Where does $500K buy you a nice house right now...

[Anonymous]

There are many places with houses in that range, you just may not want to live there. Dothan, Alabama, Albany, Georgia, Greenwood, NC and so on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCUM has a hard-on for the suburbs

Well what big cities have single family homes for $500k?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here you go:

https://redf.in/nV3hDD


https://redf.in/j5FVSf

Both are pending...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Upper midwest

Chicago suburbs, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Milwaukee, Indianapolis

Chicago suburbs are questionable and depends on your definition of ‘nice’ and size requirements. You can probably find an 80s track home in an exurb for 500k or a slightly closer in small 60s/70s build that was maybe last renovated in the 90s for 500k. But you won’t find anything renovated and ‘nice’ by most people’s standards and definitely not in the more desirable suburbs. I think Chicago suburbs generally would require closer to a 700k budget and for the most desirable suburbs 1M+ .

Milwaukee area would have more.

This house in Oak Park is kind of boring, but I would be perfectly happy to own it.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/948-Hayes-Ave-Oak-Park-IL-60302/3798436_zpid/?

Seriously?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what you mean by "nice." I don't consider Toll or Ryan nice. They're just Home Depot grade construction. People buy McMansions for the size, not quality.

500k will get you a pleasant and reasonably updated house in the suburbs of most midwestern/flyover cities.

https://www.redfin.com/OH/New-Albany/6960-Grate-Park-Dr-43054/home/79698480

https://www.redfin.com/KS/Overland-Park/11414-Grant-St-66210/home/83185193

You consider this house "reasonably updated"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Upper midwest

Chicago suburbs, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Milwaukee, Indianapolis

Chicago suburbs are questionable and depends on your definition of ‘nice’ and size requirements. You can probably find an 80s track home in an exurb for 500k or a slightly closer in small 60s/70s build that was maybe last renovated in the 90s for 500k. But you won’t find anything renovated and ‘nice’ by most people’s standards and definitely not in the more desirable suburbs. I think Chicago suburbs generally would require closer to a 700k budget and for the most desirable suburbs 1M+ .

Milwaukee area would have more.

This house in Oak Park is kind of boring, but I would be perfectly happy to own it.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/948-Hayes-Ave-Oak-Park-IL-60302/3798436_zpid/?

Seriously?

This house is trash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what you mean by "nice." I don't consider Toll or Ryan nice. They're just Home Depot grade construction. People buy McMansions for the size, not quality.

500k will get you a pleasant and reasonably updated house in the suburbs of most midwestern/flyover cities.

https://www.redfin.com/OH/New-Albany/6960-Grate-Park-Dr-43054/home/79698480

https://www.redfin.com/KS/Overland-Park/11414-Grant-St-66210/home/83185193

You consider this house "reasonably updated"?

You won’t find “reasonably updated” for <$500k. Even the updated SFH in Alabama & Arkansas are in the low $500,000s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM has a hard-on for the suburbs

Well what big cities have single family homes for $500k?

All of them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM has a hard-on for the suburbs

Well what big cities have single family homes for $500k?

All of them

What planet do you currently reside?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM has a hard-on for the suburbs

Well what big cities have single family homes for $500k?

All of them

What planet do you currently reside?

Depends on where you’re willing to live in a city. In NYC, for example, you can find SFH at that price in Queens, the Bronx & SI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on what you mean by "nice." I don't consider Toll or Ryan nice. They're just Home Depot grade construction. People buy McMansions for the size, not quality.

500k will get you a pleasant and reasonably updated house in the suburbs of most midwestern/flyover cities.

https://www.redfin.com/OH/New-Albany/6960-Grate-Park-Dr-43054/home/79698480

https://www.redfin.com/KS/Overland-Park/11414-Grant-St-66210/home/83185193

You consider this house "reasonably updated"?

You won’t find “reasonably updated” for <$500k. Even the updated SFH in Alabama & Arkansas are in the low $500,000s.

um, ok. I was replying to pp's comment that both of the houses she posted are "reasonably updated."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM has a hard-on for the suburbs

Well what big cities have single family homes for $500k?

All of them

What planet do you currently reside?

Depends on where you’re willing to live in a city. In NYC, for example, you can find SFH at that price in Queens, the Bronx & SI.

Of the 1320 properties available on SI right now, exactly 8 of them are SFHs $500k and below. Behold: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/75-Lansing-St-Staten-Island-NY-10305/32328145_zpid/

What a gem!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM has a hard-on for the suburbs

Well what big cities have single family homes for $500k?

All of them

What planet do you currently reside?

Depends on where you’re willing to live in a city. In NYC, for example, you can find SFH at that price in Queens, the Bronx & SI.

Of the 1320 properties available on SI right now, exactly 8 of them are SFHs $500k and below. Behold: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/75-Lansing-St-Staten-Island-NY-10305/32328145_zpid/

What a gem!

There are more in the Bronx & Queens

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pay very close attention to the property taxes. Sometimes, the cheaper the house, the higher the property taxes, because the area is relatively economically depressed. The city or town has to raise residential property taxes because it doesn’t have enough of a corporate base to tax from. This leads to decreased demand & cheaper houses in that municipality because high property taxes scare off most buyers. Baltimore (City) is a good example of this.

This is not always the case, of course. There are many very wealthy towns in states like TX, IL, NJ, CT, NY and PA that have very high property taxes; high-performing, well-funded schools; and are in close proximity to high paying jobs.

There is a myth that you universally “get what you pay for” just because a municipality has high property taxes. This is not the case. Many municipalities have high property taxes because of pension liabilities to retired local govt workers, for pensions that arguably should never have existed in the first place.

Pay attention to property taxes, school district taxes, wage taxes, car taxes, income taxes and sales taxes.

+1 Mt. Rainier, MD has very high property taxes

Not anymore. Mt Rainier has been lowering taxes every year for the past several years now.

Wow, there's a liberal town in the DMV that is actually lowering taxes?

Yes, a gentrifying one

Even better!

My Rainier still has very high property taxes. And the small reductions to homeowners in recent years was indirectly shifted to renters by raising taxes on apartment burdens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pay very close attention to the property taxes. Sometimes, the cheaper the house, the higher the property taxes, because the area is relatively economically depressed. The city or town has to raise residential property taxes because it doesn’t have enough of a corporate base to tax from. This leads to decreased demand & cheaper houses in that municipality because high property taxes scare off most buyers. Baltimore (City) is a good example of this.

This is not always the case, of course. There are many very wealthy towns in states like TX, IL, NJ, CT, NY and PA that have very high property taxes; high-performing, well-funded schools; and are in close proximity to high paying jobs.

There is a myth that you universally “get what you pay for” just because a municipality has high property taxes. This is not the case. Many municipalities have high property taxes because of pension liabilities to retired local govt workers, for pensions that arguably should never have existed in the first place.

Pay attention to property taxes, school district taxes, wage taxes, car taxes, income taxes and sales taxes.

+1 Mt. Rainier, MD has very high property taxes

Not anymore. Mt Rainier has been lowering taxes every year for the past several years now.

Wow, there's a liberal town in the DMV that is actually lowering taxes?

Yes, a gentrifying one

Even better!

My Rainier still has very high property taxes. And the small reductions to homeowners in recent years was indirectly shifted to renters by raising taxes on apartment burdens.

Well duh, that’s how it works. The point is to incentize SFH ownership.