LOL!!
Make no mistake, there are really great things to do around the City; excellent dining, sailing, the symphony and the museums...but if you're house-poor, well...you stay on the porch.
I'm just happy to have my 50-year old hut in Concord. Crazy thing is, I have neighbors with the same floorplan as mine and they converted their garage to living space to get up to 1200sq ft. Well, they just listed their house at $485,000!!
With the way the market is going, out here, I won't be surprised if they get over $500,000; almost every property gets bid up by competeing buyers.
It's almost enough to get me to sell, move to someplace like Kansas City, buy one house and an apartment building and become a landlord.
In the Dallas/Fort worth area, $500,000 would get you a humongous house w/at least an acre of land...or a lakeside plot with a boat house...
But, alas, there is no ocean, beaches, mountains ---it is quite a trade-off...
You live in Concord? That's where I grew up.
My childhood home that my parents sold for $50,000 is likely well over $800,000 by now. It's nuts.
My brand new house in Texas is about 1550 sq. ft, the smallest in the neighborhood. It cost $92,500. Of course over the years, the air conditioning, and to a lessor extent electric heating, bill will make up much of the difference. :)