nosy housing questions

[Anonymous]

i wanted to ask you all afew questions—but they are kind of nosy—–so i understand if anyone would rather not join this thread.

we are trying to sell our house. we have just outgrown it. we have had 7 kids at home for most of the last 11 years. it didn’t always seem this crowded, but i didn’t used to have this many teenagers at home—-older kids take more room. we tried to move 9 years ago—found a house, got approved for a loan, and couldn’t get our house sold.

we are planning on buying my mother’s house if we can get our house sold. it has 6 bedrooms and a large family room and 3 fireplaces. (i love fireplaces).

i’m just kind of curious as to what housing prices are like where you all live and what kind of house payments you have vs income levels—-remember, you don’t have to answer if this is too nosy!!

kevin makes 4900.00 a month he brings home 2584.00 net. this does not go very far for us. i quite often am running short of money. we make a house payment of approx 715.00 dollars a month. if we buy my mother’s house and things work they way we are hoping, our payments will go up about 140.00 a month. we are hoping to sell our house for a little under 150,000.00 and our side lot for around 20,000.00—-hopefully someone will buy the two of them together. we are planning on buying mom’s house for approx 170,000.00. my mother’s house could be worth more than this, but it is dated and in need of some repairs—and she wants to make us as good a deal as she possibly can without upsetting the rest of the family.

the house we are leaving is 2800 sq ft. with 1/2 of an acre. the house we are buying is 4200 sq ft. on a city lot.

if you followed me this far, i am wondering what the housing is like in your area. what would houses of similar square footage sell for where you are? does the percentage of house pmt to income level we are thinking about look ok? i am sure i will need to find some sort of job as soon as i can—but i would need to do this regardless of whether or not we move. i watch HGTV alot and i am floored when i see what houses cost in other areas of the country. i see houses much smaller than mine that sell for any where from 450,000.00 to 700,000.00 and higher. i often wonder how those people afford to live at all and what kind of incomes they must be making to be able to afford those homes.

[Anonymous]

I will be vague but still try to answer your questions. Our house payment is about $1200 a month, our house is probably about 2000 sq ft and that includes our unfinshed basement. We have 3 bedrooms (1 in the finished part of the basement) and 2.5 baths (1 full bath in the finished part of the basement). When my dh bought this house I think 6 yrs ago he paid $135,000. We recently got our city assessment of the property and it was at about $180,000. We live in the very desireable area of our town known as the “03”… the people here are all about what zip code you live in… but don’t get me started on that. We live on a deadend street, which makes our location that much more desireable…. I don’t know that we will ever move, even though we will need to if we have more than 1 child… but anyway. dh bought this house as a bachelor and his income was about $3500/month at that time, it has increased and when I was working we had plenty of money, I am not working anymore and we still do okay, but he has a ton of student loan debt so we make technically 2 house payments/month when you calculate in his student loans. I hope that helps some. We are in VA near Charlottesville so that may have alittle to do with the housing prices. In our area I would guess that your house could sell for $250,000-$300,000 easily… But that is just where we are. Not sure where you are.

[Anonymous]

beth—-we live in a good location—but the neighborhood we are moving to is definitely considered a better neighborhood. i remember wanting to move when i was a kid because people thought we were rich because we lived in “that house”. we all had to hold down part-time jobs and buy our own clothes and pay for our own entertainment. the house was quite impressive in it’s day—-but that was before all the fabulous houses on the river……

we live in an area with a large minority population. when i was growing up, there was the “other side of the tracks”—literally—there are train tracks that run through the middle of town and one side of town is definitely nicer than the other. the minority population has intermingled alot over the years—-meaning they are spread out through all the neighborhoods in town, now. i think that this is really good—-but i worry a little that not everyone is totally accepting of it yet—-especially since many of them live a little bit of a different lifestyle and sometimes they live several families to one house. we live on a dead-end street with only 8 houses—–five of the houses are minority families—-all on one side of the street. one of my non-minority neighbors has already told me she is worried about another minority family buying our house. the funny thing—–the only neighbors that we have had any problem with in the last couple of years is the “white” family next door. i wonder how many more years it will take our town to stop seeing “them” and “us”.

[Anonymous]

We live in a great location. Our house is a multi level with approx 3000 sq ft. I pay $800 per month – that is more than our payment but wanted some extra to go to principal – so not sure of the actual payment – prob close to $740-750. Our house would go for $200,000 or $210,000. (I checked when I was prego again and wondered about moving, but never did move.)

Starter houses are around $120,000. Middle income houses are anywhere from $180-225 and then you have THE OTHER houses that we only drive by! I am sure we couldn’t even pay the taxes for those houses.

Your payment is really going to depend on how much you can put DOWN on the new house. How much equity do you have in your now-house? How much do you own on your loan? Then figure out how much you will gain and be able to apply to the new house.

I would call all of the utility companies and give them the address of the new house and ask what the average cost per month is. Then you would have to up it a bit as you have a larger family but this would give you a baseline.

I would ask what the taxes are – city taxes are usually more than out of city but depends on sq feet, location, etc.

We know several doctors and one family from old money. They live in wonderful houses. HOWEVER, they are not home to enjoy their houses. We definately LIVE in our house and love it. We are home all the time. We can’t afford Vikings tickets or motel rooms at fun water parks but we do camp during the summer and have a good time.

On a side note, my husband works for a bank here in our town and the loans have gotten substantially harder to get. They are trying not to let people get into bad situations so the fed gov changed some of the guidelines.

I hope you get your new house!! I have a suggestion, tho. Could you move into your new house and pay rent for a month or two to her (so as not to upset the other siblings, yada, yada). THEN, you could leave only some of your stuff in the house and you wouldn’t have to worry about keeping the house clean/toys picked up, kitchen clean, etc. Just a thought……

TnBEich2007-09-01 19:39:45

[Anonymous]

I’ll talk about it!! Our story is we live in Indiana. Our house payment is approx 1200 dollars and dh makes around 60,000. Our house is a rambler(1575 sq.ft.)and has three bedrooms plus a sunroom added on to the house. It’s our first house(we rented() for 6yrs when we lived in Washington, moved here a year ago, got pregnant!)so I’m still in love with it We bought it for 142,900 but could probably sell it now for 147,000. We live in a subdivision in a really great area with great schools. I feel pretty blessed. I have no idea if that helps at all but I’m happy to share! Oh! I stay home and we barely make it every month but for me and dh it was real important that when we had kids, I would stay home with them so we make it work by the grace of God. Good luck with the selling of you house! 7 kids!! Holy hannah you are an amazing woman Christine!!

[Anonymous]

I am so jealous reight now of everyone! Our property taxes alone for our house which is 2700 sq ft is $8700 and of course that goes up 5% every year! I really need to move to where everyone else is living!!!! Alexis’s mom2007-09-01 21:57:19

[Anonymous]

Sue: I can’t BELIEVE that your taxes are $8700 per year!!! That is $725 a MONTH. That is unbelievable. Ours are just over $150 per month. We are definately blessed. Our house is around 3000 sq feet/multi level/great neighborhood near envied schools/very safe neighborhood. We love our state and city and, although I complain when I have to send in semi-annual tax payments, I won’t complain any more! That is crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where do you live?

I should have said in my earlier post that our mortgage payment is principal and interest only. We pay our taxes on our own and they are $150 per month.

[Anonymous]

Well I thought I would put our 2 cents in as well 😉 ..Since we are from those areas that you mentioned that homes cost AT LEAST 400,000 for a STARTER HOME!!

We have yet to own a home. But DH makes close to 5,000 a month..and I make 2,000. So thats 7,000 a month and we CANT own yet! Its sooooo crazy up here. I guess our school loans and some debt play into it. But, to answer your question..i guess it depends on your circumstance up here. I would say we make a good amount each month..but can only afford 1,200 for rent.. since we have student loans. But, if we didn’t we could do 2,000ish a month and that would get us a townhouse/condo for possibly 250,000-300,000. That would be the lowest priced homes up here. You cant get a single family for less then 400,000.

Oh here is an example:my parents own a home that is 3,000 sq. feet… possibly 1/2 an acre.. 5 bedrooms.. that is worth a little over a million dollars!! I guess because my dad is a mortgage broker.. he is making more on the homes up here therefore getting more of a salary. You know? Where you live.. he would make less .. and therefore have a cheaper home as well. So its relative…But not ALL jobs pay more up here then other parts of the U.S.

Its sickening though.. thats all I have to say 😉

[Anonymous]

Have you checked out http://www.zillow.com? It gives you an estimate of appropriate cost for your house. I think that the house payment you mentioned sounds reasonable, but that doesn’t factor in other living expenses, so it’s really hard to judge what you can or cannot afford. That price would definitely be a good deal around here. Our house is about 1800 square feet — it’s a tri-level with 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths — and according to zillow we could sell it for about $220,000. So, your house would definitely be worth more. Good luck with your decision!

[Anonymous]

thanks everyone for your input—-i haven’t been back on for a few days and kept worrying that my topic was inappropriate. i talked to the financial people several months back and we qualify without a problem—we have really good credit—in fact, the guy told me we would qualify for somewhere around 320,000.00 with kevin’s income!!!!! there is NO WAY we could ever even DREAM of affording a home that cost that much. it is going to be a stretch for us, as it is, if we increase our payment $70 per pay check. (kevin gets paid twice a month) we have quite a bit of equity in our house, so i think our mortgage should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 110,000.00

we only have a house payment and one credit card payment. everything else is utilities, food, medical bills, clothes, etc. we don’t have a car payment or any payments on “fun” stuff. i keep wondering how other people afford to live when they have car payments and child care payments and maybe a payment or two on furniture or something along that line—-not to mention school loans.

i have stayed home for most of our married life, but i just don’t think i will be able to afford to keep staying home—–now, to figure out what i can do to make extra money……

oh, i forgot, we are thinking about moving into mom’s house as soon as she moves out to my sister’s house. then we can stage the house for selling and not worry about the piles of toys that sylvia keeps dragging around—or about the messes that get left in the kitchen and bathrooms. you just don’t realize how messy your house is until someone is about to look at it!!LOL!!

kevieb2007-09-03 00:49:25

[Anonymous]

OMG, I need to move where you guys live!!!!

Christine, a few months back, before dh’s new job, his take home income was similar to your dh’s. BUT-

We live in a 2700 sq ft house. It’s our first home. Five years ago, it cost us $400 000, and has almost literally no backyard. Now the same home in our area can cost you $600 000 or more. You can’t even get a 1200 sq rt townhouse in our area for under $400 000. Our property taxes are over $100 000 a year.

A house your mother’s size with the lot size you describe would cost over $2 million dollars in the city or a suburb not too far north. If it was really far north (which is cheaper area) it would cost half that.

HTH. Good luck with the move.

Now I’m thinking… seriously, I need to move!

[Anonymous]

how much money do people need to be making to afford a 2 million dollar mortgage??!!!! what kind of a monthly payment would someone have with that kind of house, any idea?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know how people afford those kinds of homes. Mostly, it’s people who are older and more established or independently wealthy, so they don’t need to carry big mortgages. Really, it’s the land that’s VERY expensive here. Our lot is only 45 by 85 so everyone is right on top of each other. You could get a 4000 sq foot home in my area for probably just under 1 million, BUT, it would be a huge home on a tiny lot. If you want the land you have to pay- it comes at a hefty premium b/c it’s hard to come by.

[Anonymous]

Whoa! Lori, 100,000 taxes!!! Makes my complaint of our property taxes seem like nothing!!! Our lot too is very small 70 X 100, hey less lawn to mow. We live in Wheaton, Illinois it has a great school district that’s why I want to stay here, DH works is not close about 1 – 1 1/2 hours commute but it is all about the girls!!

[Anonymous]

well up here really 2,000,000 really isnt that much!! well its a big home.. but a lot of people have it! like i said my parents home is just over one million.. and is only 5,000 sq feet.. and hardly any land!! and is off of a busy road! sooo.. for a 2 million dollar home it obviously depends on how much you put down! i think its impossible to buy a home that much and not put anything down.. but i guess if you dont put anything down..its atleast 12,000 a month (dh is next to me and is a mortgage broker..;) )

but… its really crazy how much you have to make up here to live.. like i said before.. but you do get paid more as well. We were thinking of going south..but we would make a lot less…and still wouldnt be able to buy right away.

soo i think our area is pretty similar to lori’s.. we live near a major city (nyc)..and the closer you get the more it goes up! Lori..do you live near a major city in Canada??

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