Anyone finding it hard to buy a home? With the prices being over $200.000

[brenda67]

for a decent size home for a family of 5 or more? I'm absolutely disgusted with the high Real Estate prices here in my county! Unless you work 2 or more jobs on top of your regular job or work in New York City (their the ones that raised our Real Estate in my area in the first place..and in fact own alot of our local homes(summer homes to them..must be nice!) leaving the local people unable to own a home in our`own area...I'm so pi$$ed right now..I could jump out of my own skin...I know we could move away to a area that has affordable housing..but.. I want to keep my kids near our families and in the same school district.. Thanks for letting me vent my fustration out on you all..

[MirandaK]

I'm having the opposite problem...we can't sell our house! Such a pain...hope you find something.

[bRATmom]

have you looked into forclosures? somethings you can get quite the deal with them.

[sixfreds]

We bought our house 10 years ago and we paid $94,000 today the house is valued at $220,000 we couldn't afford to buy today! The prices are crazy!!!!

Eileen

[sdrjeolsen]

Sorry you are frustrated Prices are high here too. a 50 yr old, 3 br/1 ba, less than 1000 sq ft in town is around 400K. It is kinda crazy and it doesn't seem fair.

[tina150]

My mother sold her home in Florida 15years ago for 50,000, I see it just sold last year for 225,000. That is insane.

[Hoosier Momma]

We paid $120K for an almost 2400 square foot home in Indiana (5 bed, 2 bath). We owned it for one year and sold it for $125,000 in August of last year. (sold due to dh's job transfer)

We bought our current home here in Arkansas for $114,000. It is a bit smaller (2000 sq ft--4 bed, 2 bath), but our mortgage payment dropped close to $250/month. School districts don't mean much to us since our kids attend Catholic school and we have also homeschooled in the past.

The fact is that what you pay for a house is dependent on the area. We couldn't afford to live on my dh's income (about $53K/yr) in most of CA, but we do okay here in AR.

Our first home we bought in 2000 was in central Oklahoma on 2.5 acres. It was just over 1700 square feet, and we paid $84,000 (it needed some updating, which we did). We sold it 5.5 years later for $104,500 and we could have received more if we didn't need a quick sale.

My parents purchased 57 acres in central Indiana in 1987 for $18,000. Today, because of the expansion of Indianapolis and the surrounding areas, their land is probably worth $2000 or more per acre (maybe more because their land is incredibly good farmland). Their house was appraised several years ago for $250K. So for a year and half worth of building the house (we moved into it in early 1989 when I was 16), they have seen their investment go through the roof. If they ever sell, they would be in good shape! As it is, they rent out about 20 acres every year to farmers and pay the taxes on their property with the proceeds.

[Lady_V]

I know what you mean, we have put the house buying on the back-burner for now, and most likely all of 2008 *sigh* Even if miracles of all miracles happened and we sold this place and found an affordable home, I am afraid we'd freeze to death because of the cost of heating fuels.

Where I live may not be perfect, it's too small, not enough windows, neighbors drive me nuts... but it's mine.

[Telephus44]

I hear you. I'm in central MA, house prices are probably pretty close to what they are where you live. Our plan is to buy a house in 2010 - we're hoping that prices will plummet. $200,000 is right about where all of the "cheap" houses are right now.

OTOH, DS's crib is set up in the living room, and I'd like to be in someplace a little bigger when he moves to a bed - and that will be before 2010. We may buy earlier or see if we can rent a house. Our apartment is 900 sq ft, and we really only need another room. If our complex offered a bigger apt, we'd take it.

[trabrat]

I live in a very rural area but I moved from FL to OH 17 yrs ago. I bought my house for 42,000 its a ranch, 4 bed 2 bath on 10 acres on a dead end street and I live at the end.... I love it.

just got end of the yr paper from the bank, owe 3500 and its mine.... there is light at the end of the tunnel

[jamie79]

Come to Wisconsin. In our area you can get a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath for right around $100,000

I have a nine room house that is 1780 sq feet not including basement and we paid $102,900. We have 4 bedrooms and 2 and a half baths. Our house is 60 yrs old and we did do a little work to it but its in good shape and only 2 blocks from good schools

[Dutchie]

The same trouble is happening across here.
Starters are not being able to buy a home without having at LEAST 2 incomes. We bought our home 15 years ago for a sum of around $270,000
(this was HUGE for us and we had a few sleepless nights before we did it) but it suited our family to a T (5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms) - and is in the suburbs of one of Hollands largest cities which also drives the price up. A house just along the street from us sold this week for ..... wait for it ..... around

$910,000.
UNBELIEVABLE!!!! This house is the same as ours except that we have more ground and have done more to the house over the years which has certainly added (even more) value.
We could not afford our house now and wonder who can.
I often wonder how our kids will manage.

[Jskell911]

Houses have been averaging over $200K here in both CT ans RI where I am originally from for over 4 years. So, yes it was difficult to find one we loves that fit our budget. That's part of the reason we moved over the border to CT, our house fit both! We love it and could afford it w/o any of that creative financing.

[Jo]

No help, just lots of tea and sympathy. My little "single mom hovel" is perfect for me, but it's TINY...2 small BR, 1 bath, modest living room, small kitchen, tiny room off the kitchen that we jokingly call the "dining room"...no garage, small yard....and it would be appraised at close to 200K today(I paid 100K). Prices here are obscene...and while I realize that the salaries and job opportunities are greater here...they are NOT 50-75% greater!!! In my field, the salary for my job is the same nationwide.

[wanderlusting]

It's a huge problem here in England too. It's so bad, the British government has started building smaller houses to sell to first time buyers. Otherwise, the first time buyers wouldn't be able to get their foot on the property ladder.