Wow... this is when I thank god for living in a relatively rural area of Texas. I bought a brand new 3 bedroom brick home in 2003 for $87,500 ... Crazy.

Here, $250,000 will get you 5 bedrooms, 2 stories, bonus rooms, multiple living areas, 2-acre plots, etc.

 

Our tax rate is around 17.0. My brothers tax rate is nearly 18.0. I'll be paying around $780 a month for property taxes alone. That's one of the reasons why house prices can't go through the roof here, nobody could afford the mortgage and the taxes. You'd think with all this oil revenue in the State of Alaska we could take the pressure off the property owners a little, but our good ol' politicians just can't get enough money.

 

yea, but then you have to live in Texas. Blegh. just kidin' ya.

 

Lumadar:
I agree with ya man! The bay area is the same. Cracker boxes going for over $600,000. Just insane!

Mike

 

Well the West Coast has significantly higher wages, whereas here on the East Coast we havent seen wages increase at a rate to keep up with housing.

On another note, I just put in an offer on a house, it was below what they were asking so wish me luck guys.

 

Same thing is going on here in East Kalifornia. (Las Vegas).
I bought my house for $120,000. It is now valued at $265,000. Problem is to buy something better, I would need $550,000. I tell you what I ain't going to saddle myself up with a $3000 a month mortgage. I will just buy more guns and ammo and invest in flak jackets and stay here. Well until I can move back to Idaho. Course prices are skyrocketing up there also.

 

17? WTF?

Politicans are the same everywhere.

 

You're talking 17 mils right? Not percent? In The Democratic Peoples' Republic of Las Anchorage (highest in the state) I pay about $3500 a year for a valuation of about $295,000, or a little under $300 a month. You must have one hell of a house

 

Doesn't Alaska also have no sales tax though? Usually low sales tax equals high property tax, and vise versa.
I'm looking into houses, been living in apartments for about 5 years now, me and hte fiancee are getting hitched this summer, and looking to get a real house, with a yard for the dogs, and equity!
Problem is, around here you can't buy anything decent for under $300k. That's somethign DECENT like a 3BR, 2bath. And that's in Longmont, which is about 20 miles north of denver, not even in Denver.
But the problem here is getting better. The builders haven't stopped b uilding, but theres nobody buying. That and we also lead hte nation in foreclosures, due to so many idiots doing interest only loans and adjustable rate mortgages, and being told htey can borrow more than they really can. The whole mortgage industry is a scam. I did a quick check with some online mortage companies and they have "evaluations" where you put in salaries, expenses, loans, etc. and they tell you how much you can borrow. One program told us that me and my fiancee could afford a $490,000 house, which would have payments of about $1900/month not including property taxes, etc. Sure the math might add up, but what if one of us has to buy a new car, or the water heater goes out, or the house needs painting? We'd be screwed! Hence why we lead hte nation in foreclosures.
My guess is within a few months housing prices are really going to start dropping. Right now there is neighborhoods here where you can drive around and 1/3 of the houses are for sale. Definately not the case a few years ago, where someone would put their house on the market and if they didn't have an offer within a week they'd change realtors.
But just to give an idea, we went driving around a while ago, just seeing what was available. We saw some nice houses, off the beaten path, with decent yards. Went to see how much they were, $595,000+. Don't know who is affording these houses but it sure ain't us.

 

I built my first house in Winter Springs, FL in 1999. It was a 4/2 with a 2 car garage, 2000 sf for $134,900. I sold it in July of '06 for $339,000. I bought a house less than 1 mile away. New house was built in 1999, 2580 sf, 5/3 with a 2 car garage, pool, backs up to a retention pond. Paid $445,000.

Prices have settled back down here and houses are sitting on the market for 4-6 months instead of 2-3 days. I sold my house in less than 2 weeks. I could have bought it for around $430K right now but my old house would probably only sell for around $300k.

 

Same here around Fort Worth. Plus, everytime I move into a community, housing start going down. I have tried to sell short but didn't work in real estate like it did in stocks.

 

I bought my first home in 1979.
960 sq ft for $30,000.

I couldn't sleep at night because I had a $180 1st mortgage and a $43 2nd mortgage.

Now I spend that much for cable and cell phone.

 

I remember that feeling well. We really stretched and paid $18,500 for our first home, 20 years later, sold it for $48,000. Maintenance on a home is the killer now. It costs so much to have anything major done.

 

Thats cheap


BREW

 

I built my house 4 years ago (first and last house hopefully) it went up in value 120K while they were building it. Taxes have gone up $680 a year and now are around 11k. We killed our selves to get it, and now we are killing our selves to keep it. Im hoping to last the 30 years so we can sell and move some where cheaper.