so yeah, i just bought my first house. ----, i wish i had done this two years ago, house prices here doubled/some tripled in the last two years. now i have a garage to work on my car, but no money to spend on parts :P. i came in too late to make any money investing into real estate here since the market leveled off (median price of a house is now 300k, was 140k two years ago). either way, i figure i can build up some equity instead of throwing money away on rent. kind of like investing into stock that you know will only go up.

well, who else here owns a house? also, how is the market in your area? i know if i lived in cali i could never have afforded that ----. ----, my grandparents sold some small *** old house on stilts on the side of a steep *** hill in the bay area for 600k. but i hear real estate in the southern states is cheap as hell, and that you can get a large house on a couple of acres of land for around 100k. i also hear arizona and texas have reasonable prices on real estate. also, im kind of ghetto and want to do house modifications myself if i can learn how. if you got any links to some good home improvement forums/websites then post up.

 

We own our home and prices in CT have about leveled off. We have a little Cape style house and small yard. Since we bought it 2 years ago we have already gain 30K on the price we bought it at. I don't have a garage, that is the only draw back. We may sell in a few years, then it I will get a house with an oversized 2 car garage.

 

The reason the housing market down south (except for a few local areas) is a little softer than it is out west is average pay. I was in LA once for work and they were paying the install crew out there $37 per hour.About 3 months later I was in FL and a crew doing the same thing was getting $16 . Even at $37 per hour most of those guys didn't have a house because they couldn't afford one. I'm in MN and prices have been going up for a long time but it must be slowing down because its taking longer to sell houses. You can still get a nice house within driving distance to the metro area for $200,000.

 

Where I live its still very CHEAP! I inherited 5 acres a few years back and own a 3/2 house with a 3 car garage. All paid for 64k I guess pinching pennies paid off in my younger years. Its not a brick house like most in FL but it does just fine. Not the biggest at 2800 square foot but I could turn around tomorrow and sell it for a profit. On the other hand housing in the neighboring cities is outrageous in prices. A buddy of mine just sold his for 320k and bought it for 205k 2 years ago! Insane the way houses are going in the Fort Myers/ Cape area. I live out in the sticks. No Wal-Mart, no movie theater, not even a bowling alley lol!

 

where i live in MN nice decent houses are 300K+. so me and my bro went to another city to buy. as of now theres just a hole. hopefully haha havent went to check oh and the house that we got ended up to be 292k for a nice one

 

We bought a 1300 sq ft house 7 years ago for $98,000 here in Phoenix. That house is now worth $212,000, the place we want to move into, is going to cost us $340,000. Now if we could just find it!

Craig

 

my dad built this house for 100 thousand in the late 70's early 80's. he is now asking 800 thousand. we have had several offers, not to mention an offer for a million dollers for a property in greece. and the property in greece is just some mountain property with no house on it. lol.

 

1700ish sq. ft townhouse in MN. 167,000 brand new last September. I haven't been paying attention to the market.

 

I own a house... our market here in NM is still growing pretty strong; you can get a nice 3br 2 bath here for around 150k (Albuquerque). Still worth investing in. Also try investing in condos--you can rent them out and turn a nice profit.

 

my girl and i bought our townhouse about 1 1/2 years ago and we have doubled our money (200k to 400k) and the ---- is still going up i just saw a report on the local news and they said the average price for a house in SAN DIEGO is 500k, like quick crx said.. i like to think of it as a nice invesetment