i think zombies used to live in this house
House hunting, day one. We saw three houses. One was in our price range, the other two just at the top of it.
The first two bedroom "townhouse" was smaller than our apartment and had a pile of rocks for a back yard. All the applicances were older than me and the rugs were stained with pee. We could afford it.
The second one (three bedroom, detached) was stucco and so cute and looked like the Alamo or a house that you would put at the bottom of a fish tank. It smelled like Jeff's grandma's house (a plus) but needed a new kitchen and was in a questionable neighborhood. Jeff loved it. I knew how much it was and felt kinda sick that this was this expensive. But it was cute.
Third house was in a "better" neighborhood, but oh my was it a mess. Same price as the cute underwater house, though. It looked like zombies had been living in it for the past few months. Really. A mess. Closet doors hanging off of hinges, horrible contact paper on the exposed dirty kitchen shelves. A wall had been knocked down in the basement to create one big rec room with a wet bar. Yep, a wet bar. The bar was beautiful stone, but who needs a wet bar? I envisioned zombie key parties. The roof on this one wasn't too good either. The stares to the basement were steep and not baby friendly. Over all, it is a mess. Lots of space in a "better" neighborhood, but a mess and no place for babies to live.
For full disclosure, the first townhouse (less than 900 square feet) was 225k (we saw why) and the other two were 300k. We were a little horrified at what 300k will buy you now adays, but decided to put in a bid on the little fish tank house once we heard back from our loan guy how much the monthly payments would be. We got excited. What a cute little house, sure the neighborhood wasn't great and the kitchen was barely acceptable, but the yard! and the cute porch and it smelled like grandma! So excited. Until the numbers came back about 400 more a month than I thought it would be. I didn't take into consideration the property taxes (soooo high) and insurance and etc, etc, etc. This is my fault. This is my first time doing this. So, no bids from us.
Here's the thing. We got preapproved for about double what we would like to spend on a house. This is not a good place to be in. Without the daycare bill, we would be fine, but here we are in a market trying to buy a house when we can't even afford a condo in the neighborhood where we live now. And the fact of the matter is, we are so much better off than other people. I know this. I know this and it makes me even more angry. This crazy real estate market is making it so that a family like ours cannot buy a decent house in a good neighborhood for less than 350k. Our big problem is a lack of a downpayment. But I told Jeff, even if I have 20k to put down, I wouldn't want to spend it on these places. I wouldn't want to hand over my hard earned cash to live in these run down, barely liveable houses in neighborhoods where I wouldn't send my children to school.
Here's my secret. I don't want to buy a house. I don't want to live in the suburbs. I don't want to work on a fixer upper. I don't want to paint and repair. I don't want to mow the lawn. I don't want to pay a 2000$ a month mortgage for a dirty mess and then have to drive an hour each way to and from work.
What I do want is more space for my children to crawl and play. A yard, a parking space, a bedroom for the girls, etc.
The fact of the matter is that I am not willing to give up our standard of living to buy a house. It seems like everyone tells me, "This is just how the market is. You have to spend this much. You have to live this far out. You have to compromise your lifestyle." Not only do I not know HOW people are buying homes in Washington at these prices, I don't know WHY they are.
So I guess my probelm is that while we NEED a house. I don't want one if it means our quality of living will go down. Buying a house should make your life better, not 50% worse. It is also the principle of the thing. These places aren't worth this much to me, why should I pay it?
I want to just say, I choose to not participate in this.
So I pray for the bubble to burst. I want it to burst and burst loud and fast, not a trickle. I want all the morons who paid 600k for their McMansions to fall hard. I want whoever is going to pay $300k for the zombie house to lose big. I want things to go back to normal so that buying a house means living well again.
For now, Jeff and I search the homes database for townhouses under 250k and laugh at at what we find. Jeff said, "next thing you know, they will start digging holes and selling them to people for $200k." You will go to see the hole and they will still be digging it. "This will be a nice hole," they will tell you. And you will marvel at the beauty of your hole and you will smile and pay for it. And you will wish you had bought the zombie house or the fishtank house or the tiny one with the rocks in the back. Anything to not live in the hole.
Comments
Tina,
Pack up Jeff and the girls and come to PA (just N over the MD line) near us.
We are 45 min from downtown Balt.-- $300,000 here will get you a FARMETTE....no crap! And we are 40 min. from harrisburg.....not all burbs either....green stuff everywhere!
Posted by: reenie | March 27, 2006 11:32 PM
There is a house there somewhere for you, just sitting there waiting oh so quietly.
We had the same problem it is global for city dwelling younglings, without a HUGE downpayment you can't even get a look in. We had to move country from Dublin back to London to even get a titchy house, we too opted out until we bit the bullet and moved 60 miles out of London, it seems that location is a money pit...we got a new build, four double bedrooms big garden, in a small old chocolate box village. Brand new school that the boys start at 4 and stay til 18....your place is sitting quietly somewhere waitng for you to discover it.
As ever I think you are brave to voice your concerns and stick to your principles.
Posted by: Samski | March 28, 2006 4:39 AM
i hear ya.
i was (and still am) in love with Brooklyn, but it was *impossible* for us to afford anything other than a closet in a crack house to buy AND we'd both be working 3 jobs to support family so we wouldn't even have time to enjoy what we loved most about living in that sort of a city.
i'll write you a proper type e-mail about this stuff later, but long story short, we had to decide what was the essence of why we loved the city and brainstorm what other sort of locations could offer that to us.
this site didn't find us the city we live in now, but it is a great help in sorting out what's important to you and giving you ideas on where you might like to live.
http://www.findyourspot.com/
we could never live in the 'burbs either, so we opted for a small mountain town far far from any interstates and major freeways. we have lots of museums, an artist community, "downtown" is within walking distance. it has, in essence, many of the things we loved about the "big" city. it's affordable and spacious....and when we are jonsing for a little brooklyn attitude we can always drive down on the weekends.
Posted by: suzy and ferris | March 28, 2006 10:50 AM
so... what about work... did you guys continue to work and commute to the city? or do you have to get different jobs near your homes or get creative about work at home situations? i couldn't imagine commuting with the girls in the car for so long everyday.
Posted by: tina the seamonster | March 28, 2006 10:59 AM
yeah.... that IS the big ???
we got really lucky. having portable jobs and all. the cost of living difference between the city and our town now was big enough that we didn't need me to nanny anymore. i could just run focoloco. my husband owns his own web development business and had already been working virtually for about 5 years. totally virtual jobs.
one nice thing about MA is that the state has some good programs that help you get small business health insurance that is at least somewhat affordable...
our town doesn't have many job openings, but i'm sure there ones that do. brian ended up taking a "real" job near the end of my pregnancy to help get rid of our debt. he works about 20 minutes away, but he loves the job and the pay is good. i stay home and juggle the baby, the house and the company. it's a circus, but we're paying a quarter of what we paid for rent in the city and the town is beautiful. i choose my own hours and they are mighty flexible. we're not rich, but we're very happy.
ps- you're smart enough to know thisalready,but don't let those bloodsuckers at the bank talk you into taking out a bigger loan than you can handle. they will loan you far more than you can afford and leave you struggling to stay afloat...at least that is what the bank that gave us our loan told us...another quaint thing about small town mentality. honesty.
Posted by: suzy and ferris | March 28, 2006 2:36 PM
Buying a house is hard, and they are right, the bank will push for you to buy something you can't afford. Don't do it, don't give in. We were house hunting for a year then gave up with immense frustration. We tried again and looked at some pretty pitiful places and tried to be excited even though the pits of our stomachs were turning at the very thought of calling these places "home". And then, one day...we came upon this little house in the woods with a huge fenced in yard and a huge kitchen and tiny bedrooms and it was perfect. Of course we had alot of work to do to make it livable and had a 2 year old to boot...but it all worked out nicely in the end and we are very happy. Just look at it as an adventure. A costly, nerve racking adventure.
Posted by: Rapunzel | March 29, 2006 10:14 AM
Holy crap! My husband would have a heart attack! We're just starting to warm up to the idea of buying a home and we thought our ideal house buying range was a bit above average compared to what our parents paid for their homes. From what we've seen here, 225k will buy you a mansion (or close to it!) here. Like a four bed/2-3 bath home. Such broad price differences from the east to way south.
Good luck with your home search!
Posted by: Sarah | March 30, 2006 2:59 AM
we are going through the same exact thing right now. the big difference is our price range is between 100-150k and I'm saying the same things you are writing. i would kill for a budget of even 200k. that little push will get us into a mini-mcMansion. its amazing what a difference 50k makes. but we just can't do it.
it's almost criminal what people want for crackhouses....no seriously, crackhouses
does the crack come with it?
really. the person who is willing to live like this CAN'T afford to buy this 'house'.
ugh. good luck to you though. you will find something. keep your head up!
oh, i second that PA notion. We are looking in wilmington, de. its no DC but wilmington is growing and its only 20-30 min. to philly.
Posted by: kelly | April 7, 2006 8:09 AM