Housing prices are nuts. Did you buy anyway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I determined I could get 3 acres and a 4,000 square ft house by a lake in a beautiful suburb far from here for 370k, I determined it was time to leave.

Where is this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you feel like the price of your house was insane, but you bought anyway? We have a small 2BR and 2 kids and we refuse to pay the $250k more that it would cost to upgrade to 3BRs in our area. Let's say we could probably do it, but I just don't think its going to improve our lives all that much to justify the cost.

So it got me thinking -just wondering how many people buying houses in this area are resigned to the cost feeling like 'too much' for what you get and buying anyway vs. you feel like these prices are fully reasonable to pay.

Define small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Yes, we do own. We can certainly make it in our current house, but it requires a decent amount of planning to live simply (ie limited storage, small closets, and just generally not much space so we must consider the scale of any furniture we purchase, constantly weed through belongings for the kids, etc). We've considered upgrading with the appreciation that we've seen in the neighborhood (same footprint houses up and down our street selling for $100-150k more than DH paid when he bought in 2009). BUT it still means a bigger mortgage as the equity/appreciation is not enough to get into a bigger house without a significant increase in what we spend monthly, which we just don't want to do right now with two children in day care.

Anyway, its not that I think this area should be cheap, but I guess I just don't want to dump every cent I make into a house, which is the reason we stay in our 2BR.

Here's the thing if you continue to wait, then when you run out of space and kids get bigger; what if you cant buy in your same school district?
Then, all you did was tradeoff time to be happy and settled for cost.

[Anonymous]

Yes, when we bought our house (in a hot DC neighborhood in 2011) we thought the price was insane, it was the top of our range and we were embarrassed to tell family from out of state what we paid for our home.

within a matter of months, our insanely expensive house became the deal of the century. now 4 years in, we feel like it was a steal.

how quickly things change (in some neighborhoods)!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you feel like the price of your house was insane, but you bought anyway? We have a small 2BR and 2 kids and we refuse to pay the $250k more that it would cost to upgrade to 3BRs in our area. Let's say we could probably do it, but I just don't think its going to improve our lives all that much to justify the cost.

So it got me thinking -just wondering how many people buying houses in this area are resigned to the cost feeling like 'too much' for what you get and buying anyway vs. you feel like these prices are fully reasonable to pay.

This. People have lived comfortably in much smaller spaces since the beginning of time. Moving to a larger space just means you have the "freedom" to buy more stuff to fill it up with. But then you have to work longer to pay for the extra space. And the extra stuff that you put in it. Resist!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that one way that people get around the issue you're facing is to add on to their existing house and stay put. Ultimately, you're increasing the value of your home, making it work for your family and not having to spend money to move/pay a realtor.

This is what we did. Added on two extra bedrooms and a bathroom. Made a huge difference in our enjoyment of the house. Now we are very happy here and only plan to leave feet first

[Anonymous]

We just bought. Prices are crazy! We tried buying in Brookland and I couldn't take the competitive multiple offer escalation thing. We found a house that's an okay deal for DC in another neighborhood.

It's expensive, but we didn't see any good alternatives. We could've moved to the far suburbs but then we'd need another car and have longer commutes. We could've stayed in our condo but we kept getting special assessments and it seems too expensive when we were no longer happy with the space. We just sucked it up and bought a house. We're happy in our new house and now we have more space. The mortgage is a pain but it's doable.