How much did your house/condo cost?

[sweetypie925]

Currently my DH and I live in a co-op (was once an apartment complex). We paid 41,000 for a 2 bedroom/1 bath. Our mortgage was 37,900. We live in Connecticut. Its the only thing we could afford at the time and its the cheapest thing in this county. We are considering buying a house and I'm just curious what others are paying. So...

How much did your condo/house cost?
What was your mortgage? Payments per month?
Where do you live?

Teresa

[Jenn]

Our townhouse was $156,000 and we bought it in 2000. After refinancing twice our mortgage is now $1047/month and we live in Northern Virginia, just outside of DC.

ETA...we have a 3 bedroom 3.5 bath townhouse.

[TtownAnne]

Our 3BR, 2.5bath, 1 car garage house cost $219,000 in northwestern Maryland.

[Tracy]

Yikes..We live in new york state and realestate is alot cheaper here..The house we are in now we bought for $65,000..Three acres, and a trailer park came with it..BUT the house needed work, it will keep us busy for quite a while..It has more than doubled in value since we bought it and have been working on it..

It's a 5-6 bR (we added a BR) with over 3000 sq feet..We know own four of the nine trailers in the park that the owners wanted to sell when they left..So it's not a bad property..Our Mortgage is under $700.00 a month and the rents from the park pay the mortgage..

[gulp!]

Ugh, these threads always make me ill b/c we pay through the nose for real estate around here!

We bought our 3BR, 3.5 BA, 2100 sq. ft. townhouse in 1999 for $410,000. We live in Cambridge, MA, just outside of Boston. Good news is that recently two units have sold for over $550K!

Everything is expensive here- there are three outside parking spaces in our complex that are for sale for $18,000 EACH!

[Lette]

Our house is a 4 BR, 2 1/2 Bath, with finished basement. When we bought over 10 years ago in 1992, it went for $199,000 . Now other homes in our development are selling for over $400,000. We live in a great Philly Suburb and have very quick access to 3 major highways!

Our condo down the shore (Ocean City, NJ) is a very large 1 BR, 1 Bath on the 6th floor overlooking the beach, pool and ocean. We bought that in 1998 for $130,000 and now it's also worth over $400,000.

We recently refinanced our mortgages together and now we own the condo, but will pay forever on our house. :lol: Not sure what the total is. :blush:

[kim]

my house (see pics in house thread) was a reasonable $365,000 :rolleyes:. we bought it in oct. '02. we are also in MA, but in central ma, so this is still expensive as hell.

we refinanced recently and brought our payments down, so we now pay about $1800 a month for the mortgage.

i feel sick just talking about it. but i love my house :nod:

[LoriS]

When we bought our house in 1998, we paid $113,000. It is a 3 bedreoom 2 bath, and has 1446 sq feet under ac. When we refinanced last year we were appraised at $151,000. Our mortgage payment is $850 a month.

[seansmommy]

Argh, we just bought our townhouse in July for $272,000, so our mortgage payment is about $1900/month. We've got 4 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, and 2 half baths in about 2000 square feet. We're in Northern Virginia, too, not too far from Washington, DC. Housing prices are outrageous in this area.
Our friends are builiding a single family smaller than ours just down the street from us. They haven't even moved in, and have made $60,000 in equity!

[gulp!]

i feel sick just talking about it. but i love my house :nod:
Kim, I love your house too! I would kill for your kitchen and some land!!

[chefkath]

We paid $240,000 in 2001 and when we refinanced last year our house was assessed at 265,000. Our payments are $1400/month. Our house is 850 SF (2 bedrooms, 1 bath) + we have a 400 SF detached MIL apartment (used to be the garage) in which my mom lives. The location is absolutely perfect. We're just a few minutes from downtown by bus, and are within walking distance of the grocery store and farmers' market (just 1/2 mile) and the beach (1 mile.)

Our house is very cute - it was built in 1949 and is your classic postwar "box" shape. It needs a TON of work, and we're slowly making progress. We've had to replace most of the appliances and much of the electrical system. Next up: a new roof and chimney, re-plumbing the laundy room, and a new rug.

[Leslie]

Our one bedroom condo (see pics in houses thread) cost us $343K in 2000. We are trying to sell it right now for a loss no less. Our mortgage is $2,000 per month and that includes property taxes and HOA dues of $370/mo.. When we buy a new house we can afford a maximum of $575K, which in this area will get us a 3/2 or 4/2 fixer upper POS. Gotta love the bay area!

[Barb]

I'm almost embarrased to post this. Housing costs are really cheap in Oklahoma compared to the rest of the country. Our house is 3 bedroom, 2 bath (I can't remember the square footage). We bought it last May and it was about $110,000. Our mortgage is about $900.00 a month.

[Mandi]

We have a 4br/2b home (1700 sq feet I believe) for $126,000 in Nov. 2001. It was appraised in Oct 2003 and was worth $160,000. Our current mortgage is $1,025 a month. We got in at a good time. The homes are going up drastically in this area. We bought when the area was just starting to be developed so we got a killer rate.

[bunybomb]

Our one bedroom condo (see pics in houses thread) cost us $343K in 2000. We are trying to sell it right now for a loss no less. Our mortgage is $2,000 per month and that includes property taxes and HOA dues of $370/mo.. When we buy a new house we can afford a maximum of $575K, which in this area will get us a 3/2 or 4/2 fixer upper POS. Gotta love the bay area!
I grew up in the Bay Area and knew I could never afford to buy anything in CA so I moved to Denver. We purchased our first 2 bdrm/2bth townhome for $108,000 in 1999 and sold it for $148,000 3 years later. Since the market is now flat here we bought our latest house for $210,000, 3 bdrm/3bth, 1600 sf. and it hasn't increased much in value. Our mortgage is currently $1400.

[Karri]

We just bought our house in July...its a 4br, 2 bath, 1800sq ft old home (1929 classic bungalow) with a teeeeeeny yard. We paid $177,000 for it and our payments are $1300/mo.

Prior to this, we lived in another suburb. We had a 4br, 2.5 bath, 2200 sq ft colonial (very similar to Kim's!) on 1.5 acres, which we purchased in May '01 for $234,000 and sol in may '03 for $279,000.

[SarahK]

We bought a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom 1000sq ft condo in Connecticut in the summer of 2001 for $82,500 and sold it in the fall of 2003 for $125,000. Our mortgage payment was $503 a month--yes, we had a KILLER interest rate! (3.5%!! Woohoo!)

In the fall of 2003 we bought a 3 bedroom/2.5 bathroom 1700 sq ft house in Washington state for $234,000. Our mortgage payment is $1200 a month.

[Lora]

We live in a 3br, 1.5 bath ranch home which we purchased for $106,000 in 2000. We have a two car garage and a finished basement. Our mortgage is about $950 a month.

Lora

[Lyndee]

We have a 3 level, 1925 sq ft, 3BR, 2.5 bath townhouse that I purchased in 1998 for $137K. Our mortgage is $868.

My neighbor just sold her townhouse for $299K. (I'd sell my house if I did'nt have to live in one!)

[Roger]

We live in the outer Atlanta burbs. Bought 10 mos. ago. 5 br. 3 ba., w/full basement (soon to be finished). 3100 square feet. Over 1/2 acre lot. Hardwoods, corian, built-in stereo, etc. Bought for $270K-ish, $1300/mo. payment. Now valued over $300K.

Atlanta - the traffic's a bitch, but the weather is nice.:nod: This house in, say, the Boston or D.C. area would push $1M.

[gulp!]

Roger, in Boston or the immediate suburbs, that house would be well over $1 M. Most of the single family homes that size in my town are at least $2 - $3 million!

Sigh. Guess eventually we'll have to move further from the city.

[chickybanky]

We bought our 4br/2ba house in December 2002 for $369,000. One year later it is appraising at $445,000. Our mortgage is $1,655.00, not including property taxes. We live in Southern California.

[Waz]

WE moved to the Country (about 45 minutes to an hour from Downtown Denver) a year ago. WE bought our house in Oct. 2001 for $275,000 and our payment is $1600.00 per month.

Our house is a 3 bedroom, 3 bath,.... 3000 sq. foot house on 4 acres with a 2 car attached garage, and an additional 3 car detached garage and workshop. It was built in 1996. About an acre of it is fenced with white vinyl fencing, and we have a koi fish pond. It's also horse property (very desirable out here).

This same house on this acreage closer in would be more like $400K to $450K. Which is why we now live in the boonies! LOL WE really wanted acreage and it's just NOT affordable close in to town.

Chris

[kim]

ya know what's funny chris, i'm about the same distance from boston (almost an hour w/o traffic) and i am NOT in the boonies :lol: this state is so damn crowded!

[gulp!]

What's funny Kim is that door to door it takes me about an hour to commute to my job in downtown Boston- and I live exactly 9 miles from my office!! :rolleyes:

[CARLA S]

My husband and I just bought our first home in Duluth (Atlanta suburb) in November for $180,000. It's 2,000 sf and has 3bdrms and 2 1/2 bath with a full basement and 2 car garage.

[Nichole]

We paid $329,000 for our 3 bed/2 bath, 2150 sq foot home on a 10,000 sq foot lot a year and a half ago. I think our monthly payment is around $1800. It was built in 1960 and is a one of those 60's "CA modern" homes. Not really my style, but it's a pretty cool house. We haven't had it appraised, but based on asking prices in our neighborhood, we could probably get close to $400,000 for it now. Southern CA is insane!

This is our second home; we paid $116,000 for our first home. It was a 1 bed/1 bath house that was built in 1954. It was in a historic neighborhood (in the same town where we currently live) and we sold it 2 years after we bought it for $235,000! :eek: It was 800 square feet!

[Bobbie]

Holy cow Nichole! That's an amazing profit you made on your first home! Your current home sounds interesting. :)

We bought our first home in January 2002 for $138,900. It was four years old at the time. We sold it a year and a half later for $149,900 (we had some life changes and wanted to move closer to Green Bay). We then built our second house, which cost exactly $146,994.77 including the land. Both homes are three-bedroom, two-bath open concept ranches with two-car garages and full basements. The first house was 1,392 sq. ft. and our new house is 1,352 sq. ft. Our monthly payment is $695 plus we estimate another $300/month for taxes and insurance (we don't escrow).

[Tara]

We built our house in San Antonio, TX in 2000 for $127,000. We have 2,102 sq feet, 3 bedroom and 2 1/2 baths. We are getting ready to sell our house and the asking price will probably be $155,000 to $160,000. Anyone interested? :lol:

[Tricia]

We bought our house a year last November and it 3 bedrooms and 1 bath built in 1957. It has about 1500 sq ft with a carport, detached one car garage, and sits on an acre. I work in Nashville so from my back door to my work is 40 minutes with no traffic, 1 hour with. We paid $85,000 but we knew the owners and negotiated a great deal. It appraised at $97,000 last year. Our current monthly payment is $734.00 a month (taxes included, we pay our insurance separate) but we pay $340 every two weeks so to save on the interest and make an extra payment a year.

[Susan]

Ugh, these threads always make me ill b/c we pay through the nose for real estate around here!

We bought our 3BR, 3.5 BA, 2100 sq. ft. townhouse in 1999 for $410,000. We live in Cambridge, MA, just outside of Boston. Good news is that recently two units have sold for over $550K!

Everything is expensive here- there are three outside parking spaces in our complex that are for sale for $18,000 EACH!
I hear ya! I live in Westford, MA. Before we bought our house we lived in Boston (Back Bay) and paid $3,450 a month in rent for our 2BR 2.5BA apartment. (No parking.) We bought a house about 30 miles NW of Boston for $475,000. We've refinanced a few times and our mortgage payment is now about $3,000. We have 4BR, 3.5BA and 2,800 square feet. (And a half acre lot.) The house two over from us sold this year for around $550,000 so I expect to make a tidy profit when we sell.

[KristenG]

We just bought our first home in November. 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath 1200 sq ft for $395,900. The house next door that is the same floorplan without our size yard (we have the largest lot in the tract) and without the upgrades our home has, just sold for $439,000. 2 months later!!!!!!! I can't believe how fast housing prices go up around here.

Our payment is $2000/month and we have a $40 association fee. We are in South Orange County California approx 20 minutes from the beach.

[earocks]

We bought our house in December 2002 and paid 75,000 for it. It's a 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 1100 square feet in central Illinois. Our mortgage payment (including insurance and all that) is $685 a month.

[ChristyL]

We bought our 3 bedroom 1 bath 900 sq. ft. home in 1999 for $48,000. When we refinance last year it was appraised at $68,000. Our mortgage payments are only $364 a month(including taxes and insurance).

[Bimmer1004]

Our 2100 sq. ft., 4 br (1 room is actually a den), 2.5 ba home was listed at $245,000 in 2001. Almost two years later, it's worth nearly $400,000. The mortgage is not the greatest though, so I won't be listing it here. :)

I forgot to mention that I live in Northern California, in the fastest growing community in the city I live in.

[togirl]

Housing prices are insane here too. We bought our house last june. It's a semi detatched house, 3 bedrooms, small backyard - great area though. It is an old house - about 70 years. We paid $380,000 Canadian - so probably about $300,000 US for it - and then we put another $100K in renovations into it. But if housing prices continue as they have been we hope to get over $500K for it in a few years.

[Leslie]

We bought our 3 bedroom 1 bath 900 sq. ft. home in 1999 for $48,000. When we refinance last year it was appraised at $68,000. Our mortgage payments are only $364 a month(including taxes and insurance).
Wow! That's unbelievably cheap! My car payment is $464/mo. and DH's is $466/mo. Your house payment is way less! Unbelievable! :eek:

[ValG]

I'm amazed by the different prices in different areas. Our first home in Austin, TX we paid $170,000 for a 1900 sf 1 year old house. Sold it a year later for $201,000. Moved up to Evergreen, CO in the foothills west of Denver in March 2001. We paid $299,900 for a 2,400 sf 3 bedroom, 2 bath with finished basement with an office addition on .75 acres (house is 20 years old). We've completely remodeled the kitchen and added to a half bath to make 2 full baths. The appraisal before the kitchen remodel was up to $315,000 and we put $30K in for the kitchen and bath, so we anticipate that that the value now is around $350K. I think we pay just under $2,000 a month in mortgage.

We're planning on moving in a couple years, get some land and build in the same area. I anticipate spending between $500K and $600K if not a little more to get what we want. Crazy.

[Theresa2]

I live in NW Minnesota and we live in town. We own a 900 sq. ft, 2 bedroom/1 bath w/ a full, partially finished basement. It's appraised at $93,000; our mortgage is for $73,000 and we pay $550/mo, which includes all taxes and insurance.

[JillMelissa]

We bought our townhouse in 2000 for $126,900. They're going for as much as $200,000 now so that is great! We're househunting right now and looking about 40 minutes farther south in NJ, at 4 BR/2.5 BA houses (around 2000-2500 sq ft) at around $275,000. Unfortunately, taxes are high here so our mortgage payment will be a lot higher than you'd think. :cry:

[Mrs. Ashleigh]

Where i live an expensive home is int he neighborhood of $150,000...that is expensive and custom built. We live in a area with a low cost of living...

[Alyssa]

Count me among the pained New Englanders who hate to read about the amazing prices in places like, say, Atlanta.

I grew up just outside Boston, but not wanting to live in a cardboard box, made the leap to southern NH. We bought our 3BR, 2 1/2 BA house with oversized garage on 1 acre on a cul de sac, about 2000 sq feet, for $182K in May 2000. I am pretty sure we can sell it for $300K now. Our mortgage is about $1400/mo (with insurance and taxes).

[Shannon]

we just bought in MA...O' it is so expensive :) 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bath, 1/3 of an acre, and an inground pool .... 420,000 and it needs work :)

[Beccaroo]

We have a tiny (1008 sf), 2 bed 1 bath, 78 year old house in Richmond VA city limits. We payed 138,000.

[AahRee]

Our house is about 1800 sq. ft. 3 bed/2 bath, with an unfinished basement that is plumbed and wired for a 4th bedroom and 3rd bath, and bonus room or family room. We have a 2 car attached garage, and a decent sized lot, but no acreage or anything like that. We paid $181,000 for it just over two years ago. It would probably sell for around $205,000 now. I'm not exactly sure what our mortgage payment is, because I don't write the checks around here. :lol:

We're looking to move. I'd like to move to a slightly nicer house (preferably with fewer stairs!), in a neighborhood with more kids. DH wants to live on the lake.

The house I like is $234,500. 3bed/2.5 bath/3 car garage. Dining/living/family rooms, kitchen with nook, nice yard. Hardwoods, tile, remodeled (island) kitchen. 1900 sq. ft. Built in 1994.

The house DH likes is 3 bed/2 bath. 1400 sq. ft. Built in 1924. Tiny kitchen with no nook. Living room, but no family room or dining room. (I guess you have to section off part of the living room to use for dining?) Nice lot, though, and an attached 2 car garage. And the key things, according to DH: waterfront, boat house (with electricity, refridgerator, shower, etc.), covered boat dock, and did I mention waterfront? Asking price: $328,000 (I think... I'm always in shock when I read it, so it doesn't stick with me...)

So that gives you an idea of how widely prices can vary in just our little town!

[Brooke]

My first townhouse was 2br/1ba, 900 sq ft, no basement, parking lot parking. I paid $80,000 in 1998 and sold it for $101,000 in 2002. HOA fees there were $33/month and my mortgage was $653/month.

Our current house is a 1600 sq ft brick cape cod (photos in house thread) built in 1948. It's 3br, 1.5 bath, full basement that's partially finished (we finished it recently), tiny kitchen, separate dining room, on 1/3 acre. We paid $185,000 in 2002. We refinanced 11 months after we bought it and it appraised for $195,000. Mortgage payment is $1241/month. No HOA fees here.

A house 3 doors down from me just sold for $213,000 and it's a 1050 sq ft rancher with a smaller yard and a pool (takes away from value here because of upkeep). So, that's a hugh +++ for our property value!

[CadensMom]

Our first house we bought in April 2002 was a 3 bdrm, 2 1/2 bath 1400 sq ft,with a 1 car garage. It was a townhouse attached on one side and a corner lot we bought for $152,000. We sold for $152,000 in October 2002 that was in the west suburbs of Chicago
We just bought our second home in the Detroit suburbs this weekend. We close Feb 23, 2004 It is really small, but all we can afford with us both back in school and a toddler. It is 1000 sq ft, 1 1/2 bth, 1 1/2 car garage, full finished basement and a fenced yard for $126,000

[Amythest]

Well...I live in a totally different market than you guys, but I bought my first house in 1994 it was a story and a half, 3 bedrooms, 1 bath for 74,900, sold it last April for 115,000. We bought our new (much bigger house) in April for $142,900, it has 4 bedrooms, 1.5 baths (soon to be 2 full baths) and is about 1700 square feet, I love it!!! It has a huge recroom which makes a nice TV/playroom.

[kermittfrog]

we live in ny state, and we paid 137,500 for our 1300 sq ft 4 br 2 full bath 2 story cape on .48 of an acre with new windows and 2 yrs old roof,,, on a quiet dead end street, we have lr, non eik, and hardwood throught the first floor(minus kit and bath) and the second floor is w2w carpet -bath, we bought in 8-03 and now we just got appraised for 225,000 cause we are adding a 1400 sq ft addition to include 2 car garage, dining room and home office for my business we also have a full unfinishable basement, , we are actually looking to buy the piece of vacant land next to us, and if we do that would give us .80 of an acre,

on a side not, 5 mins away wherre the inlaws live they paid 35,000 for their ranch stlye home 3 br 1 bath lr dr eik, 30 years ago, and the house next to them (exact same layout) went for 350k, kind of unreal
my parent who bought 35 yrs ago in putnam county ny, paid 23,500 and their house today, a raised /split level ranch was appraised at 520,000, tidy little profit i woud say

[Amy]

OMG, I am NEVER leaving central Indiana!!! I was reading some of the house prices to DH this morning, and we are both stunned.

I bought my house in 1998 when I was single, and we hope to sell in about 4-5 years. It's a 1928 bungalow, 3 BR 2 BA 1200 sf with an 1100 sf basement (laundry/workshop/storage) with a fenced in back yard and 1 car detached garage, sitting on a 40 x 150 lot. I paid $73,000 for it, and our mortgage is $609 including insurance and property taxes (our annual taxes on the house are $667). We've applied for a refi to get DH's name on the house and drop PMI, and we're guessing the appraisal will come back at around $80K. Houses in my area are now selling for $82K to 115K, and most are 2-3 BR 1-2 BA homes, 90% bungalows, some with partial brick. I have an enclosed front and back porch, but the front porch is being opened up this summer. Oh, and we live in Indianapolis, about 15 minutes from downtown.

[Karyn]

Teresa
We just bought our first house in Milford this past July. We looked in Stratford, Milford and West Haven and were sure we would never get one in Milford (where we really wanted) but one went on the market for 175,000 and we just happened to be the first people to look at it and overbid on the spot. It is 931 sf colonial (that doesn't count all the porches and the unfinished attic (full 3rd floor). It needs a tremendous amount of work. We have a tiny yard. If you are looking in Stratford it still seems to be a little cheaper than Milford is, but if you can afford it, it should really increase - the prices just keep getting higher and higher since noone can afford to live in western Fairfield county anymore. Our monthly payment after taxes and pmi is $1300. We pay homeowners insurance on our own ($1500 a year - noone wants us since our house needs so much work). If you don't want a massive fixer upper - you are probably looking at around 200K - 250K for about 1000sf in Stratford. If you need any more info let me know - we just did this whole search thing in your exact area and I still like to keep up on the real estate around here.

[Karyn]

I'm retarded today - we didn't buy in July, we bought in October. Wow

:doh:

[Faye]

we own a couple of rent houses and some apartments but just recently purchased our own home to live in. we are thrilled! Ofcourse it's nothing like the rest of you mentioned but:

This house is only a little over 2 years old, 2200 sq ft, 4 beds, 2 baths, livingroom, den, new energy efficient windows, 1.95 acres of land, has a beautiful N.C. mountainview, sits on a private gravel road, we also own the lot across the street from us so no houses within eyesight at all! It was a foreclosure and the house and was worth $105,000 but we bought it for $65,000 cash from the bank. The bank totally lost money on this one. :) It is a doublewide (actually refer'd to as a triplewide by our realtor) It's all our's and we've already cleaned it up, put in new carpet, and just have to replace a few doors. I love it!

[SarahK]

Your view sounds great, Angie. :nod:

[LisaM]

We live in Michigan (45 minutes from Detroit, one hour from Lansing and 35 minutes from Ann Arbor (U of M home) and we have very expensive house prices here. We built a 2950 square foot home, 4 bedroom. 2,5 bath, unfinished basement, not huge upgrades, 3 car garage for $340,000. My brother basically lives in the exact same home, with a finished basement, larger rooms, many more quality upgrades for $325,000 in Indianapolis.
Because I had a fairly large gift of money and our savings, we only mortaged a third of the price and pay 747.37 for our month payment. We pay our taxes and insurance and did not roll that into the mortage because I didnt want to have to pay interest on that as well and take longer to pay off our mortgage. We have a 15 year mortgage

Lisa

[Cazzle]

We bought our house in May 2000 for $110,000 (Australian dollars - that's about 83.5k in US dollars at the moment, but back then the exchange rate would have made it closer to US$60,000).

Our house is about 15 sq. metres, three bedrooms, a bathroom and a half-bathroom. Our repayments are about AU$600/mth (US$460).

We live about 160km from Melbourne, rural district but we're on the edge of the largest city in the area, population 25,000. It takes ten minutes to drive down to the shopping district and the mall, the bus stop is outside our house and the bus runs through every 60 minutes (AU$1.50/US$1.15 for a two hour ticket) and there are three schools within hollering distance.

[cimberdog]

We live in a southern suburb of the twin cities (Minnesota). We just bought our house in July, for $341,000 at 5.25% interest rate. Payments are about $2300\month. Hopefully we can get rid of PMI in a couple of years to save about $300\month. The house is a brand new two story with 4 BR, 2.5 baths, 2250 fsf and an unfinished basement.

[BeckyEsq]

We built our house in 2001 for $256 K. It's 4 BR, 2.5 baths, 2700 sq ft on .35 acre. We refinanced so our mortgage is $1600/mo for 20 years, plus we pay $6K a year in taxes. we live in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.

[Kaybee711]

We paid 125,000 for our 1128 square foot house in 2000. It has 3 bedrooms and 1 bath and .10 of an acre. We have a two car detached garage and a basement. It was assessed for $170K at the end of 2003. I could shoot myself now because we really could have afforded much more when we were looking but we wanted to get our feet wet with a starter home and in a few years upgrade. Now anything decent with a two car garage and 2.5 baths and fireplace in our town is going for 350K and we certainly cannot afford that. If we only had a crystal ball!

[Ana975]

We bought a townhouse in 2001 for $98,000. It's a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1200 square foot, and has a finished basement. The same week we closed on our house, someone else bought the one next door to us for $125 so we were very excited. We recently refinanced and the appraisal was $160. If only we could sell it and buy a single family home, but everything decent is way out of our price range.

[Jst1cin]

Our 3br, 2 bath, 1 car garage on .75 acres was 120,000. We live in a rural area out of Albuquerque, NM.

[Leslie]

Get ready to be shocked. We put in an offer on a house on Friday and they accepted. We are super excited. But get this: 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, just under 1,400 square feet, 47 years old, ranch style. $579,000!! I have no idea what our payments are going to be. Probably double what they were on our condo considering our mortgage there was for $300K. So about $4K/mo. for mortgage, property taxes, insurance. Whew!

[Tina]

Our first house we bought was a 3 bedroom 2 bath 1650 sq ft house for 90,500 in 2000. We sold that in Nov. 2003 for 123,000. Our second house we bought in Charleston was 215,000 in Nov. 2003 for a 3,000 sq ft 4 bedroom. 3 bath & huge FROG and our base plan is already selling for $240-250,000 w/o upgrades. The day we closed the builder's appraiser appraised it for $15,000 more than we paid for it when usually they just appraise it for the selling price.

Tina

[JillMelissa]

Boy, I'm glad I don't live in San Jose, Leslie! :lol:

We're building a 2300 sq ft home with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a full basement and 2-car garage. We're not adding any extravagant upgrades so when all is said and done the total price should come in around $255,000.

If we had built the exact same house a half-hour north of that area (i.e., where i live now!) it would have been around $325,000. It's strange how prices vary so much even in the same general area!

[.Laura.]

Oy! All of these New England prices make me GLAD to have moved south! :tongue2: The real estate is just so crazy!

Interestingly enough, I read in the WSJ recently about how much housing prices went up:


The national median price went up 6 percent -- from $161,100 to $171,600. The biggest increase was in the Riverside/San Bernardino area of California, where the fourth quarter price rose 28.9 percent to $239,400. Sarasota, Fla. went up 26 percent and the Los Angeles area went up 24.5 percent.


So where we moved to had prices jump 26% last year - the 2nd highest jump in the country! Talk about buying at the right time! :clap:

My parents live with us, so we have a large house. 6 bedrooms, 7 bathroom, about 6,500 square feet, 4 car garage. Remember, we need all this space! It is on 2 acres very close to downtown Sarasota. We can walk to a very nice mall, grocery store, parks, shops, etc. Awesome location. We also have a dock on a river at the end of our back yard that is about a 10 minute trip to the Gulf of Mexico, so we have 2 jet skis that we use regularly for much of the year. We love it! I refrain from mentioning the price, though, since it sounds like a lot!

This has been a very interesting read - thanks!

Laura

[Faye]

our house was a repossession so we got a deal. the amount owed on it still was $105,000 and the bank had it listed for $70,000..... but we only paid $65,000. :wow: we got a great deal! the bank just wanted to get rid of it and we got a 2 year old house that is almost brand new. We have 2,130 sq ft., 4 beds and 2 baths, and a den as well as a livingroom.

there is a lot to do to the outside though, it has a great big yard on almost 2 acres of land but we just need to sow some grass and put some shrubs and trees in. They basically just cleared the lot and put the house in and didn't do anything with the outside.

[AahRee]

I can be a little more specific now, since we just sold our house and bought a new one. Our house is a CA split, 1750 sq ft (or something like that? 1735? 1765?) with 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms upstairs, and a 4th bedroom and 3rd full bath partially finished downstairs. We have a nice-sized lot (don't remember the exact sq. ft.) and are in a smaller town with a good school district. Our house just sold for $200,000, which was $50 more than asking. :lol:

We are buying/building a house that is 2409 sq. ft., 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, plus loft, on a nice-sized lot in a great neighborhood, walking distance to an elementary school and the local high school. Our base price is $280,000, and with upgrades, we'll be looking at around $285,000, since we're not doing a whole lot beyond the standards.

[ShannonR]

We are building ours for 215K. It is a 4 bdrm, 2.5 bath, 2400 sq. ft., has a 2 car garage, and a loft. We live in Orlando.

[geogirl]

I think we got a great deal!

Ours was about $275,000
4 bedrooms (we are using the 4th as an office), 3 bathrooms, library, family room, and it is 2800 sq.ft. not including the unfinished basement and rough-in bathroom. If we wanted to sell it could list for over $300,000 :eek:

- Tammy

[Tracey]

We purchased our house as an investment. We bought it 3 years ago and closed at $502,000. It's a 2 story, 3000 sq. feet with 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. It has really appreciated in value and I'd love to turn it around now and take the profit. But there just aren't a lot of houses on the market right now out here and we would be limited as to where we could live.

[Michele]

Another New Englander here - so depressing.

Right now we live in a 2 BR, 2 BA, 1000 square foot condo which we paid $194,000 for in 2001. We bought it from a friend of a friend so we did it without a realtor so it was actually a really good deal. Our mortgage is about $1300 a month but we also pay $300 in condo fees above that.

This place was appraised for $260,000 in 2002, and the last one in our complex just sold for $295,000! So we are hoping to get that much for this place when we put it on the market in the next few weeks.

Sadly even if we do walk away with $100k from this place it will still only be a 20% downpayment on the $500,000 it is going to cost us to get the 4 BR 1.5 bath house on 1/4 of an acre that we want... :blue:

Also, when I was working it took me 45 minutes to an hour to get to work and I live 6 miles from my office in Boston!!!