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

[Anonymous]

West Virginia

[Anonymous]

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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.

*incentivize

[Anonymous]

Virginia is honestly one of the cheaper states in the country. Pretty much everything outside of NOVA is very reasonably priced.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Actually, that’s not how it works in most places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Virginia is honestly one of the cheaper states in the country. Pretty much everything outside of NOVA is very reasonably priced.

+1

Roanoke, Lynchburg, and even still parts of greater Richmond offer very good value. Not sure how much longer that will last, though.

[Anonymous]

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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/?

Good god, half a million for a small, hideously ugly, extremely dated house with an hour+ bus to rail commute downtown?

RIP affordable Chicago.

Yea these PPs recommending Chicago suburbs are delusional as affordable. 95% of the houses under 500k are tear downs and the rest are either exurbia (I.e 90+ minute commute) or are like 1000 sf.

Nothing meets the criteria of Nice and updated inside at that price point. Plus taxes are high which adds to the in affordability.

Not saying the chi suburbs aren’t nice, they’re very nice with great schools, but it’s not cheap to live there in the way tier 2 and 3 midwestern and southern cities are.

[Anonymous]

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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.

You make these truly bizarre statements you can't even back up! There are no single family houses that are "reasonable updated" for $500K in Queens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where does $550K buy you a nice house right now, with lower taxes and that's updated inside? DC, MD, VA, DE, CA, NY, CT, TX, AZ, WA, are excluded or have already been explored by me.

WHY won't the MLS let you search like 20-30 states at a time?! If you are WFH and spend 20 hours a day at home most days I should be able to cast a wide net. I just need a few grocery stores and a few parks within 15 minute drive.

why not route 1 in pg county?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Where does $550K buy you a nice house right now, with lower taxes and that's updated inside? DC, MD, VA, DE, CA, NY, CT, TX, AZ, WA, are excluded or have already been explored by me.

WHY won't the MLS let you search like 20-30 states at a time?! If you are WFH and spend 20 hours a day at home most days I should be able to cast a wide net. I just need a few grocery stores and a few parks within 15 minute drive.

why not route 1 in pg county?

They can live anywhere. Why would they live in PG? It's a fine place for people forced to live in the DC area, but if you can live ANYWHERE, the DC area isn't that appealing.

[Anonymous]

So you’ve explored ALL of those states?

[Anonymous]

Kansas.
Rural small town south.

The problem is that you will probably need to update the houses. Anywhere it's cheap to live, people will probably not be making enough money to keep everything updated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Where does $550K buy you a nice house right now, with lower taxes and that's updated inside? DC, MD, VA, DE, CA, NY, CT, TX, AZ, WA, are excluded or have already been explored by me.

WHY won't the MLS let you search like 20-30 states at a time?! If you are WFH and spend 20 hours a day at home most days I should be able to cast a wide net. I just need a few grocery stores and a few parks within 15 minute drive.

why not route 1 in pg county?

They can live anywhere. Why would they live in PG? It's a fine place for people forced to live in the DC area, but if you can live ANYWHERE, the DC area isn't that appealing.

Robust labor market? Sure, go get a big cheap house in Kansas. If you lose your job, it's not like there's a ton of jobs in Kansas. DC on the other hand...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does $550K buy you a nice house right now, with lower taxes and that's updated inside? DC, MD, VA, DE, CA, NY, CT, TX, AZ, WA, are excluded or have already been explored by me.

WHY won't the MLS let you search like 20-30 states at a time?! If you are WFH and spend 20 hours a day at home most days I should be able to cast a wide net. I just need a few grocery stores and a few parks within 15 minute drive.

why not route 1 in pg county?

They can live anywhere. Why would they live in PG? It's a fine place for people forced to live in the DC area, but if you can live ANYWHERE, the DC area isn't that appealing.

Robust labor market? Sure, go get a big cheap house in Kansas. If you lose your job, it's not like there's a ton of jobs in Kansas. DC on the other hand...

There is a huge gulf between DC and Kansas, but you knew that.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does $550K buy you a nice house right now, with lower taxes and that's updated inside? DC, MD, VA, DE, CA, NY, CT, TX, AZ, WA, are excluded or have already been explored by me.

WHY won't the MLS let you search like 20-30 states at a time?! If you are WFH and spend 20 hours a day at home most days I should be able to cast a wide net. I just need a few grocery stores and a few parks within 15 minute drive.

why not route 1 in pg county?

They can live anywhere. Why would they live in PG? It's a fine place for people forced to live in the DC area, but if you can live ANYWHERE, the DC area isn't that appealing.

Robust labor market? Sure, go get a big cheap house in Kansas. If you lose your job, it's not like there's a ton of jobs in Kansas. DC on the other hand...

There is a huge gulf between DC and Kansas, but you knew that.

There is a huge gulf, but how much of this gulf has nice homes for $500k that won't have you living in the middle of the opioid epidemic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does $550K buy you a nice house right now, with lower taxes and that's updated inside? DC, MD, VA, DE, CA, NY, CT, TX, AZ, WA, are excluded or have already been explored by me.

WHY won't the MLS let you search like 20-30 states at a time?! If you are WFH and spend 20 hours a day at home most days I should be able to cast a wide net. I just need a few grocery stores and a few parks within 15 minute drive.

why not route 1 in pg county?

They can live anywhere. Why would they live in PG? It's a fine place for people forced to live in the DC area, but if you can live ANYWHERE, the DC area isn't that appealing.

Robust labor market? Sure, go get a big cheap house in Kansas. If you lose your job, it's not like there's a ton of jobs in Kansas. DC on the other hand...

There is a huge gulf between DC and Kansas, but you knew that.

There is a huge gulf, but how much of this gulf has nice homes for $500k that won't have you living in the middle of the opioid epidemic?

Lots of places. Especially places where you don’t have violent savages shooting each other in the streets.