If You Had to Choose: Perfect Home or Perfect Yard/Neighborhood?

[6miths]

Yes no real way to control for individual neighbors. I would go with neighborhood as well. Houses and landscape can be altered. I feel your pain Midpack on the 'Clampetts' next door. This would really frost me. I am lucky to have had pretty good to great neighbors for the last 20 years. When we moved in there was a group home next door - in a large, historic but under-maintained home but it burned down and the land was bequeathed to a church who built a nice new building which is well removed from me on a 3.5 acre lot. In my experience, churches are good neighbors but over the years I have done a fair bit of tree planting and weed and feeding on their lot (with their permission). Otherwise they have been great. So in the end, I would pick neighborhood and be looking for somewhere with well maintained homes and nice yards. And no derelict cars and whatnot in the driveways (or backyards!)

 

[Midpack]

Seeing this thread was just for fun like you stated in the first post, have you considered leaving the Chicago area and maybe the state if Illinois? There seems to be an exodus of residents from that area due to impending additional taxation. There's a good thread on Tennessee that may interest you if you can leave the area.

Oh we are, about 750 miles SE...

 

[Major Tom]

You can always reno the house at your leisure.

How do you reno a house? Install a few slots? Hire a cocktail waitress?

 

[JoeWras]

I have read and appreciate all the replies, many interesting comments as usual, thanks. And believe me I can argue neighborhood>house as easily as house>neighborhood. But we have to make a choice.

I think your choice is fine, and you asked.. Nobody is telling you what to do. We're just discussing for fun. ER.org is the home of loud online introverts.

Having seen some of the new houses around here, I think you'll be fine. I like a lot of what I see in the current crop and constantly think of possibly doing the remodel on our house. We have 2 car garage though. I agree house with no garage is a show stopper.

 

[JoeWras]

How do you reno a house? Install a few slots? Hire a cocktail waitress?

And add a Keno board in lieu of the big screen TV.

 

[aja8888]

Next time we buy a house, I'm going to measure the internal dimensions of the garage and see if my truck will fit inside with the garage door down!! If not, we look elsewhere!

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Next time we buy a house, I'm going to measure the internal dimensions of the garage and see if my truck will fit inside with the garage door down!! If not, we look elsewhere!

Quite important in my opinion. I think that is 1/2 the reason our cars look almost new even after 10 years. Our current home was built in 1978 and you can park two full size cars in it and open ALL the doors ALL THE WAY without touching the other car or wall. That's what a garage should look like!

 

[JoeWras]

Next time we buy a house, I'm going to measure the internal dimensions of the garage and see if my truck will fit inside with the garage door down!! If not, we look elsewhere!

Stupid garage stories:
- As a kid in the 60s, a retired doctor lived next door. He had The Car. It was some early-mid 60s Caddy with huge wings and bullet tail lights. That car was LONG. He actually chipped out the bricks in the back to make it fit! I just remember thinking how cool that car was.

- My dad was so resourceful. It is sad to remember him in his last years with a failing memory. Anyway, when he was working, he rented the unused neighbor's garage for his work vehicle, a full size van. Because manual doors kind of sag back down on the track when you open them, you can never really open them 100%. So, he had a 8ft 2x4. He'd open the door and prop that under to force the door to full open. Only then could he get the van in.

Meanwhile, one of my siblings bought a new house around 2000. The garage can park 3 of ANYTHING. HUGE openings. Really nice.

 

[RobbieB]

Oh we are, about 750 miles SE...

So you discarded the "go south" plan to stay in Chicago?

 

[iloveyoga]

You made me think. I did consider moving, but I could not replicate my yard or neighborhood at a price we could afford. Neither of us want to get a big job again! So we stayed put and we are doing a large backyard reno. Where we live is safe, quiet, and close to the family I need to be close to. Also very convenient to the type of shopping and eating out that we do.

Our house is nice, but 26 years old and it would be great to have all that comes with a new house. Like the OP said, both are not in the budget.

 

[Helena]

.

My house is roomy and I love my attached two car garage. But I moved here because this older quiet neighborhood looks like a park with lots of trees and NO HOA! It is an oasis in the middle of an urban area where everything else I need is within a five mile radius.

 

[street]

Perfect House edges out prefect neighborhood.

 

[pb4uski]

You can’t remodel a neighborhood, but you can a house.

+1 Our winter condo is in a ~40 year old, 144 door condo complex of apartments and villas. The apartments don't have garages, but the footprint is nice and functional, and the views are good.

The complex has a real nice sense of community and a lot of active folks and that was more important to us that then apartment itself. That said, we are in the middle of a renovation to update the kitchen.

 

[Rustic23]

The Perfect Home: The neighborhood will grow into the perfect neighborhood! And, most likely quicker than you think! The Perfect Neighborhood could decline and then you are stuck with a home you really didn't want.

 

[97guns]

Perfect home for sure.... the idea of your perfect home isn’t gonna be in the hood that’s for sure

 

[Ready]

When I was younger I'm sure I would have gone for the nicer house. Now, I value my experiences more than my material possessions. I spend a lot of time in my neighborhood and I have a great group of friends here and a lot of activities to keep me busy. I would not want to give that up for a nicer home.

 

[Nemo2]

For DW & me, the perfect house/neighborhood is wherever we're both together.

 

[Lukeee]

4 months ago I would have had a ‘quick easy’ answer. Then I started actually looking. Whenever I find an affordable home I find I can potentially renovate, I go to street view and realize why the home is affordable. It’s because the neighborhood tends to be rundown.

I was hunting for a modern home and realized that they were outside my budget. So plan b was to buy an older home and renovate it over time... then I check the neighborhood and ugh. Perhaps the thing to do is to wait for the housing market to cool and have a downturn so it becomes a buyer’s market... but that also means that you will find it harder to get top dollar on your current home. I personally suspect that with rising interest rates, that the housing market will cool a little over the next couple of years. If we see a recession, then it might be a good time to buy if you are sitting on a pile of cash or can afford to own 2 homes (perhaps rent one out)

 

[Ronstar]

Next time we buy a house, I'm going to measure the internal dimensions of the garage and see if my truck will fit inside with the garage door down!! If not, we look elsewhere!

I got lucky when I built our house 24 years ago. Attached 3 car garage, but I made it extra deep - 31'-4" inside dimension. Just enough to fit DW's old Acura and my Corvette back to back with an inch or 2 between cars / wall / garage door. My truck fits behind my atv, but barely.

Like you, next time I'll definitely be looking for a garage deep enough to hold my truck. If we ever move to our snowbird condo, I'll have to find an offsite storage place for the truck. It won't fit in the garage width-wise, height-wise, or length-wise.

 

[Hillbilly]

After having a very bad experience with a scary neighbor I would do some research on any neighborhood I was considering to make sure there is not a close neighbor who is mentally imbalanced and who will make you life miserable. i don't know exactly how to find this out--maybe talk to the local police, walk around the neighborhood and talk to the people living there, check out the local facebook/nextdoor page. Also check out the crime report for the neighborhood.

For me a good neighborhood with good neighbors means more than the house itself. You can always fix up a house that needs work. If you have a bad neighbor/neighborhood you are stuck. Location, Location, Location.

+1 Perfect neighborhood....just had a girl leave ours after living with Mom a few months: she had been on drugs with several arrests. First time for me in 28 years here with a "word or two" in the street (which she started). Other neighbors were adjusting their behaviors also. She left about 2 weeks ago and our nice neighborhood is back. We had already started looking at options to move. Peace and quite now....

 

[harley]

and NO HOA!

The very definition of a perfect neighborhood.

 

[6miths]

The very definition of a perfect neighborhood.

I had to look up HOA. I have heard of them but never really knew how they came to be. Seems to be an American thing. Reading about the origins was 'enlightening', I mistakenly thought they were about settling local building and property issues - like where to put a fence or an shed and making sure people looked after their property.

 

[Katsmeow]

We had A. We now have B.

We went from a fairly extreme example of A to a clear example of B. So far, we are ecstatic (almost a month into the "new" house).

A was a beautiful, modern house. Open concept, wonderful finishes. Really a great house (albeit a bit larger than we really need right now). I loved so much about that house. And, it had the bonus to be in a beautiful subdivision. Every house was on at least an acre. They were all different. No cookie cutter. Wonderful neighborhood in terms of visual appeal (and nice people).

But! It was 18 minutes to the closest grocery store if you didn't hit many red lights. OK, day to day shopping was 20 minutes. Nicer shopping (the Apple store, Whole Foods, Nordstroms, etc.) was about 40 minutes away. Restaurants -- minimum of 20 minutes for the common chains. 40 minutes to the higher level places. Some were in the really big city over an hour away. The Y we liked to attend was 35 minutes away.

When we decided to move my main criteria was closeness to amenities. I told DH to remind of this. I knew that just like you we had to choose location or house. We chose house. We bought a house that was about 20 years older than our "old" house. It is smaller (that part we are happy about). It was in a beautiful mature neighborhood. I just got our first electric bill which was significantly higher than what it would have been at the "old" house. I think that is mostly lesser energy efficiency. The kitchen has a pass through to the den. and the breakfast room is open to the den. That's it for openness. The master bath has brass faucets and towel holders! The rooms are smaller. There is less storage.

On the upside -- the owner before us did a lot of updating to the house. They took out the carpet and put in wood floors. They painted and put in a new master shower. The house has a lovely pool and backyard.

But here is the thing -- we are 4 minutes from Whole Foods. We have at least 5 other grocery stores within 5 to 6 minutes. I can't count the number of restaurants within 10 minutes. The Y is 6 minutes away. We can get same day Amazon delivery on a lot of things (as well as Whole Foods delivery if we chose). Even the Apple store is under 15 minutes away.

We are absolutely loving the location. We will remodel the parts of the house that really bother us (I'm looking at you, master bath).

It was hard to prioritize location when you are looking at houses. I remember a house I looked at that was the same price at what we paid for this house. It was only a few years old. It was a gorgeous house. Amenities were better than in our old house. Still -- it was isolated compared to what we have now. I am so glad we chose the location.

 

[Music Lover]

Next time we buy a house, I'm going to measure the internal dimensions of the garage and see if my truck will fit inside with the garage door down!! If not, we look elsewhere!

I bought my house from my brother and it had no garage. So I built a good size one...24' x 28'. Wide enough to park 2 vehicles comfortably, and deep enough to have work benches and to store things at the end. I have some mild regret that I didn't build it even bigger.

 

[ER Eddie]

Neighborhood > house every time. Nothing replaces good neighbors.