A Girl...

Sometimes being a grownup sucks. We have owned our house for a year and we just recently got our mortgage statement from the bank telling us how much of the principal we've paid off. It was like two bucks. Interest SUCKS. Mortgages SUCK. But they are better than just paying rent. I wish you luck in your house hunt.
And as always, stellar photos.

We just bought a house last fall in Austin, TX (say what you will about Texas, Austin is surprisingly awesome, much to my surprise), and it was less than $100,000 for a very cute three bedroom house with a somewhat decent size yard in a fairly nice neighborhood. Hooray!

The water in that first picture is simply glorious. Please take me there NOW.

for those of you who aren't from around here, that berkeley house has that asking price mainly 'cuzza the location. . . it's a pretty nice neighborhood, it's three short blocks from berkeley high, it's within walking distance of a bart station, downtown berkeley, uc berkeley, an elementary school, another public school (not sure the grade level), and a private school. . .

i mean don't get me wrong, that's still crazy expensive, and outta my budget, but i've been half-assed looking at houses for the past few years and that price seems about right for the berkeley market. . .

Exactly, Bloopy. If the owners sold it for less, they'd be crazy because once that baby is fixed up, it'll go for $750,000.

I'm sorry! And I thought the Boston market was obscene. We own but it's a condo. In the 'burbs. I bet you guys will figure something out, being the creative types that you are. When we were looking, we kept getting our hearts broken by strolling into open houses (500K for a 2 bedroom condo!) that were in our neighborhood (that we loved.) But eventually, we figured out our price range and just looked at everything within a radius from the city that met our criteria...and from there we made the tough decsion to both forgo our dream of a yard AND move out from the city. It was hard but I don't regret it. Good luck!

Yes I know I'm crazy, I will probably find myself in the outskirts again. When I visited Vancouver in '05 I just couldn't imagine living anywhere else. It was more about the lifestyle of that area compared to the fast pace, uptight, overtime lifestyle of southern ontario. They just seem so much more relaxed and they have immediate access to the city and nature within 10 minutes driving distance.
I'm praying for a market correction!

I LOVE Vancouver, and if I ever needed to flee the country but not the continent, that's where I'd go. I'd have to live in a cardboard box, yes, but it's such an amazing city--like San Francisco but with more snow and "eh"s.

Good luck on the house hunting! The market is CRAZY here too, and I feel bad for people trying to buy. I'm excited for you guys though! :)

Leah, some friends of mine who own a place in Oakland (and not the ghetto) are planning to sell it within the next year. Email me if you want more info. It has a deck and a yard!

Just be glad you don't live in some of the larger cities overseas: http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/23/pf/expensive_cities/

Emily--It really depends on what they plan to sell it for. We want a good deal on a place that fits, but they probably want to get their money's worth from a buyer...

the housing market is what it is no matter where you are. in my previous comment i told you what money can buy here in lexington which has an obscenely affordable housing market. the only problem is: income does not nec. match that market. no matter what city you live in, when it comes to buying a house, you will make sacrifices: be it neighborhood, style, sq. ft, yard, price, etc. and to boot, when you do buy the house, it will not be perfect. something will break, the toilet will flood, the paint will scratch, anything. it was terribly frustrating while we were buying our lovely bungalow, but, we did it together, and now it is our home. albeit, dirty. but it's ours, and we made the agreements together.

i strongly suggest, going to places you can't afford and laugh as you both guess the price... thomas and i did that in our old neighborhood that is way overpriced!!!

btw, in case you haven't heard of this rule of thumb, my friend's mom who's a realtor once told me that as a super rough calculation when trying to determine whether or not you can afford a house, barring any extremely odd financing, your monthly payment will be approximately 1% of what's left after your down payment. . .

in other words, if the house costs $500,000 and you put down $100,000, the amount left over will be $400,000. . . 1% of that is $4,000 and that's about what your monthly payments for everything (including insurance and all that crap) will be. . .

it's not a perfect approximation but it makes things a tad easier to grasp than a lump sum of half a million freakin' dollars. . . it also lets you start imagining scenarios where you might be able to afford a house in the bay area - like renting out a room or, if you're really desperate (and i hope for your sake you ain't), looking at someplace like livermore or antioch. . .

$4,000/month?! HAHAHAHAHA! No bloody way in hell.

Our realtor is giving us numbers like $70,000 down and $2,500/mo. for a $450,000 house. Where all that's going to come from is a complete mystery. It's blood in my veins, not liquid gold, for cryin' out loud.

leah, I work in Oakland - let's just say I would definitely steer clear of the East side. Although I'm pretty sure you could get a sweet deal.

leah, I work in Oakland - let's just say I would definitely steer clear of the East side. Although I'm pretty sure you could get a sweet deal.

Seattle's median house goes for $450K, I believe. Which seems CRAZY and HORRIFYING (although whoah, not as bad as your area) and I'm caught between wishing the prices would be more sane because JESUS CHRIST, and hoping they go even higher so our own house continues to grow in value.

If only we could all retroactively buy our houses in, say, 1997 or something. Buying today is such a nightmare, although still an investment with a really strong return.

okay so like i've said, i've never actually bought a house, but are you sure the monthly payment figure your realtor quoted includes the property taxes and insurance and isn't just the monthly mortgage payment?. . . and isn't one of those sketchy subprime adjustable rate mortgages that's been in the news lately?. . .

i ask 'cuz i've actually heard that rule of thumb i mentioned earlier from a few different people, and that $2500/month seems, i dunno, just a tad on the low side. . .

gorgeous shots!

We live in Essex County, MA which Forbes says is the most expensive in the country. Our houses are rarely available for under $500,000 unless they are next to crack houses AND need to be demolished. We'll be renting for a while longer.

As someone who is buying a house currently.. watch out for all the "hidden" costs. Your realtor will tell you that you can afford it, but they will not reveal to you all costs. You'll find those out when you talk to the mortgage lender or maybe not even until closing. Even if the seller pays closing costs.. expect to pay for a year of home owner's insurance up front, appraisal, taxes, and more..it will end up as much as your actual "closing costs". We were really caught off guard.

We bought three years ago in the Sacramento area, we paid $415,00. I about pooped my pants when we did too. We sold our home in Clovis for $240,000 so we had to finance the remainder. Honestly our old home was roomier and the yard was WAY bigger. You can't touch a three bedroom in a gang member free zone for less than $300,000 here.

I just got my real estate license and I know that the housing cost are going down a bit, but don't expect a miracle. If the work was there I’d move back to Clovis in a heart beat. It’s a wonderful city, low cost living for California standards and it’s a easy commute to everything. Oh most importantly my family is there.

I know that we’ve been inundated with bay area people because it’s freak’n ridiculous to afford a home there. My fiancé got a job offer to transfer to San Jose but since it was under $200k he turned it down because we couldn’t afford a home there with that salary. Move outta that place….less crime, less traffic and you can buy a house and have some babies.Move East it's cheaper and safer. Oakland scares the crap outta me.

I am hesitating typing this out but I actually work as an attorney in banking and finance for a pretty relevant federal agency and I would highly discourage purchasing right now in direct contradiction to whoever said now was a good time to buy (I know you said it will be a while yet, I'm just saying that as a general statement). You can email me if you want more details since I don't really push advice on people to be insulted on the internets.

(Oh and if you can guess which agency from the site metre, please don't say it out loud...I just shut down my blog for security reasons :))

Dear everyone--Thanks for all the tips and advice and cheerleading and, yes, even the doomsday warnings. We're still MANY months away from seriously looking, but this is exactly the kind of information-gathering we want to do during that time. More and more, though, I'm starting to wonder if I should be looking for a better-paying job before looking for a house. Either that or brush up on my blackjack for our upcoming Vegas trip.

Housing prices in California disgust me. The only reason we live in a beautiful home in a beautiful place is because we're old. We've been in the property market a long time and have made a lot of money from it. But, were we starting today, we'd be up crap creek because all the rules and the start points have changed and young people today are just out of the market. It's ridiculous. My daughter and her husband live in a darling rental house in W. Hollywood and feel happy that they're paying $2,600 a month for a two bedroom. Happy. Jesus, it's all wrong. They can pay that rent...just...but can't come up with the huge downstroke to buy such a property. What would that house sell for? Oh, it would start at about a million. $1,000,000.00. Nuts. Anyway, I wish you luck and bravery. Perhaps this current downturn in the market will work in your favor. Maybe moving someplace else is the answer. Maybe investing in property in another market is the answer and renting that out. Maybe you're just going to have to move way out of the city and have a huge commute. Not much sounds positive, I know. I think investigating other areas to live is the most likely scenario for finding and buying a house sooner rather than later.

I just hope you can find something, even if it's small, where you want to be.

Location, location, location.
I bought a house in Tucson for 92k in 2001. I sold it this year for 156k but could have listed it for 15% higher if the property management company had actually taken care of it. (Bastards!)
I bought a house here in ABQ for approx. 164k just last year. Both homes are comparable in size and amenities although my current house is only about 15 years old as compared to my former home which was built in 1955 and I now have about 1/4 of the yard/land/property.
It's all about where you live... what you do... and your credit rating.
We had a discussion tonight (my favorite kind; the "what if" convo) about where we would live if money wasn't a concern. After discussing many beautiful cities, we decided we would stay here but get into a bigger house that had more land around it.
We both grew up in California and, although we love to vacation there, we don't ever want to live there again based on the population and demographics. The prices in California and other coastal states are outrageous. Outfreakin'rageous!
There is no such thing as "middle class" anymore.
*sigh*
Oakland hasn't been the same since the big fire. Some of those homes lost in that fire were magnificent.
Isn't there a great smorgasbord, just off the freeway, on the way to Oakland? I remember stopping there and having the bestest turkey sammich... ever! Somewhere just before the Bay Bridge? I don't know but, man, what a great foody memory.
:)

Wait... on the way back to the city from Oakland... Memory's a little fuzzy.

Wow. Seeing that sad little house -- and its selling price -- really makes me wonder how much Seth and Ryan had to offer to get the Berkeley house back for Sandy Cohen ...

Good luck with everything! I can't imagine house hunting in that kind of market. Some friends of mine just bought a four bedroom, two bath home with a yard and garage for 140,000. Granted, that's in Milwaukee ...

Wow. Seeing that sad little house -- and its selling price -- really makes me wonder how much Seth and Ryan had to offer to get the Berkeley house back for Sandy Cohen ...

Good luck with everything! I can't imagine house hunting in that kind of market. Some friends of mine just bought a four bedroom, two bath home with a yard and garage for 140,000. Granted, that's in Milwaukee ...

I know I'm a little late, but I wanted to add my 2 cents. Especially about the idea of looking for a higher paying job to afford a house. As a couple of mid-late 20 something engineers my husband and I are already in that group, we both went to college for degrees with the goal of making a decent living when we got out, not really for loving our jobs. It won't help. =) IMO a DINK couple like us should be able to easily afford a condo, maybe stretch a little to buy a decent sized house, and we can't here (Contra Costa County). To me that just screams that there is a serious disconnect between salaries and housing prices in this area (do a search on median incomes and median home prices and you will see what I mean). Potentially a disconnect that will require a serious market correction. Rent on the other hand is very reasonable, and so much less than what we would spend to own the same thing. I say stick with the job you love for as long as you can, a higher salary still won't make it easy to afford a house. =)

An interesting site to read for research, though it is very "gloom and doom, the sky is falling"
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/