Nixed
Last Friday, just as I was composing my post of moderated woe, Simon was, unbenownst to me, on the phone with his realtor, telling her he was sick of renting and could she please keep an eye out for suitable properties he (we) might consider considering during the latter half of this year. By the end of the day, we had a list of houses as long as a very long arm.
I can't find the link now, but over the weekend Yahoo featured an article on median housing prices across the nation. The list was all $128,000 this and $240,000 that, and then you got to San Francisco, where the median price was over $800,000. That's MEDIAN. Not "average," where you add all the values and then divide by the number of properties, but "median," where you compile a list and then circle the number smack dab in the middle. $800,000. Eight hundred thousand dollars. More than three-quarters of a cool million. This is compared to a nationwide median of $168,900. On Sunday I watched an episode of Engaged and Underaged and almost choked on my ramen* when the newlyweds bought a house for $56,000. I am this close to moving to Nixa, Missouri, y'all.
Armed with a partial list and a GPS, we spent part of Saturday driving around looking at houses and scoping neighborhoods. Without getting into detail, let's just say that by the time we got home, we were somewhat deflated and hopeless but also, conversely, newly appreciative of the space and neighborhood we currently inhabit. Last year there were zero murders within ten blocks of our apartment, so we were feeling pretty good, having spent the afternoon motoring through the Heart of Darkness that is East Oakland (murder rate four times higher than the county average, which is three and a half times higher than the national average). Maybe it's not so bad staying put for a while longer after all. Of course, that was before we saw the guy down the block smoking crack with a homemade pen pipe. And then there was our 911 call because a large mob of gangsters had gathered outside to scream threats and rev their engines menacingly at 2 a.m. Did I ever mention that the curb in front of our house is spraypainted "Oaktown Crips"? And then this morning we found a shotgun shell in the street by Simon's car? Yeeeeah.
The house-hunting is premature (we first must get pre-approved for a loan, which will involve the letting of blood and the signing away of a firstborn), but the idea is out there, folks, and that's pretty darn cool. We still have the luxury of many many many months during which to find a good and affordable and above all safe place as well as to shake the couch cushions and check public phone booths for loose change that can go toward the House Fund. We shall put great effort into remembering that while working toward a better future, the present is far from dire, ammo casings and turf wars aside.
*Okay, I wasn't really eating ramen; it was much too early in the day for that. But we are paying more attention to our finances, starting now. Saturday night we forewent takeout burritos ($12 total) for at-home rice (purchased bulk) and sausage ($.75 each). I am cancelling my gym membership ($34/month), and Simon will curtail what has been a near constant acquisition of instruments and music accesories. Sunday morning I found myself cataloguing our spending--coffee ($1.60), cookie dough ($1.99, on sale from $3.99), completely necessary fruit slush ($3.24)--and paying bills with a lump in my throat (Vegas flight and entertainment ($640) and $@#*ing parking fees ($48). Then I took a deep breath and reminded myself that it's a choice, it's a choice, it's a choice. We could, after all, be living in Nixa.
Oh, I feel your pain. I FEEL YOUR PAIN.
This, in a nutshell, is why we can't move back to the bay area. Well, back for me, move (in general) for him. We want to buy a house in the next couple of years (when he's done with school) and we Just Can't Do That anywhere in the Bay Area. It just isn't going to happen. I doubt it will even happen in Denver - the parts of Denver we want to live in, we can't afford to buy, and the parts we can afford to buy, we wouldn't want to live - so there you have it. I don't know where we'll end up, but unless one of us somehow becomes a millionaire, unfortunately it just isn't going to be the Bay Area. :(
I live your pain too. While the numbers are not as high, I live in the Tampa Bay area. The average home is 1000 square feet but runs about $225,000. And that average home is nearly falling apart, has one bathroom that hasn't been remodeled since 1962 and is not in the best of neighborhoods. The yard is nearly always nothing but sand and the roof nearly always needs replaced. While it may not always be in a bad neighborhood, it is always overpriced, the insurance (living in Hurricane Lane) is always extremely high and that's if you can still get someone to cover your shack. While I would say that Florida is more doable than California....there seem's to be a price to live in Paradise.
This is one of the reasons we probably won't be moving back to the Bay Area anytime soon, either (even though I actually work for a Bay Area company). We apparently moved into a higher tax bracket in 2006 with both of us working full-time, but we still don't feel like the Bay Area's affordable for us.
Kristy--I can't imagine having to pay for hurricane insurance on top of everything else! "Affordable" homes here are also mostly within the 1,000 sq. ft. range, but they sell for $500,000, partly because of the location but also because the market is so hot it's become a flipper's paradise. We have all of these 100-year-old houses, but everything has been remodeled within the last few years, so what you get are granite countertops and new hardwood floors and french doors to the redwood deck, but all of this situated in the middle of Murderville, USA. It's pretty much what we're dealing with now in our apartment--a nice living space if you can forget what's lurking outside.
The most frustrating thing is that even the fixer-uppers are outrageously overpriced because everyone knows that as soon as you put granite and hardwood in it the price will got up $100,000.
SIGH.
We are approaching the 1 year anniversary of The Great House Purchase, and there are still days that I look around and think, "Holy shit - is this really ours??" (And by ours, I mean the bank's... at least for the next, oh, 30 years, but you get the point.) Good luck! At the risk of sounding like an assvice giver, it is oh so stressful (the research! the banks! the paperwork! the ensuing poverty!) but it is also oh so worth it.
The weirdest part of house-hunting for me (I've never owned but I lived with my ex and he did) was looking at houses that were three to four times as expensive as my childhood home. The statement "oh, it's only seven hundred thousand dollars! That's nothing!" did actually come out of my mouth. Eeep.
let's see, for 500,000 in lex, ky you could have a brand new house with all the fixens and a whole hell of a lot of square footage. or you could have the historical house fully renovated with a hell of a lot of square footage. so, i think it is settled, you need to move here. :)
That's why I live in Austin. 1900 sq feet of loveliness for $140,000.
But house hunting anywhere is a pain. And if you think getting pre-approved for a loan means signing away your first born- just wait until the actual closing. Half an hour of straight sigining your life away. And the I'm not a terrorist page.
Just save $$ for the stuff you never think you will need. Like a shovel for the yard. A rake. A refridgeator. (Ours didn't come with one.) It adds up. But it's worth it. Oh it's worth it.
I also feel--and like others, live--your pain. That is why Pampa, Texas--where I once saw a home listed online for less than $30,000 (yes, 30 thousand, not 300 thousand, which would still be considered a great price out here)--is my version of Nixa, Missouri.
I told myself years ago that if I really had to buy for some reason, I could always go to Pampa. In the Bay Area, we literally cannot afford to buy even a studio apartment. Lovely.
Wish you luck with your eventual house hunting!
At those prices, you could move to Santa Fe and be part of the ultra-cool-set. Ahhhh... but then you'd be in Santa Fe, wouldn't you? This is the place where... they say... if you want to drop off the planet, you'll land in Santa Fe. It's one thing to visit and something entirely different to live there.
Maybe this is why the population in Modesto has quadromondo exploded, eh.
Ahhhh.. but then you'd be in Modesto, wouldn't you?
It's a circle... you just need to find your stylus groove.
:)
Wheeee! House hunting. It is kinda fun and if you can get CA real estate at all... don't ever sell!
=)
So, I currently have a post in draft (because I'm a lazy whore who can't get her scanner to work and I NEED PICTURES of these houses I want) that pretty much says I'm going to start stalking some old lady so I can inherit her house because there's no way we're EVER getting ahead.
It's not as bad as it is there, but 1200SF for 600K? Hi? We need twice that.
Yep, we are among the Bay Area "housepoor" - yeah it's a great house, but we are barely making it, and terrified of losing our jobs.
That said, I'm actually a big fan of the whole homeownership thing. And seems like now would be a good time to buy.
I've seen some Fruitvale lofts that were gorgeous and safe. They were at 1501 37th Ave, if you want to know specifics.
Good luck!
We looked for 2 years before finding our home because we wanted a certain price and we didn't want to be house poor, we have a 1 1/2 storey home (1100 sq ft.) on 75'x100'lot that cost us $230,000. We live at the edge of the Greater Toronto Area. So the trade off is an extra long commute to get to work but it was so worth it to not pay rent anymore. We have a 5 year plan to move to Vancouver (after the Olympics) where I fear the prices are similar to the Bay Area. Yikes!
It really looks bad that many educated, hard-working people like us cannot afford decent houses. What is going on? Is the middle class truly disappearing? It looks like I will have to look for a small apartment soon. Fortunately, there are some safe areas that I should be able to find. On the other hand, it looks like I will need to start cutting back (food, luxuries, etc.) and that is going to be painful. I'm glad that I'm not alone. It makes me realize that something bigger (economically?) is going wrong in this country.
I realize I'm a little late to the comment party, but my boyfriend and I are facing the same problem in Los Angeles and it can be really depressing. We like the life we have and it's so frustrating we can't buy a house here. They only thing that's made me feel better lately was this article in the New York Times: http://tinyurl.com/2zvm6t
In a nutshell, it's not actually a good investment in some areas to buy. You'll lose money over 30 years. So, now we're thinking about trying to just rent a house and invest our money (that tons and tons of money we have-ha ha) in other ways that provide a better return. God, when did I become a grown-up?
I know, this grown-up stuff isn't always fun. I just don't understand why the generations before us only had high school diplomas and were able to afford things. My generation has multiple degrees, and it still isn't enough. I thought education was supposed to benefit people. Okay, I'll go somewhere and calm down now. :-)
I'm a former Bay Area girl. I lived in NYC for 5 years. I now reside in Santa Fe.
I'd love the Santa Fe rents for a NYC apartment. But it just doesn't work that way. The hub and I are thinking about moving back to NYC. We'll rent ($2500 for maybe 500 sq ft in a desirable area) instead of buy. The Bay Area is beautiful and I wish I had 2mil for a fixer upper in San Francisco, but I don't so we won't be moving there anytime soon.
Good luck in your search.
I wonder if part of the problem is that those of us who went to college picked our majors under the assumption that if got educated and then we did what we loved the money would follow. Clearly, that's not the way it usually works. Our parents and grandparents, on the other hand, probably put their high school diplomas to use in more practical careers; jobs were more likely taken to pay the bills instead of divined as vocations (Latin for "calling") to fulfill our innermost desires for personal achievement and influence on the world. We are a generation of English and history and psychology majors who have discovered that, once we graduate, we're not really qualified to do much or, like me, we're extremely qualified but only in notoriously low-paying industries. We LOVE our jobs and feel like we're doing something worthy and altruistic, but at the end of the day, we're financially worse off than the lady who's single task is to stamp applications at the DMV. I really think we're a softer generation--we go to school longer, live off our parents longer, we don't go directly from school into the workforce but from school to a backpacking trip across Europe.* Both lifestyles have their advantages (who wouldn't want the opportunity to backpack through Europe?), but there is a price to pay for each. My price in choosing a career in publishing and in choosing to live in the Bay Area is housing angst, and that's just the way it is.
*In my experience, this extended childhood thing seems more true for people congregating in "cosmopolitan" cities (SF, LA, NYC). Elsewhere, I imagine it's not so pronounced. Most of the people I know in SLC, for instance, are doing exactly what their parents did thirty years ago; taking practical jobs, raising families, and buying brand-new 5 BR houses on high school diplomas. Meanwhile, we're looking at shacks thinking "Maybe if it had pretty curtains it wouldn't be SO bad...") As Natalie said, it's all about sacrifices, and I'm not quite ready yet (if ever) to move back to Salt Lake. (Sorry, mom!)
House hunting in New York (on the actual island of Manhattan) is the closest one can get to a peek of what hell must be like. M recently wrote a book and wanted to use his (fairly hefty) advance money as a down payment on an apartment for the two of us. It's been a few months of casually looking and we are utterly defeated and resigned to renting for a few more years until we can use the downpayment money for an actual home (bedrooms! Imagine!) as opposed to a "cozy" 500 square foot studio in the so-far-down-it-may-as-well-be-another-boro Financial District. SIGH. Best of luck to the two of you. We can commiserate from opposite ends of the country.
Leah, I think your above comment is very apt. And I agree that the extended childhood lifestyle is not all bad...as far as I'm concerned, I'm still in that stage at 30 (almost 31) and for the most part, it makes me happy. There's a lot to be said for doing what you love. I don't relish every minute of my career (and at this point, finally, I think I *am* feeling adult enough to call it a career, not a job), but as an English major I'm just happy to be working with books every day. That, to me, is a luxury.
But it does NOT allow for some of life's other luxuries--of which a nice house is certainly one. Lodging is not (or at least should not be) a luxury, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about Home with a capital H, the dream trifecta of a structure we love in a place we love, with, if we're lucky, a roommate we love (whether said roommate is spouse, partner, friend, or pet). Home is a big deal, and I think for those of us who do fall into the extended childhood generation/demographic, it's even bigger, because we have so much more time to spend on imagining it--and yet, maybe, a greater reluctance to commit to it.
Oh man, I'm babbling now. Suffice it to say, great post. Thanks for being your usual "thinky" self. :)
I do feel your pain. After 3 years of fruitless searches in the Washington, DC area we decided that we had to move in order to buy a home. So after searching for another year for a new hometown which was actually alot of fun, Hawaii.. Sedona..dreaming we ultimately settled on Ohio. Why Ohio?? Yes we have been asked this plenty. Jobs, low cost of living, cool city, cool people, and affordable homes. We just bought a home here this week. But honestly if we had more love for DC, more attachments, better jobs that we didn't want to leave anyway.. we may have figured out a way to stay. It is about the choices. For us, we are actually now glad that the DC cost of living forced us to do what we needed to do anyway. Now, Nixa, MO.. that might be a different story..
My once-affordable hometown is in the midst of a heartbreaking boom that, among other things, has seen house prices skyrocket in the last two years. In cringe-inducing figures, that means that a house we could have bought in 2005 for $180,000 is now about $420,000, and prices are still rising by 2-3% every month. For $420,000+, you get a new (read: mass-produced, cookie-cutter, shoddily crafted, architecturally controlled) home without a garage, a yard, landscaping, community services, or public transportation anywhere nearby. A couple moving into any of these houses MUST have two cars if they ever want to go anywhere separately. Just getting OUT of the suburb takes twenty minutes.
So I feel your pain, Leah! I guess $420,000 is still affordable compared to the Bay Area, but to have missed out on the housing market here by only two years has done nothing but make me kick myself for taking two years off after high school. Turns out that traveling across Europe to "find myself" resulted only in me finding myself in a half-century's worth of debt.
Boo hiss. :)
God! You're such a grown up.
I'm in awe. And just so you know, based on your experiences with this whole 'grown up' thing, I may or may not be signing up to become one myself. So you better make this real good.
I can confirm that Vancouver is as bad as the Bay Area - I have been sobbingly searching for months now. A "fixer upper" peice of shit will run you more than $ 700,000 if you want to be less than an hour from downtown.
Someone told me that the four most expensive cities to buy real estate IN THE WORLD are London, England, New York City, Vancouver, and San Francisco.
Oof. As someone looking for a job in publishing in California and worried about the cost of housing, your post struck a chord, to say the least!
I can't complain about our cost of living here. Houses in Texas can cost as much as you want them to (there's a neighborhood of mansions, each in the multimillions, not far from where I work). We've got plentiful sunshine, it's warm most days of the year and we don't pay state income tax.
We bought a modest, built-in-1964 brick home, about 1,800 sf, with a large yard and nothing behind us for less than $80k. It's in a nice neighborhood (old, of course) with a golf course/country club. We've pumped money into it to bring it up to at least 1975 standards and make it ours (paint! floor! fixtures!), and have some ways to go. Most of our friends have McMansions in cramped new hoods that cost more than twice ours. We win!
Yet I know some people would die before they lived in Texas. It's not that bad, I swear!
Kristin - I have to add Sydney, Australia to your list of most expensive real estate.
Leah - Your posts have come at a pertinent time in my life! The real Mr White and I have just moved to Sydney after 7 years in London and we have just had an offer accepted on a house. This is a massive deal for us as I am now a stay at home mum to the Real Baby White and have no plans to go back to work just yet. As a result we have had to compromise massively on location and will be buying somewhere a bit further out and not so well known. There aren't any cute cafes or groovy local eateries, but as more and more of this type of family move into the area, forced out of the inner city suburbs due to extreme cost, we are hoping our little area will become more cosmopolitan. This is all such a scarey rollercoaster ride, one the one hand we are thrilled we can actually afford to buy, but on the other hand its such a responsibility. I just hope I can say its all been worth it in a year or two! For now I am just looking forward to finally being able to build that wall of books and paint my bedroom whatever colour I want! Good luck, I hope it all works out for you!
I thought about going to The University of Texas at Austin. Is Austin, Texas still a good area, Texas T-bone? What about scorpions? I've heard that they get in the houses sometimes.
I thought about going to The University of Texas at Austin. Is Austin, Texas still a good area, Texas T-bone? What about scorpions? I've heard that they get in the houses sometimes.
I was lucky; sort of. I bought an 1100 square foot downtown condo with huge windows and a decent view in Calgary for $190,000 in August 2005. It is now worth about $350,000.
But now there is a baby on the way... As I speak, the humungulous shower stall is being replaced with an ordinary bathtub and we're getting new tile throughout. I got new carpet when I moved in, and painted the whole place last year.
I really hope I'll still like condo living with a baby, because it'd cost twice as much for a decent house and I'd have to deal with commuting and downtown parking or public transit.
At least you get tax breaks for home ownership in the U.S. Not so in Canada.
Housing prices are a large part of the reason we left Vancouver. Now we've bought in Aberdeen (UK) for less than 1/3 the price we'd have paid in Vancouver and prices here are starting to go up scarily too, 10% in the past three months alone. Since we'll never be able to afford to upgrade to a bigger house, i'm starting to look at extending ours...