Spin off of house thread, in How much did you pay

[nesser1981]

for your house, ball park?

We're in Michigan and the market is crap you know, so we're getting a pretty great deal on our place. 4 years ago when we were considering moving to Michigan, we were looking in the $150,000 range, that was the cheapest that was out there then.

[crecia27]

I never did post my picture, but ours is about 2400 sq feet on a 1/4? acre? A fairly average size lot for this area and we paid about 152,000

[Jennilyn]

$165,000. It's 35 years old but the inside was redone (not gutted, but just redone on the surface).

[ColleenSwerb]

$310k for a 13 year old (at the time we bought it, now it's 16 years old) 3 bedroom, 2 full bath, 2 car garage single family home. Sits on a small lot, less than 0.25 acres. We bought when the prices were high before the market fell apart. We also live in a pretty expensive area of the country.

[nesser1981]

We're paying $75,000 for 1063sq, 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, with finished basement on 0.20 acres, 1 car garage. It was built in 1960 which is pretty common around here. We're going to redo the kitchen before we move in, its a total starter for us, if the yard wasn't fenced in and there wasn't a finished basement, I wouldn't have bought it.

[jessica31876]

really very little....like total paid after we paid the mortgage off completely was less then 40,000. originally the land cost 22,000. We bought a used mobile home from the early 90's (92ish) in 96 or 97 to replace the one that was already here and paid cash for it. We had planned on paying off our land (which actually we did like two or three years ago in March of 2007 or 2008 I cant remember) and then building a steel home like this:

http://www.kodiaksteelhomes.com/images/slideshow/1_crestwood_20-1b.jpg

then my husband had a car accident and was put out of work because it messed up his back really bad so those plans were put off for a little while. And when we were originally pricing building the steel home here it was a whole lot less. The model we looked at was around 25,000 and was really similar to that one now I see that model is up to 60,000 or more.

[NeverendingJen]

we're renting right now but are probably buying in the same subdivision this fall or so. We've got 1096 sq ft 3 bdr 2.5 bath single car garage townhome for about 170K

[MamaBee]

My first house that I bought 7 years ago was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath... 1600 sq for $150,000... it was 6 years old when I got it. Then when hubby and I got married, I sold my house (he sold his) and we purchased are current home... 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath... 1670 sq for $219,000... which is 7 years old (this year). We only gained 70 sq feet, but have more of an "executive" home... 6 paneled doors, whirlpool tub in master, master closet, etc. We would love to finish off the basement... that would give us another 700 sq feet or so... just haven't saved the money for it yet. I'd sure if we sold today, we would have to sell for the price we purchased it... ugh.

[heathergw]

we paid $150,000 for a short sale fixer upper... this house, we think, would sell for about $220,000 once fixed up (hard to know because all the houses around here are short sales or foreclosures), but we plan on staying here forever. We're pretty far west of the city where the prices are more reasonable, although, transportation costs kind of make up for it when you end up spending almost 2 hours a day commuting plus the cost.

ETA: it's 3 bedrooms + den, 2 baths and 1700 sq ft.

[Stacey42]

We paid $92,000 in 1997 for a 1800 sqft house on 3 acres in a rural area, built in 1978. It's currently valued at $165,000 in property taxes. Actual cost is hard to determine because it is an underground house. $165,000 is a fairly average price for a house that size. The 2200sq ft homes are more like $180,000 and up with lot size.

[nikkiARNGwife]

We paid 175,000 for our house and a little over 5 acres..the house is 2500 sq feet 3 br/2 1/2 baths and two car garage. It was built in 1991.

[eranslow]

We don't own a house right now - we did when we lived out in CA. Bought a 990 sq ft condo for $227,500 - probably the worse mistake of our lives! lol DH got transferred a year and a half ago so we ended up doing a short sale...got the condo off our hands for $105,000....and that was after living there for 3 yrs. Sacramento got hit REALLY hard by the housing crisis!

[Priscilla]

2200 sq. ft.

Traditional sized TExas lot

suburbs

Backyard is the golf course

Originally asking $230-250 - we paid around $190

[ColleenSwerb]

Threads like this make me sick to my stomach, lol. I need to move out of the NE I think, lol.

[Andrea Gourley]

We paid 175,000 for our house and a little over 5 acres..the house is 2500 sq feet 3 br/2 1/2 baths and two car garage. It was built in 1991.

I just swore. Real rude swear words and I am definitley moving over there, I'm gonna be Nikki's new neighbour :thumbup:

[jessica31876]

Hey Col where in maryland do you live? Im just curious because my husband's whole family lives up there in Maryland. they live in Fort Howard, Baltimore & Dundalk. His uncle lived right next to the Chesapeake Bay. Your house reminded me of some pics his parents had of up there. Ive heard stories from when his uncle passed away and they sold the house it sold for ALOT!!

[nikkiARNGwife]

I just swore. Real rude swear words and I am definitley moving over there, I'm gonna be Nikki's new neighbour :thumbup:

lol! Well we'd love to have you! :)

There are a lot of great things about the South...and land/home prices are definitely one of them :) Especially if you live out in the country like we do

[LibbysMommy]

We paid just under 95000 3.5 years ago for our house. That's pretty typical in the area we're in...it's a rural community. We have 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, basement...1700 sq feet with the basement, detached garage. It's a small lot, so that's a big reason why we were able to get it for the price we did. That and it was for sale by owner (who we knew) so we didn't have to go through realtors.

[jessica31876]

exactly why I wanted to move when property values got so high where we lived. I found a HUGE piece of property in West Virginia with a home and a barn for less then 150,000. We could have sold at that time and moved and it makes me sooo mad we didnt.

Funny thing is not even two blocks from my house (if you jump over the wall they built) they were building 1/2 million dollar custom homes. Those sales sorta froze like two years ago though and the development has been on hold.

lol! Well we'd love to have you! :)

There are a lot of great things about the South...and land/home prices are definitely one of them :) Especially if you live out in the country like we do

[kbbeale]

We have 15 acres with 2 homes (one is a 1700 sqft home on a slab) and the other is a 1800 sqft double wide mobile home. We have a riding arena, 2000sqft barn with tack/feed storage, round pen for riding, etc. We put an in-ground pool in about 4 years ago. We paid around $200,000 back in 2000. We're getting ready to sell and the realtor wants to list at $325,000....so we shall see!!

Kristen

[coopert]

We paid $700,000 for a 2,000 sf 3 bedroom, 3 bath house in 2004. We are currently selling doing a short sale, althought it isn't very short. We have had our buyer since January and are selling for $575,000. The house prices in the rest of the country sound like a dream to us here in California. But I can't imagine ever leaving the state.

[kresta]

Way too much!!! Well, it's worth it now, but it was expensive -- on the water in FL. And it was a complete fixer-upper. Very nice now, but it was really awful when we bought it. With the economy still the way it is, we couldn't get out of it for what we have in it, but we're not looking to move, so, no big deal for now. :)

[jomi]

I life in The Netherlands and the times we were in the States I was shocked by how low house prices are in the US compaired to our prices. If I read this thread it's just another "wow" thing :p

[mummytothree]

4 years ago we paid $76,000 for our house. It's 1675 sq foot: 3 bedrooms, 1 3/4 bath (one bath with tub and shower and the second bath just has a shower stall....no tub), living room, eat in kitchen, office (could be a fourth bedroom), fully finished basement (which we use half as a 4th bedroom and half as a playroom/family room) and one car heated integral garage. We also have just a little over an acre of land on a cul de sac (granted we are the first house but still was less traffic then if we lived on a thru street. Also the main road infront of our house is also a dead end road that ends at a private lake....so little traffic on that road too!!!

ETA: our house was built in 1975

[BrattyMeg]

Our house was a fixer upper too and worth triple what we paid for it 2 years ago. My dh gutted several rooms and renovated almost everything. Our old house was such a lovely home but the market had gone kinda bad while fixing this house up (was intended to resell) so we put both of our homes on the market and decided we'd just live in whichever house didn't sell. Now i'm so thankful we have this home instead of where we were..I LOVE living where we live now.

[Beth Swann]

At the peak of the real estate market, we paid $285K for 1200 sq. feet (3 bedrooms, 1 bath) and almost a half acre lot, which is completely rare in California suburbia. The inside and outside is mostly new (but not done with the greatest skill). Now, it would probably sell for $160K. Originally built in the 1950s.

But we love our neighbors, neighborhood, and we're close to everything we need (shopping, school, church, etc.)

At one point, we almost moved to Utah because you could buy triple the house for a lower price and get a brand new one. But like coopert said, I can't imagine leaving here...California has too much to offer us, except inexpensive housing, LOL!

[ColleenSwerb]

We're NE of Baltimore by about 20 minutes. We're hoping to either move to PA, or to a different county in MD, closer to the Frederick area. We like our home and our neighborhood, but we hate the city of Baltimore. We paid a lot, but it was worth it to us to make the investment at the time instead of continuing to rent and throw money away for a few more years.

Last year my girlfriend bought a home in Pittsburgh for less than $100k. I wanted to punch her in the face. Jordan's Aunt and Uncle have a very large home with an in ground pool (a must for our next house according to Jordan) and if they sold it now it would be cheaper than our place.

The housing market is such a mess, we're not sure when we'll even be able to leave here. We aren't looking to make a HUGE profit on the place, but we are putting some money into the place to make SOME profit on it. It's just gonna be a matter of what the market looks like in 4 or 5 years I suppose. A house down the street from us just sold for $295k. 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and more square footage than ours (about 1900 sq ft).

[Kara]

We bought our house last August, paid $230K for a 50 year old house in decent shape, about 1600 square feet and a GREAT yard. The previous owners had a very - shall we say, flamboyant - decorating style that is totally NOT us - so we have a lot of work to do. Not easy with both of us working full-time and three kids ages 5 and under. Imagine neon yellow walls with pinkish-purple trim in what is now our nursery.

I actually really regret buying it, there's just too much to do and I'd rather have paid the same price for a house a little further out of the city that was newer and needed less work. Oh, and we're in Minnesota.

[jessica31876]

It is down here too Col. In all the housing markets in central Florida its pretty bad. So many developments around me have basically stalled where they were at two years ago. Its sad because they tore out orange groves to build those developments and Id rather look at orange groves then empty weedy lots.

[WalkersMommy]

THis thread makes me want to move! Lol 2 years a go we paid $176,000 for a 1,400sq 1950 rambler, 3 bed, 1.5 bath, 2 car carport. It was in short sale and valued at $209,000, so we got a great deal. It's in nice shape for it's age. I don't even know the lot size, but we live on a very busy street and have barely any yard, but all the other houses we looked at in our price range were dumps so we went with the better house and no yard for now.

[msteiner99]

$375K for a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom home on a very small lot. We're in Minnesota.

[Angie4b1g]

Mine was $190k almost 6 years ago.

[Leila]

If our townhouse were for sale, it would go for around $300K. It's 2149sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 2½ bath, 2 car garage and finished basement. We don't really have a yard, we have common areas that we share with the other three units on our side of the driveway and the apartment buildings next to and behind us.

[jacinda]

Aargh, I entered the top amount, but forgot that would be in New Zealand dollars. Once converted to US dollars it's about $582,000.

We're right on the water, it has 5 bedrooms, 2 lounges (1 being a home theatre), 3 bathrooms, triple garage. Don't ask me the square footage - I wouldn't have a clue. We're in an affluent area though, which is really what put the price up. Totally worth it for the schooling and safety.

[emmasmommy]

we paid $85000 for ours in 2001. It's a 2 bedroom, 1 bath with a full basement and a full upstairs (just one big room)...about 1200 sq. ft. We have almost an acre of land and a detached garage. That's pretty typical for where we live.

[tuneskids]

we are only renting our house, for $1350/month Canadian.

But, the house right next door just went on the market yesterday (sniff, I am sad, I love my neighbours!!), and it's almost a copy of mine (different in small ways). They only legally have two bedrooms, the basement windows aren't to code to have it be a third bedroom (two upstairs identical to mine), I have 3 bedrooms and a den/office (two upstairs, one & den/office downstairs). And they only have one bathroom, where as I have 1.5 (1/2 in my laundry room). They have new siding & new windows though, where as we don't yet.
And they are asking $368,200 Cdn.
http://www.sparwoodrealestate.ca/files/images/105%20PINE%20AVE%20011.thumbnail.jpg
http://www.sparwoodrealestate.ca/node/1622

[Lizzy257]

This thread is making me very unhappy!! :p

House prices are expensive here. Ours is about 1000sq ft, 3 bed, 1.5 baths. Things like basements and garages are unheard of, so it's a pretty small house, on barely enough land to contain it!! Cost approx $330k.

[Megan Turnidge]

We are trying to buy a house (hoping to close this month, but have run into a few problems along the way)... $80,000 for 1,300 sq. ft., 3 bed, 2 bath, on 1.29 acres. The house is 8 years old. :thumbup: The house was a foreclosure, but is in great condition! Just needs new carpet ad some new paint!

[ksbella]

We purchased our 2900 sq. ft 18 month old house just over a year ago for $430K AUS ($384k US) and its 5 bed, 2 bath on a 6900 sq. ft block and we have just gone under contract for sale for $525k AUS ($469,500 US) so we are pretty happy with that! We are looking for something more on acreage so that the kids have more playing room but the prices here on the Sunshine Coast are just ridiculous!!

To be able to by a house like Nikki's on 5 acres and for that price would be just heaven!! Now to convince Stuart to move to the US and we would be set!!

[scrapperjade]

We live in a small town about an hour from a big city and when we bought Saskatchewan was kind of in the slumps economically. We bought our (older) home for $23,500! It was cheaper than our car!! Our mortgage payments are a whopping $275/month.

It's old and smallish (just under 1000 sq ft) and pretty ugly inside (lots of renos done and needing to be done) but it has a HUGE yard. Now that the economy has boomed here, we could probably get $150,000 for it which makes me shake my head because it's not worth that, lol!

[lovely1m]

I don't own a home, but I am hoping to buy a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom condo in a couple of years. It seems the average for me is $140,000 for that in Fargo, ND.

[Paula]

We paid $119k for ours, but it appraises at $152k.

[glumirk]

We're paying $215,000 for ours (appraised at $217,000) 3 br, 1.5 bath, with 1,542 sq ft, 0.11 acres, and an unfinished basement. It was built in 1923 and the current owners have kept immaculate care of it (our inspector was really impressed). Taxes are around $4,000 yearly, but we don't have sales or income tax in NH, so it may be comparable.

[msteiner99]

We're paying $215,000 for ours (appraised at $217,000) 3 br, 1.5 bath, with 1,542 sq ft, 0.11 acres, and an unfinished basement. It was built in 1923 and the current owners have kept immaculate care of it (our inspector was really impressed). Taxes are around $4,000 yearly, but we don't have sales or income tax in NH, so it may be comparable.

No sales or income tax? Wow! Our property taxes are insane (over $7K) and we have both sales and income tax. I think I'm moving to NH! ;)

... and the other thing that is making me shake my head - land around here is so expensive. We were just looking at a small lot in a small town (not even a half acre) and it is $160K! We were looking at lake lots, and those are nearly $400K. Our realtor told us that there was someone who spent $850K just on a small building lot on the lake ... and this isn't even a nice lake! So insane! (and this is rural Minnesota ... not in a big city!)

[ColleenSwerb]

Land is suuuuuuuuuuuper tricky though. A 1 acre lot near our current home goes for $300k. JUST the LOT. A few counties over I found a 33 acre plot of land going for about the same price. Ridiiiiiiiiiiiculous. That's the area we'll be heading to when we decide to build our own home.

[glumirk]

No sales or income tax? Wow! Our property taxes are insane (over $7K) and we have both sales and income tax. I think I'm moving to NH! ;)

... and the other thing that is making me shake my head - land around here is so expensive. We were just looking at a small lot in a small town (not even a half acre) and it is $160K! We were looking at lake lots, and those are nearly $400K. Our realtor told us that there was someone who spent $850K just on a small building lot on the lake ... and this isn't even a nice lake! So insane! (and this is rural Minnesota ... not in a big city!)

haha! They do find ways to throw in extra taxes (like a "view tax"), but I think NH is the least tax-burdened state, and Manchester/Nashua made #7 on the Forbes list of top cities to live in. :) I love it here! Unfortunately people think we are just a liquor and cigarette state, but the big stores on the freeway are just for the people who drive in from other states to escape a sales tax.

Our property taxes are huge compared to Arizona, so both us and our parents were shocked when we showed them the listing.

[~Julie~]

We just bought our home last summer for $185,000. It's a 3 story townhouse, 3 BR, 1.5 bathrooms, finished basement, 1 car garage and it's about 1600 sq ft. We love it here, our neighborhood is almost done so all the construction noises will be over soon. The best part about where we live is the school district and how we are minutes away from pretty much any store we want to go to.

[nun69]

we just bought pors and it is being built....

1. $317,000
2. 3196 sq feet
3. 6 bedrooms
4. 3 full baths
5. Den {which is going to be DH's computer room}
6. open kitchen, dining, living room
7. 2 car garage
8. SMALL LOT! but big enough for the kids to run around in and that's all that counts!

BTW, Mount Vernon, WA....and for this area that is a very good price for that much house :) so we are thrilled! This will be our 1st house~!

[taracotta7]

I didn't post a picture of my house but we have 2700 sq ft on a large corner lot. We paid 192,000. It is 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 living areas and a formal dining. We got lucky with what we got in our town. My town is REALLY proud of their real estate and always is inflated from the surrounding areas. We just happened to find this with a seller that was REALLY needing to get rid of it. It is currently worth about 235,000.

[rach3975]

Wow! Reading house prices from other areas of the country just makes me jealous. We're about 30 minutes outside Washington, DC. Amazing schools, low crime rate, etc. But man, are prices here high!

In '99 we bought a 3 bedroom, 3 level townhouse for about $150,000. We sold it in 2005 (at the height of the boom here) for close to $400,000. It's not like we'd done a lot to it, that's all just the change in the market. Then we bought a 1700 sq ft, 4 bedroom colonial for more than $550,000. Our assessment says it has come down a lot, but when I look through listings comparable homes are showing for only about $40K less than we paid. I plan on us living here until the kids are all grown, so it doesn't really matter either way. Friends of ours bought a house the same time we did that's only about 10 minutes from DC. They paid almost the same amount for a much smaller place, and they had to gut and rebuild their home on top of that.

[dana]

wow - my area is really expensive too (everything we are looking at is over $800,000) - but i used to live in manhattan, so even the really expensive stuff starts to look like a bargain when compared to there (my last apartment there was about 900 sq. feet - one bedroom/two baths - sold for $1,500,000 (!!) - i was just renting! LOL!)

[LeeAndra]

Just an apt here for now, but I know that we've looked into houses in the area, and an 'average' house with 3/4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a garage, and a lot big enough to hold it is usually 225K. That's within the city limits.

Jeff's ex and her husband built a little starter house for 110K (don't ask how we know this! *lol*) a couple years ago in a neighboring city and if we were to get a place, I'm sure it'd be out that way. Jeff thinks he needs land and mature trees.

In my hometown, which is not a huge metropolis, but the only big city within 2 hours in all four directions, I know that an average house is abt 150K-175K if you want to live within the good school district. My sister and her husband bought a fixer upper there for abt 115K a couple years ago (all sorts of weird stuff in it --- spiral staircase in the LR leading to a second story loft, a gigantic non-functioning wood burning stove in the LR, etc.) that has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a garage, and a small fenced in yard, but they are planning on selling it in the next couple years to move into the good school district.

[livelys]

I life in The Netherlands and the times we were in the States I was shocked by how low house prices are in the US compaired to our prices. If I read this thread it's just another "wow" thing :p

Completely agree with you! The UK house prices are just as silly - we're going to extend out home as we just can't begin to aford to move.

[kim21673]

The subdivision we live in now the houses sell for 250-300. Our house is 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and has a partial basement AND crawlspace. We have a two car garage...most houses in our neighborhood do not have a basement...we are one of the lucky ones!!!!

We are looking to move a bit to the west of where we live now....houses are bigger...most have 4 bedrooms and 2.5-3 baths and 3 car garages...the house there go for 450-700....we are hoping to buy within the next few years b/c we have outgrown our house.

[Angie4b1g]

I don't even understand how people make the mortgage payments on the $500k+ houses. My husband makes a fair amount of money, but if we had a $5k+ monthly mortgage payment, I'm not sure how we'd even eat. :confused:

I'll stay in Ohio in my little "cheap" $200k house. lol

[neenee]

Wow! I am shocked at some of the prices.

Ours is $215k (or was...not sure now...I am sure the value went down) and is 2955 sq. ft. 4 bedroom, 2 living, huge kitchen, dining, office. Master is down, other 3 bedrooms and one living upstairs along with my laundry room upstairs which I LOVE! We have a huge community pool, workout center with plenty of equipment and a community center that we can rent free of charge.

We have a very tiny yard though. Things I don't like about that: I can hear my neighbors conversations if they are outside and I'm near a window....way too close. Things I do like: very little yard maintenance and that is a major plus when DH works 65 hours a week on avg. LOL

That being said.....I want out of here SO FREAKING BAD I can't stand it. Not so much the home just that I want to see the world. I have never lived outside of a 45 mile radius. All of your beautiful homes in beautiful areas make me drool :(