Cost of living. Where do you stay and how much?

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jeffie7

Wrong Whole!
VIP
I currenty pay $400 a month to live at home and at times its a friggin PITA. I'm looking for a house but havent fully ruled out renting due to the cost of living in this area.

1bedroom condo with garage can cost 180K+ IF you're lucky enough to find one with a garage then add $150-200 for HOA.

Banks/Real Estate guys always push the whole tax cut when owning a home.

I figure you might save $75-100 a month on a $220K house.

when you think about it a normal Condo HOA eats up even more then the tax break and in a lot of cases is double!

If I buy a condo at 195K with a 2 year arm loan I'm looking at around $900-1000 for a monthy payment BEFORE taxes, HOA, Insurance "renters" can't forget power.
So after all that's said and done the monthy payment would be $1400-1500ish.

Then you have to worry about losing money if you're in an area like this that has jumped what seems to be 100% in value in the last 4 years!!!!! So if the rates go up theres a chance that no one could afford anything and if for some reason you have to move you're going to hvae to lower your prices and take the chance of losing money. (I don't care what people say it's happened before and it WILL happen again, sooner or later)

On the other hand theres renting.

You can get a place like this.

http://www.regattabayapartments.com/index.html

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1bedroom for $1100 and that covers all kitchen stuff as with water/trash removel, 2 swimming pools, gym, "in some cases" tennis courts, bball courts, racquetball....

and.... if any are open a GARAGE! "at 100-150 bucks more a month"

Sigh....

what to do what to do.....

So what does everyone else do?

rent, own, or bum?



p.s I could get a normal shitty apartment for 500-700 bucks but then it wouldnt have a garage and it would be... well.... crappy. chances are the poeple leaving next door wouldnt even speak english.

Annapolis Maryland = little south america.
 
i live here for free.....whooo hooooo. the benefits of military. anywho the cost of living here in missouri is pretty low. i'd probably say around 1000 a month gets you a decent 3 bedroom house with a couple of acres of land, and all utilities paid in just the 1000 bux range or so. pretty cheap

or if you wanna buy a house, 150k gets you a mansion around here...lol real cheap. but you also get paid peanuts so it seems expensive
 
Originally posted by adidas_man@May 17 2005, 10:54 PM
i live here for free.....whooo hooooo. the benefits of military. anywho the cost of living here in missouri is pretty low. i'd probably say around 1000 a month gets you a decent 3 bedroom house with a couple of acres of land, and all utilities paid in just the 1000 bux range or so. pretty cheap

or if you wanna buy a house, 150k gets you a mansion around here...lol real cheap. but you also get paid peanuts so it seems expensive
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200K in Anne Arundel county will buy you MAYBE an acre of uncleared land.
 
I just bought a 1200sq/ft house on .75 acres. it's a 3 bed 1.75 bath, with a garage, and flat land. here in Bend Oregon. 165k 2 months ago, and the house down the street just sold for 180 YES!!!!!
 
my parents house is about 2100sq ft, 4bd 2.5 bath (3.5 bath if we ever finish the basement one) is in an upper middle class neighborhood, and runs 160-200k. there are alot nicer and alot crappier.

im about to move to an apartment, 2bd 1 bath 900sq/ft 550-600 a month depending on the floor, and these are 4 maybe 5 y.o. apts, they are really nice.
 
My parents house is 4 bedroom 2fb 2hb with basement its about 3500sqft maybe more.

House just down the street sold for 630K
 
I rent a 500 sq ft apartment, one bedroom, full kitchen, living room, three closets.

It's small but it's only 335 a month plus electricity.
 
335/month? holy shit. i'd need 5 roomates to pull that off. lol

rates down there are pretty similar to up here if you don't want to live in the trash part of town...
 
Here in Coos Bay it's about the same as Bend (where alaskancodkiller (Iron1) lives). Bend's land prices are going up like crazy though because it's a ski resort town :p

Generally, here 200k will get you at least an acre, 3 bedrooms, and 2 baths in a decent area.
 
Originally posted by pissedoffsol@May 17 2005, 11:49 PM
335/month? holy shit. i'd need 5 roomates to pull that off. lol

rates down there are pretty similar to up here if you don't want to live in the trash part of town...
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Yeah, the only downside to this place is my neighbors are unfriendly dick heads.

The only time they've ever come over or said anything is when she got locked out and needed to call her boyfriend. <_<
 
Originally posted by Battle Pope@May 17 2005, 11:53 PM
Here in Coos Bay it's about the same as Bend (where alaskancodkiller (Iron1) lives). Bend's land prices are going up like crazy though because it's a ski resort town :p

Generally, here 200k will get you at least an acre, 3 bedrooms, and 2 baths in a decent area.
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yep they are skyrocketing!!!!!!! my parents bought the house 5 years ago for 80k... I'm hoping to build a second home this next summer. price of living isn't too bad if you know where to go, and are able to stay away from the yuppie places.
 
Southern California:

3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, about 1200 sq ft, about 35 miles from LA

Same houes on the block going for 400,000+ (track homes theres like three different styles, but there just shifted around to make em look different)

You think thats bad?

The prices just get worse as you approach LA.
 
I own a 1-BR condo in central Colorado. Boulder County, which has high real-estate prices.

1,050 SQ FT
Detached garage

Bought it for $153,500.
Refi'ed at 5% a year later.
$934 a month for a mortgage.
$131 a month for HOA
Probably another $200 a month for cable, internet, electricity, and gas. (HOA picks up my water and sewer)

Both last year and this year, I got to use a deduction of OVER $10,000 on my taxes, most of which came from interest on my mortgage. Compare that to the piddly $4,850 standard deduction, and a mortgage is looking pretty good.

I now have about $10k of equity in the place, assuming the value didn't go up. That's $10k that I DIDN'T pay to a landlord in the past 2.5 years.

Definitely buy a place if you can manage it. It's the best thing I've ever done financially. Yeah, you'll have to change your lifestyle, but it's worth it.
 
The average houses around me are 400k :( Good ones are usually 800-1M, a large estate a few blocks away is on the market for 12M right now. The maids, butlers and groundspeople come with the property. :blink:

Our house is tiny compared to most of them around us (we're in a 3 bdrm, 1.5 bath, 1car garage, on 2.75 acres of nicely wooded land) but for the area, we rent it for a song. $1010 per month.
 
Wallingford, CT
1300 sqft cape.
Mortgage (Principle/Intrest/escrow) $934 mo.
Appraised value $185K (but my grandma hooked me up only have a loan for $140K)

House next door just sold for $235K, and most within a sq. mile have been selling from $180-550K
 
I am about to move into a 1 bedroom apartment in towson, md... with the girlfriend. It is actually in homeland and is an old folks area with 400k+homes. I just signed the lease to start in august and it is 680 a month. Not bad for the area i guess. :)
 
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