Posted on 11/29/2006 11:52:14 AM PST by RockinRight
Low crime, reasonable commute, and good schools—who says you can't find a nice house in a suburb without paying a fortune? Buying your first house? Fleeing the city for a life within your means? Here's a novel idea: Move to a suburb where you won't break the bank or get your car broken into. A community with reasonable home prices and decent schools. A suburb close to your city job, with a lively downtown of its own. For hedge-fund managers, plastic surgeons, corporate lawyers, and other people who earn millions a year, choosing a suburb is not about affordability but convenience and, frankly, prestige. These folks don't balk at high prices or look for fixer-uppers. They can pay for prime real estate on the most exclusive streets in the fanciest towns with the best schools. If they want to live in Greenwich or Brookline or Lake Forest or Malibu, they can. Unfortunately, most people aren't so lucky. Most people have to balance their real estate aspirations with reality—compromising on acreage or culture in exchange for better schools or lower property taxes.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
Then go on to say With a median home price of $493,900, life in Sharon is also much more economical than in the affluent communities of Brookline, Newton, and other towns closer to Boston.
I don't consider $493,900 the least-bit affordable for most families on a 50 - 60k income. Unless they already own a home with lots of equity, and the first part of the article even mentions "first home." The entire article is based on affordable housing then they talk about all these places where the houses cost 10 times the annual income of the target families.
You forget that prices like this are not unreasonable for a $50-60K annual income. These buyers are not expected to even have a down payment. They get these homes through interest only loans and have mortgage payments half of what you suggest. The latest statistics say that 40% of home purchases are made with these exotic loans. Also, those exotic loans are providing more $$ for buyers so that bids up the housing market to the point where only exotic mortgages can get you into a decent home.
Family income...two-career earnings....
"I think for most people, 200G is the most they should spend on a new home. Any more is just wretched excess."
That kinda money would get you a rough lot in my neighborhood.
For another $400 I could at least spend the winter in a Sears tool shed.
Not interest-only, negative amortization. The payment is LESS than the interest, which means the balance goes up.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
I know one guy - 'course he got lucky. Bought his land and built his house for around 200K with no one around him. Suddenly, a whole slew of rich people start moved into the neighborhood, the value of his house skyrockets to ~500K. Now he's looking at another place for around 700K...of course he'd have to sell the other house first to get some sort of downpayment.
We don't want to be in a situation where we both HAVE to work.
Quite the contrary. To the MSM, America is still a nation of soup lines, and anything above 50K is rich!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
">Spikey collapses on the floor and begins to convulsing at most idiotic comment in history.<"
History ain't over yet.
"We don't want to be in a situation where we both HAVE to work."
Some round about way to the above...
all I was stating is a lot of family incomes in DC area at $150K and up...the reason houses are affordable at $500K....
And with a prepayment penalty, too, I bet!
There are people who live in West Virginia and commute to DC every day.
Herndon, VA to downtown DC.
Even on the "S" bus, which wandered all over the place, from the Metro to Herndon, four hours a day? Might take that long driving. When I lived in Herndon, it was rarely more than 45 minutes each way, especially with the Express buses, but then, that was some ten years ago. Maybe the Metro is much less reliable than it once was.
Now getting from Herndon to Dulles Airport, that was a tough commute. Or expensive. Sometimes it was tough AND expensive.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
So they're even more stupid than we thought.
That's 100% true. Although even with the "exotic" loans, said example family is stretched to the limit - instead of 2 grand they might be paying about 1200, but that payment goes up every year on the loan he was talking about.
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