commute none of us wants me to have.) We absolutely are considering townhomes. However, most of the townhomes are new construction and start at $400k, going up quickly from there. And we have dogs. We will always have dogs, so they do have to be considered as well.
zibazinski - Ever is a long time. Yes, I assume that at some point, C will go back to working. I very much hope that it will not be before Pop Tart is in high school. In 5th grade, she's already fighting with her friends about boys. I need C home to deal with this crud at least through middle school. There was an article I read the other day about a stay at home parent being a luxury for their spouse. I completely agree. C staying at home is a total luxury for me, and one I want to hold on to as along as possible. As a note, the taxes on the home I posted today are $3855/year.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Feb 5, 2015 16:00:19 GMT -5
It is a luxury to have a SAHP. My EX said that would become the new status symbol someday.
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muttleynfelix
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Post by muttleynfelix on Feb 5, 2015 17:10:52 GMT -5
See ratings are super subjective, so I would take the numbers with a grain of salt. Kennedy High in Cedar Rapids is "only" ranked a 9, but US news and world report says they are the best high school in Iowa. Linn-Mar high school is ranked a 10, but US News and World Report has them as the 6th best high school in Iowa. While Great Schools is a good tool, it doesn't tell the whole story.
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Feb 9, 2015 13:39:15 GMT -5
I saw 13 open houses this weekend, 11 of them yesterday.
One of them, I actually would have chosen over the house this thread was started about. Amazingly enough, that house was 3bd/1.5ba, under 1200 sqft. However, it was butter zone for our preferred neighborhoods and really nicely done.
The rub is, is that while it was listed at a price within our comfort range, it was at the top of the comfort range, and the agent said he was expecting at least 7 offers when they review offers this afternoon. I highly doubt the sale price will remain in our comfort zone (though we could probably swing an extra $10k or so, it would just leave a little less cushion). And that will be the trick if we really want to move to one of these neighborhoods. Houses are on the market about a week, have multiple competing offers, and sell at higher than list price. It's almost like we're back in the early 2000s.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Feb 9, 2015 14:33:09 GMT -5
When you have a desirable area, that's how it goes. The only time houses are ever listed in my neighborhood is when the seller wants too much money. I have 3 neighbors who want our house because of the lot it's on. So I will never list when I go to sell.
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Feb 9, 2015 16:56:48 GMT -5
Not always. 2 of the houses I posted go to the "best" high school in the state of Iowa as ranked by US News and World report. Some of the places have fairly high taxes - $4k on a $200k house, but still affordable. I It depends if you look at elementary school, middle school, or HS. We have 4 High schools in our district. Our high schools are quite good, actually. What the district does a poor job of is tending to kids at the elementary level. Which, is where I think it matters. If a kid is behind grade level in reading, math, etc. They aren't going to magically catch up. And frankly, there isn't much room to catch up by the time you are in HS. Middle school teachers don't even want to take the time to catch kids up when they are underperforming, because it just uses up too many resources.. 220K in my neighborhood gets you a very good high school and pretty good or iffy middle school (we have a choice, actually between two public middle schools), and a poor elementary school. If you want all schools to be good (elementary-high school) then you pay 350-500K. I'm about a half day's drive away from you. There's a reason why some of the most overcrowded schools are in places in the city where parents don't have the resources to complain..or ALL the homeless kids go to one specific elementary school. At least in my city, poor people (often compounded with the fact that they aren't comfortable speaking english) never seem to advocate strongly enough to demand for and receive change. And it's been like that for 15 years.
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Feb 25, 2015 11:14:36 GMT -5
Just thought I'd let people know that "THE" house, the one that started this thread, is under contract - not to us. (Our mortgage guy doesn't want to write us a pre-approval letter until we get our rental property under contract, and it won't go on the market for another 1-2 weeks.)
I am sad. I am grieving. I have LOVED this house for so long. And this time it came on the market at a price I could easily afford, just one month too early for it to be the right time for us.
I am so happy. This removes the temptation. It makes it easier to focus on our overall goals for moving. It also keeps our timeline loose. We just moved Cupcake into Pop Tart's school. We do not want to make them move schools again this year, so not buying until later in the year (April at the earliest) and not moving until June is really what is best for us. (Though, if we had bought that house, it wouldn't have mattered as they would have stayed in the same school and even on the same bus route.) This allows us to not feel pressured into making a decision based on someone else's timeline.
So yeah, still mixed emotions, but knowing this is for the best.
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HoneyBBQ
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Post by HoneyBBQ on Feb 25, 2015 11:27:06 GMT -5
I get that the better schools equal better housing value. That's actually part of the problem. To afford a nice small house in the really good school districts, we have to stretch ourselves financially in a way I'm not super comfortable with. For example, this house came on the market two days ago.
Hey! That's not far from me. It's very cute. I drive past it every day on the way home from work. It's on a SUPER busy street. Not a good family home at all IMO because of that. You won't be able to get in and out of your driveway and street parking is only during nights/evenings and cleared during traffic hours. And it's pending, lol. 550k. I can't believe it. No wonder my house cost a zillion dollars.
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HoneyBBQ
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Post by HoneyBBQ on Feb 25, 2015 11:29:42 GMT -5
Sorry you missed out on the house you love.
As you know, the Seattle area real estate is RIDICULOUS right now. I got some email about how housing prices are up 6% SINCE NOVEMBER.
Good grief. Sounds like you know the game and how these houses are listing for low ball to get multiple offers.
A person I work with is trying to buy a house in Maple Leaf (450k price range) and he offered 45k over asking and it wasn't enough.
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Feb 25, 2015 12:53:05 GMT -5
HoneyBBQ - one of the houses I was following, listed at just under $450k just sold for $520k, so yeah, $70k over asking, under contract in less that a week.
As for the house you pictured, we saw that one in an open house. I did a write up on FB about it, and the garage opening to the busy street means you can never get out of your garage. (Plus, at $550k, it's at the top end of doable but not comfortable).)
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HoneyBBQ
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Post by HoneyBBQ on Feb 25, 2015 13:58:32 GMT -5
Yeah, with 2 kids you don't want to live on N 50th, even if it were only 350k. It's a nightmare. One block away and you'd be golden (but then it'd cost 650k!).
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Feb 25, 2015 15:59:35 GMT -5
Honey- And that house (the one near you), no houses apparently had come on the market in over 3 months in that neighborhood, and that weekend, 3 houses within about a block of each other came on. All 3 had open houses that weekend and were under contract by Monday or Tuesday evening.
Of houses currently on the market, my top three contenders are:
$465k, 4bd/2ba, 2480sqft (though about 1000 are unfinished). It's just over my ideal comfort price, but it is in the heart of the area we are targeting. However, given it's condition, price, and location, I expect it will be under contract in the next week, and sell for more than asking.
$439.5k, 3bd/1.75ba, 1820sqft. The kitchen is mid-century-tasstic, and it's an electric stove. However, if we could get it as asking price, we'd have enough to possibly put in a gas stove (the house already has natural gas heat). Overall, it hasn't been updated as much as others, but it's a solid house that would meet our needs and meet our moving goals (better schools, shorter commute)
$450k, 4bd/2.75ba, 1870sqft. Further north than is ideal, but still within a comfort zone. House has been beautifully redone. Again, stove doesn't appear to be gas, but house does already have gas, so adding a gas stove in the next year or so would be doable.
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Feb 25, 2015 16:03:53 GMT -5
As a contrast, this house, back over in the Greenlake area (which is not quite our ideal, we'd prefer to be on the U-District side of the freeway, but it's really not a big deal), is 3bd/1.75ba, 1990sqft and listed at $550k. It is also a cosmetic fixer. I can't spend $550k on a fixer of any kind.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Feb 25, 2015 16:15:23 GMT -5
I like the blue one the best, but I guess that shows you what a little landscaping and paint can do. I think the gray one is probably maxed out on updates for the area (just my impression from the look of it--I know nothing of the area). The brick has potential (see: landscaping and paint). I like brick houses. I grew up in one, and now that I'm a home-owner, I can appreciate them better. (I also like a house that has potentially easy updates that I could DIY--not sure if that's the case here.) The last one probably has the most potential (I like arts & crafts style), but that is pricey.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Feb 25, 2015 16:19:45 GMT -5
I will take our higher R/E taxes as long as we don't have to deal with those insane prices. Even in one of the best school districts around here none of those should (in my amateur opinion) top $300k-$350k.
Dayummm!
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973beachbum
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Post by 973beachbum on Feb 25, 2015 16:41:18 GMT -5
It is funny to read how things are described in different parts of the country. I haven't heard the expression .75 bath since I was a kid. It took me a minute to compute a .75 bath as a full bath with a shower rather than a powder room plus plus whatever would make up the other quarter. I have actually seen houses with toilet rooms. Literally just a small closet sized room with a toilet in them. I have no idea what part of a bath that would count as. It is also quite common here to have outside showers. And I mean showers with real hot and cold water that happen to be outside. I have no idea what percent that would add up to.
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HoneyBBQ
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Post by HoneyBBQ on Feb 25, 2015 17:58:28 GMT -5
shanendoah the grey one is pending already! LOL. seattle market is totally nucking futs. I'm always amazed that boiler rooms and unfinished basement square footage count in the overall footage of the home in Seattle. We'd look at 2500 sq foot homes, and only 1000 sq feet was actually usable. Unbelievable! Contrast that to St Louis, where we beautifully finished our 800 sq ft basement and it was WALK OUT with windows but we couldn't include any of the square footage because technically it was below grade. LOL.
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Feb 25, 2015 18:41:58 GMT -5
HoneyBBQ - It went pending between when I posted it and when you looked. I did mention in my quick little notes that I expected it to be pending within the week. I apparently should have send "by the end of the day". Based on experience, I knew that one wasn't going to last long. When I get the "sold" notification, I expect that the final price will be very close to $500k, if not over.
In the U-District/Greenlake areas, it is like it's 2003-2005 again. Houses go on the market Wednesday-Friday, with an open house that weekend. They are under contract by Wednesday night at the latest (and likely only took that long due to a bidding war - most are reviewing offers on Monday and under contract by Tuesday), and are selling for more than asking. We will likely NOT actually get a home in our "butter" zone, because C has no desire to be in a bidding war, and I'd rather keep cash on hand and fix up a not so perfect house (on my own timeline and in my own way) than try to buy the "perfect" house.
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Feb 25, 2015 18:49:15 GMT -5
I should note that there are 7 other houses that I added to my watch list AFTER that gray one (which was just last week) that are now also pending. Considering I check the areas I'm interested in just about every day, most of those get added to my list within 24 hours of coming on the market.
I also get emails for some houses as they come online. This one arrived just a little bit ago. $500k, 4bd/2.5ba, 1740sqft. I'm a huge fan of the Mediterranean look. I also expect that by this time next week, it will be under contract.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2015 18:49:31 GMT -5
Was it ever not that way? My sister bought, 3 years ago and it was just over a week from on the market to close... They paid cash. 400k for an almost total gut job.
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sapphire12
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Post by sapphire12 on Feb 25, 2015 18:56:46 GMT -5
Not that this helps, but I like the 2nd blue house you posted and the Mediterranean one, at least from the outside. Good luck with your house hunt, but I'm frustrated for you.
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Feb 25, 2015 18:59:41 GMT -5
oped - It's not that way in all neighborhoods in the Seattle area. In my neighborhood (which granted, isn't Seattle proper), houses can be on the market quite some time. The house that started this whole thread was on the market for over 3 weeks before getting an offer. If it had been located in the neighborhoods I'm primarily looking at, it would have been snapped up in days, as well.
Other actual Seattle neighborhoods I'm looking at (Columbia City) don't have houses go as quickly. Nor do they go that quickly over in Kirkland, which is renowned for good schools and tech companies.
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