So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[tonyb]

J ... Needless to say, real estate is incredibly inexpensive in our part of the country.

Must be. Such property would be well into the millions in Seattle, or Denver.

 

[vitanola]

Well, not here. I doubt that the big house, nice as it is, would break $200K should we offer it for sale. The little Bungalow might approach $65K. The odd thing is that (other than rubbish removal) government services are good, taxes are reasonable, jobs are not scarce, good schools abound, and the two towns are quite pleasant (and generally inexpensive) places to live.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Jeez. A bungalow will run you at least $150G here, if you can find one that hasn't been bought up by a speculator and turned into an "Air BNB" short term rental.

Wait till the speculators and the gentrifiers show up. You won't be able to buy a shipping container for less than six figures.

 

[vitanola]

I noticed an interesting, though rough appearing, Greek Revival cottage out on Old County Road in Rockland ME which has recently been listed for $46,700. The rood ridge is not sagging (a good sign on Greek Revival houses). The interior is dirty and worn, but from the listing photographs it would seem to have potential. Is Blackinton Corners too far out of town to be desirable?

"Wait till the speculators and the gentrifiers show up. You won't be able to buy a shipping container for less than six figures."

Well, then the Loungers had better get busy buying up property. A few dedicated antiquarians could greatly affect the whole tenor of even a town as large as our county seat.

 

[Stearmen]

Just over 5000 square feet. The house was built (about fifteen years after our village was settled) by the fellow who owned the Lumber and Flouring mills on the river. Of course he lost the house and the mills to the bank after the "Crime of '73"... There is more than a little bit of "frontier carpentry" in this outwardly impressive house.

A few years ago, during the late housing crisis, I purchased a charming little Craftsman Bungalow out of foreclosure. I subsequently have renovated that cottage. We had intended to move to the smaller house and turn the big house into rental property, but the Bungalow is not suited to folks with limited mobility, so it appears that for the time being we will be staying put here in our brick mausoleum. Needless to say, real estate is incredibly inexpensive in our part of the country.

In our worst neighborhood, 5,000 square feet would set you back over three quarter of a million, and go up to over 1 million in a fair neighborhood!

 

[ChiTownScion]

We're putting our North Woods cabin on the market this spring. Gonna lose money from what we purchased it for- not much, and with the business deductions and depreciation that we've claimed over the years it really has been a decent investment- but still, a loss. Nice property, but the fiefdom politics of condo ownership has gotten to be too much.

My wife expects to retire in four years, and we hope to sell our home, downsize a bit, and move to the Portland Oregon area. Goal is no mortgage, and perhaps a small cash surplus. If all goes well, we intend to buy a relatively low maintenance home or townhouse and do a lot of travelling. I'm a 4th generation Chicagoan... never really lived anywhere else, but am totally psyched on enjoying the Pacific Northwest.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I noticed an interesting, though rough appearing, Greek Revival cottage out on Old County Road in Rockland ME which has recently been listed for $46,700. The rood ridge is not sagging (a good sign on Greek Revival houses). The interior is dirty and worn, but from the listing photographs it would seem to have potential. Is Blackinton Corners too far out of town to be desirable?

"Wait till the speculators and the gentrifiers show up. You won't be able to buy a shipping container for less than six figures."

Well, then the Loungers had better get busy buying up property. A few dedicated antiquarians could greatly affect the whole tenor of even a town as large as our county seat.

Old County Road is not a particularly desirable area -- it's up near the dump, so you catch a nice sulphur smell in the summer, which can be pretty suffocating when the air is heavy, and the road itself is used as a bypass around the downtown area by heavy trucks on their way to make deliveries at the big-box stores over in the next town. On the plus side, the road has recently been rebuilt and strengthened to bear up under the weight of the trucks -- up until a couple years ago it was so broken up it was like driving over the face of the moon. It's pretty easy to skid off the road in the winter and end up in one of the water-filled abandoned limestone quarries.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Aaah, sulphur is "Schwefel". Now, I got it!!

 

[vitanola]

We're putting our North Woods cabin on the market this spring. Gonna lose money from what we purchased it for- not much, and with the business deductions and depreciation that we've claimed over the years it really has been a decent investment- but still, a loss. Nice property, but the fiefdom politics of condo ownership has gotten to be too much.

My wife expects to retire in four years, and we hope to sell our home, downsize a bit, and move to the Portland Oregon area. Goal is no mortgage, and perhaps a small cash surplus. If all goes well, we intend to buy a relatively low maintenance home or townhouse and do a lot of travelling. I'm a 4th generation Chicagoan... never really lived anywhere else, but am totally psyched on enjoying the Pacific Northwest.

The Pacific Northwest is truly lovely, but the little college town which is our county seat has its good points. A charming place on a quiet street lined with century old maples, in good structural condition, though cosmetically a bit mauled, may be had for less than $30K. A relatively inexpensive renovation would make it in to a spacious and comfortable home with a good deal of antique charm. The town which I call "Gopher Prairie" is also but a two-and-a-half hour drive from the City of Big Shoulders.

 

[ChiTownScion]

The Pacific Northwest is truly lovely, but the little college town which is our county seat has its good points. A charming place on a quiet street lined with century old maples, in good structural condition, though cosmetically a bit mauled, may be had for less than $30K. A relatively inexpensive renovation would make it in to a spacious and comfortable home with a good deal of antique charm. The town which I call "Gopher Prairie" is also but a two-and-a-half hour drive from the City of Big Shoulders.

Sounds like a nice place!

 

[vitanola]

Sounds like a nice place!

Nice enough. The college is, of course, simultaneously both a cultural resource and a force pushing the town toward a rather rigid doctrinaire political conservatism, but the heavy handedness of the out-of-town board of the (otherwise excellent) school does lead to a rather strong liberal reaction in local politics. The end result is always interesting and generally more than acceptable.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Nice enough. The college is, of course, simultaneously both a cultural resource and a force pushing the town toward a rather rigid doctrinaire political conservatism, but the heavy handedness of the out-of-town board of the (otherwise excellent) school does lead to a rather strong liberal reaction in local politics. The end result is always interesting and generally more than acceptable.

From that description, I'm guessing, Hillsdale College in Hillsdale.

Funny story about that one: a long time friend's daughter went there, and one year we got the usual chirpy holiday "family news" newsletter from them. They were quite proud of the fact that the school, "..receives no government funding." Our reaction fell somewhere between a chortle and a guffaw: she's a public school teacher, he's a cop... and neither of them have earned their way via anything but government paychecks for the last four decades. Got even funnier when the daughter graduated: she went to work for a public library.

 

[tonyb]

Well, not here. I doubt that the big house, nice as it is, would break $200K should we offer it for sale. The little Bungalow might approach $65K. The odd thing is that (other than rubbish removal) government services are good, taxes are reasonable, jobs are not scarce, good schools abound, and the two towns are quite pleasant (and generally inexpensive) places to live.

Add a zero to both and you got Seattle prices. Seriously.

 

[Edward]

I hear those of you hit by living in areas with high real estate values. They announced recently that there's not a single borough left here in London with an average property price of less than GBP300,000. (And London still has some really ropey parts of town you might not fancy living in.) I was incredibly fortunate in that I bought my lease while I could still just about afford it: a year later, and that would not have been the case. As I stare down the last decade of my mortgage, I'm very aware that I'm one of shockingly few people in my social circle who will ever "own" my own place.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

More annoying than trivial but I can't figure out where the stink bug smell is coming from in my truck to save my life.

 

[GHT]

I hear those of you hit by living in areas with high real estate values. They announced recently that there's not a single borough left here in London with an average property price of less than GBP300,000. (And London still has some really ropey parts of town you might not fancy living in.) I was incredibly fortunate in that I bought my lease while I could still just about afford it: a year later, and that would not have been the case. As I stare down the last decade of my mortgage, I'm very aware that I'm one of shockingly few people in my social circle who will ever "own" my own place.

There are two sides to that coin. When my wife and I made the move from Forest Gate to Wanstead, much was said about could we afford it. For out of towners, Londoners and foreigners, East London is the magnet for immigrants because it's the most unfashionable, least desirable district to live in, as a result, house prices were always depressed. Not anymore, the demand for property in the Capital is so great that, as Edward pointed out, even the most undesirable locations, (in London terms,) are costing more than a King's ransom.
East London might be the last choice of the well heeled, but it does have delightful pockets of highly desirable properties, namely in the districts of Chingford, Wanstead and Woodford. If you are lucky enough to have bought a place in any of those districts, when the price was much lower, well today you would be sitting on a goldmine. And yours truly owned a detached property in Wanstead until a couple of years ago.
Now I reside in a place with a much slower pace of life, having cashed in on my Wanstead home, I now live in a property of much greater dimensions and at a fraction of the cost, the balance of the sale has provided a very comfortable retirement nest egg, thank you very much. Only problem is: You can take the boy out of London, but you can't take London out of the boy.

 

[Fading Fast]

There are two sides to that coin. When my wife and I made the move from Forest Gate to Wanstead, much was said about could we afford it. For out of towners, Londoners and foreigners, East London is the magnet for immigrants because it's the most unfashionable, least desirable district to live in, as a result, house prices were always depressed. Not anymore, the demand for property in the Capital is so great that, as Edward pointed out, even the most undesirable locations, (in London terms,) are costing more than a King's ransom.
East London might be the last choice of the well heeled, but it does have delightful pockets of highly desirable properties, namely in the districts of Chingford, Wanstead and Woodford. If you are lucky enough to have bought a place in any of those districts, when the price was much lower, well today you would be sitting on a goldmine. And yours truly owned a detached property in Wanstead until a couple of years ago.
Now I reside in a place with a much slower pace of life, having cashed in on my Wanstead home, I now live in a property of much greater dimensions and at a fraction of the cost, the balance of the sale has provided a very comfortable retirement nest egg, thank you very much. Only problem is: You can take the boy out of London, but you can't take London out of the boy.

Nice to hear a good "overpriced" real estate story - glad it is making a comfortable retirement for you. In truth, since every high-priced transaction has both a buyer and seller, there should be a lot more good stories out there than there seem to be.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I drove to a music-event in the nearby music-(gymnasium)school and they let no further people in, because the hall was definitely crowded. Woohoo!

So, I drove home, went to the drugstore and finally bought the Bio-chocolate, I planned to buy. That's, what I deserved, now!

A bar of rice-nougat-crisp, wholemilk-hazelnut, wholemilk and fine bitterchocolate.

 

[Trenchfriend]

And a tasty mug of coffee turkish, for dessert.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You sure wear your turtlenecks high!