Real estate-- calling the top.

[JPatrick]

Here's a house DW and I looked at a few weeks ago and are considering for ER pad.  Several acres on the lake in SW MO.
Approx taxes are $1800.
http://tinyurl.com/8ekep

 

[SteveR]

Here's a house DW and I looked at a few weeks ago and are considering for ER pad.  Several acres on the lake in SW MO.
Approx taxes are $1800.
http://tinyurl.com/8ekep

It would shure suck to live there

I would like to move elsewhere but for now we are close to all our kids. Someday they start to move away (along with grandkids) but until then we will stick around. Would love to have something on the water.

At that price you should go for it if that is where you want to be....before somebody else jumps on it.

 

[laurence]

Here's a house DW and I looked at a few weeks ago and are considering for ER pad. Several acres on the lake in SW MO.
Approx taxes are $1800.
http://tinyurl.com/8ekep

Wow, I could buy that for cash with the equity in my house. SD is crazy.

 

[REWahoo]

Here's a house DW and I looked at a few weeks ago and are considering for ER pad. Several acres on the lake in SW MO.
Approx taxes are $1800.
http://tinyurl.com/8ekep

Nice place and a real bargain by many standards. Didn't see the SF, but with 5 bedrooms and 4.5 baths, the place looks like it may be what Nords describes as a "barn" (3,000 SF). Are you sure you want something that big to take care of?

DW and I have 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, 2,700 SF. It is a chore to keep clean and I sometimes wish we had a room or two less. But today is housecleaning day and my opinion may be tainted...

 

[REWahoo]

Here's a house DW and I looked at a few weeks ago and are considering for ER pad. Several acres on the lake in SW MO.
Approx taxes are $1800.
http://tinyurl.com/8ekep

JPatrick, I can't figure out why you want to leave TX for waterfront property in MO. Here is a nice place in the Hill Country with 200' lake frontage. Yeah, it's 70 years old, only two bedrooms and $550,000. But think how much you will save on moving costs....and there are only THREE toilets to clean!

http://tinyurl.com/dxdj4

 

[JPatrick]

JPatrick, I can't figure out why you want to leave TX for waterfront property in MO.  Here is a nice place in the Hill Country with 200' lake frontage.  Yeah, it's 70 years old, only two bedrooms and $550,000.  But think how much you will save on moving costs....and there are only THREE toilets to clean!

http://tinyurl.com/dxdj4

Hmmm, the single photo wasn't very convincing.
The Mo house exceeds 3000 sq feet.  One of the problems we've encountered is the fact that most of the places with killer views or waterfront are McMansions.  Got 2800 now and love the room. It's the cleaning and maintenance that are the killers.  Like you didn't already know that.

 

[Mr._johngalt]

JPatrick, I can't figure out why you want to leave TX for waterfront property in MO.  Here is a nice place in the Hill Country with 200' lake frontage.  Yeah, it's 70 years old, only two bedrooms and $550,000.  But think how much you will save on moving costs....and there are only THREE toilets to clean!

http://tinyurl.com/dxdj4

Why would you want to leave Texas at all? Re. houses and the size issue,
bigger houses mean more taxes, more maintenance, more utilities,
more of everything. Both of our homes are around 1000 SF. Plenty of room for 2 people. We could go with less easily. Also, there are many many
homes available which would fill all of our needs for well under 100K,
and located in places we would enjoy living.

JG

 

[Cut-Throat]

That place in Missouri looks really Great for under 300K!! -

Unknowns - Ernest T. Bass probably lives right up the Hill

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yep. I know of plenty of houses like this here in NC. $500,000 or so will get you one of these monsters right on the golf course. At what point does a house change into a mansion... 5000 sf? 6000 sf?

Two answers...both from personal experience.

A house changes into a mansion when you MUST pay someone else to clean it, and/or when you walk from the kitchen to the master suite and you forget your drink, you decide its too freakin' far to make another round trip to fetch it and just forget about it.

Got to the point where I used to make a list before I went downstairs so I made sure to come back with everything I went down there for...

 

[JPatrick]

That place in Missouri looks really Great for under 300K!!  -

Unknowns - Ernest T. Bass probably lives right up the Hill

Mr bass and all the little basses are nearby, and the trout capitol of the world is but a few miles away  :

 

[SteveR]

Two answers...both from personal experience.

A house changes into a mansion when you MUST pay someone else to clean it, and/or when you walk from the kitchen to the master suite and you forget your drink, you decide its too freakin' far to make another round trip to fetch it and just forget about it.

Got to the point where I used to make a list before I went downstairs so I made sure to come back with everything I went down there for...

I can relate to that...in my case it is just CRS.  (Can't remember Sh*t), not the size of the house.  Getting older allows one the experience of re-living the same event several times over without knowing you ever did it.  Sort of cheap entertainment I guess.  

 

[Michael]

That curve appears to be "asymptotic to infinity." 

Yes, that's true.  In a free market, homes would gradually fall in price as they aged, and thus come closer to falling apart.  Nevertheless, politics can keep this game going for decades.  I don't see a nationwide fall in prices in the near future.  Homeowners would riot in the streets.

I was watching HG TV the other day. Someone had purchased a small aging cottage for about a million. He then spend several hundred thousand dollars trying to fix up the inside to make the tiny thing livable. After all this, a home inspector informed him that wore out home had cracks in the foundation that needed even more money to keep it from falling down. Amazing.

 

[Ol_Rancher]

RE WaHoo & JG,
The Texas heritage posse are reading your posts very carefully. You have been warned.
It is suggested you focus on propeerty taxes, gun enthusiast neighbors, Texas property rights, red state politics, noxious plants and critters.

We know where you live and nearby members have been alerted. Next offense may warrent a field trial followed by tar and feathers. Continued violations may incur more drastic measures.

 

[wabmester]

Yes, that's true.  In a free market, homes would gradually fall in price as they aged, and thus come closer to falling apart.

As has already been pointed out, it's not houses that appreciate, but the land.   There is also some inflationary increase in houses due to the cost of lumber and construction, but I have no idea if that would offset age-based depreciation in a free market.

In general, as the population and the economy grows, so grows any limited-production asset.   In densely populated areas, land is pretty much guatanteed to appreciate long-term, even in a free market.

 

[Mr._johngalt]

RE WaHoo & JG,
                             The Texas heritage posse are reading your posts very carefully. You have been warned.
                             It is suggested you focus on propeerty taxes, gun enthusiast neighbors, Texas property rights, red state politics, noxious plants and critters.

                             We know where you live and nearby members have been alerted. Next offense may warrent a field trial followed by tar and feathers. Continued violations may incur more drastic measures.

I am properly contrite, and will hew to the THP desires in the future.
I'm not sure what got into me.

JG

 

[REWahoo]

RE WaHoo & JG,
The Texas heritage posse are reading your posts very carefully. You have been warned.
It is suggested you focus on propeerty taxes, gun enthusiast neighbors, Texas property rights, red state politics, noxious plants and critters.

We know where you live and nearby members have been alerted. Next offense may warrent a field trial followed by tar and feathers. Continued violations may incur more drastic measures.

Hey! I posted a link to a $550,000, 70-year old run-down shack. Not even a left-coaster, punch drunk from the California real estate wars would go for that deal. At least not when they got a look at their "lake rat" neighbors. Those folks don't take kindly to people who still have all their teeth...

Harumphh...Texas heritage posse...

 

[Nords]

Hey!  I posted a link to a $550,000, 70-year old run-down shack.  Not even a left-coaster, punch drunk from the California real estate wars would go for that deal.

I hear the surfing there sucks too.

OK, how 'bout this $743K 4 BR 2.5 BA 16-year-old of 1800 sq ft on a 7800 sq ft lot with a pool & waterfall landscaping? No view, neighbors on three sides, noisy street a block away, huge A/C electricity bills... first (and probably only) open tomorrow. Nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.

 

[Michael]

As has already been pointed out, it's not houses that appreciate, but the land.

To a degree, that is true.  Zoning boards restrict the amount of land that can be used to build on, which increases the cost of land zoned for building.

Still, I have noticed that when homes deteriorate to the point where they are condemned by the city, they tend to get real cheap, land notwithstanding.

 

[Martha]

Yes, that's true. In a free market, homes would gradually fall in price as they aged, and thus come closer to falling apart.

We live in a building more than 100 years old. This thing is solid. Better built than most 1970s-80s homes.

 

[Michael]

The house I live in was built in the 1950s.  Still going strong, but it still won't last forever.  I have a hard time seeing it as worth more each year, but perhaps unknown to me homes actually improve with age.

 

[omni550]

...but perhaps unknown to me homes actually improve with age.

Maybe, in comparison, much of the existing housing stock just looks better than the cr*p they are building today?

omni

 

[haha]

We live in a building more than 100 years old.  This thing is solid.  Better built than most 1970s-80s homes. 

Martha, have you been able to retrofit with hi-R insulation? I would imagine that insulation is very important where you are.

Ha

 

[Marshac]

Here's what you can get in Bellingham WA for about the same price range that other folks have posted. 

*sigh* My old stomping ground I miss that place.... it's just not affordable to live there anymore. CA prices without the CA payrolls.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

OK, how 'bout this $743K 16-year-old of 1800 sq ft on a 7800 sq ft lot with a pool & waterfall landscaping? No view, neighbors on three sides, noisy street a block away, huge A/C electricity bills... first (and probably only) open tomorrow. Nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.

Oh yeah? How about this??!

$325k for a 900 square foot house with the roof almost devoid of shingles, siding deteriorated and falling off, havent even seen the interior but I'll bet it makes the outside look good. Quarter acre with about 25 years worth of dead cars on it, several of which I'm sure have voided their gas, oil and antifreeze into the ground. A huge ditch dug in the front and rear to mitigate water collection when it rains and help with potential flooding as this sucker is about 4' below the water level of some nearby rice paddies. Neighborhood looks like most of the neighbors aspire to someday rise to the level of welfare trash. Nearby orchards assure early morning heavy machinery abiance along with the aroma of regular pesticide spraying. Daily flood watering of the orchard also ensures a steady supply of west nile laden mosquitos.

All near beautiful downtown Sutter, California, which boasts a post office, small convenience store, bait shop (which also sells sushi I hear), and a suspicious looking burger joint that never has a car in the parking lot. Oh yes, and the long line of grain drying and storage tanks make for a lovely skyline.

I'm sure for a few extra bucks, it can be arranged for you to also have to cling to the windowsills while you sleep and eat hot gravel for breakfast, just prior to walking to a bad school ten miles away in twenty feet of snow, of course uphill both ways, with a pack of wild dogs chasing you to boot.

 

[Sheryl]

*sigh* My old stomping ground   I miss that place.... it's just not affordable to live there anymore. CA prices without the CA payrolls.

Marsh - You should NEVER have left!! I bought my house for $50k. Yeah, yeah, it took another $40k to make it livable, but still......