Mrs. Bee and I live in Brooklyn, and it would cost us over $1 million to buy a decent sized apartment. So we are renters for now! Maybe eventually we can buy a whole brownstone in up-and-coming neighborhood and rent out the ground floor or something. But that seems like a lot of effort when we're busy with baby and Hellobee.
How much does a starter home cost where you live? When do you think you'll buy a home? Or if you've already bought it, when did you first purchase it?
pomegranate / 3980 posts
We could get a decent 4br 3bth house for less than $200,000. We are going to try to purchase a house in the spring 
grapefruit / 4056 posts
We bought a home 2 years ago, brand new from the builder. It is a bi-level, with 2 bed 2 baths up, and 2 bed 1 bath down, hardwood floors, granite countertops, attached heated and drywalled garage for just under $300K. We had to do our own landscaping.
hostess / wonderful apple seed / 16729 posts
I was able to find a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home for about $190k- 15 miles south of Seattle. In Seattle would be $500-800K (for a home). For a 2 bed condo would 300-400K, I think? North of Seattle, you could find a starter home about 300-400K.
coffee bean / 40 posts
Boo 
Hate this topic. It would be in the mid 400k's where I am and that is pushing it! Hence why we are currently in my parent's in-law apartment in their home!
blogger / watermelon / 14218 posts
I'll just say, DAMN! to the first two posters. Sigh. We live in the suburbs of Boston, and real estate is crazy high here (probably only second to New York City). For a decent 3 br, 2.5 bath home (what we'd be looking for) in a town with a good school system you need at least $500k. We'll be renting until we can sell our city condo (which we rent out).
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
The cheapest in my neighborhood is around $700k (suburbs of NY). We bought our house in 2009 in order to start our family. We wanted to be settled before TTC
squash / 13764 posts
We're also in NYC, and like MrBee said,, it's craaazy expensive We're actually thinking of moving to Brooklyn because even though it's so expensive, it's still cheaper than Manhattan!
grapefruit / 4819 posts
Housing prices in Australia are out of control - to buy a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom unit (not a house, an apartment) within about 45 minutes drive of Brisbane, you're looking at $500,000 AUD (about $530,000 USD). Hence, why we're renting until we make a decision about where we want to live permanently.
apricot / 498 posts
We have a 2 bedroom home in a fantastic neighborhood 2 miles north of downtown Seattle. Cost? $700k. There are other neighborhoods that are less expensive but Seattle is very expensive to live in.
pear / 1769 posts
In Texas is is pretty reasonable. You can get a decent starter home in the suburbs of the major cities for around 200k and the smaller cities it is even cheaper.
pear / 1586 posts
We bought our house (a 3 bedroom 1 bath) in 2009 for ~130,000. We live maybe ten minutes from Providence. We got a great deal. Prices vary and are usually topped in between $400,000-500,000 in nearby towns in MA.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
Our 3 bed 2.5 bath, 3 floor condo was 130k. In GA, 300-400k will buy you a mansion. -.-
cherry / 230 posts
^Yep^. I live about two hours southeast of ATL, and around here, a nice starter home can be bought for $100,000/$150,000. Now a starter home that maybe needs a little TLC? $80-$90K.
Judging from the PPs, I don't think I'll ever move out of the south. The cost of living here is soooo much cheaper.
Y'all move down now, ya hear?! Rotfl!
cherry / 190 posts
Wooooooooow! I mean, I watch enough House Hunters to get an idea about how crazy expensive homes are in other areas, and I keep thinking maybe you all are paid a lot more? IDK. A typical 2/1 in our podunk town is about $80K. We paid $117 for our 3/2, and it's 1700 square feet with a decent backyard. I've learned from HGTV that I never want to move to California or New England 
GOLD / apricot / 337 posts
I always cover my eyes when reading these threads because NYC is so expensive, but I can't imagining living anywhere else. I grew up here and most of my family is here. That being said, we started off in a condo in an up and coming 'hood in Queens (5 minutes from Manhattan) before a lot of development booms at ~$500K. Though we dream about retiring in a Brooklyn Heights brownstone.
pomelo / 5628 posts
350k min (San Diego). Luckily, we already have a house, but it's definitely tough for those starting out. 350 only works in a few areas...most are much higher...
cherry / 153 posts
We're in Central California and you can find a decent starter home for under $150K, for sure. My cousin actually just bought an older home that needs some cosmetic work for $97k.
We're definitely planning on buying sometime in the next few years. Since Hubs moved here from Canada, he still has to establish American credit before we can buy. In the meantime, we're living in a home that my dad owns rent-free, so we're able to put our extra money toward saving for a down payment.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
Jenna: one way to easily establish American credit via credit score is to have your husband become an authorized signatory on your credit card. Your credit score becomes his credit score.
We have the same issue, DH doesn't have his SSN yet, but he's been an a.s. on my credit card since we were married.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
It depends on the area in Raleigh. In Northeast Raleigh, you can get a 3br/2. 5ba home on .25ac for $160–175. The same home in North Raleigh is $200k+. In Brier Creek, $230k+. Downtown, forget about it. $500k+.
pineapple / 12526 posts
We currently rent a 3bd, 2.5bth home with ~1600sq ft for £950, which is about $1600/month. To get a home equivalent to what we currently rent, it would cost us somewhere between $500,000-750,000.
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
We live an hour outside Boston and bought our home for $340k (3 bedroom, 2.5 bath). But you can definitely go cheaper and we were on the higher end. My good friends got a house only 5 minutes from us for $220k. And if you went with a condo, you could probably find one for $100-$150k.
We bought our house is 2009, right before we got married. Though with the housing market dropping in our area, our house currently isn't valued for as much as we paid for it.
grapefruit / 4817 posts
I live in Central Florida. You can easily buy a starter home for $80K. $200K would buy you a really nice 4 bedroom house, and $350K would buy you a mini mansion. Everything is so cheap here from all the foreclosures. It's really sad.
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22646 posts
We bought our 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 3,000 sq. ft. house for $250K in 2009. Starter homes can go as low as $60,000 in decent neighborhoods... the one advantage of being in the suburbs of Detroit.
kiwi / 678 posts
@MrsJYW We're in Toledo, so we're super cheap as well! My friend bought a pretty nice 3 bedroom in our neighborhood for $43,000 earlier this year. We'll probably move to the suburbs when the kids are school age, though, since Toledo Public Schools suck, and we'll probably pay between 80-150,000 when we buy.
cherry / 153 posts
@Looch-- My credit score is awful. I made terrible choices right out of high school and I've just finished paying off credit card debt from when I was 19. I definitely don't want my husband to have my credit score.
As a side note, our children will be taught the importance of managing money responsibly-- a skill I had to teach myself after it was too late.
pear / 1664 posts
Oh gosh, I can't believe the home prices in some of your areas! Our home prices in Grand Forks are somewhat high for the uppermidwest, but you could buy a nice 1200-1500 sq foot 2 or 3 bedroom home, probably with a 1 car garage, for $110-$130K here. $350k would buy you almost any house in town--in fact you would be hard pressed to find one costing that much unless you built it yourself.
grapefruit / 4400 posts
We're in Orange County-- "normal" OC neighborhoods would be around $300-$350k for a starter home. We paid slightly more for that in November of last year.
grapefruit / 4049 posts
as a New Yorker, this topic depresses me. we don't even watch HGTV anymore because we get so jealous about the prices in other areas, as mentioned above. we couldn't ever settle in any other city that's not in NY, CA or HI though.
currently, we are somewhat happy renting in NYC for now... we will probably buy in CA in a year or two though. Expensive there too, but much better since our families are there. We've been looking at 2-4 bedroom houses around 2,000 sq ft for anywhere from $500K to $900K. I do like that there is a large diversity of neighborhoods to choose from in Southern California (LA and OC).
honeydew / 7968 posts
we have a house in richmond area, 4 br, 2.5 baths, 2400+sq ft for $270K. lots more house for the price the further you are from major cities. (i don't consider richmond a major city).
hostess / wonderful grape / 20803 posts
Man I am jealous of all these great deals! We live in Boston and a 2 bedroom condo costs 400-500k! Single family homes are kind of out of the question (at least for us!) unless you are willing to move to the burbs. We bought a 2 bedroom condo about 2.5 years ago and plan to live there for another few years, then sell or rent it.
persimmon / 1341 posts
We're pretty lucky that here in small town, Kansas our 2 bed/1 bath bungalow with a good size kitchen and living room as well as a mud room and laundry cost us right around $80,000 5 years ago when my husband bought it. It also has a nice, big backyard and a single car, detached garage.
We're house shopping now at looking at 3-4 bedroom/2-2.5 bath houses with room for a shop and will probably spend anywhere from $130-165 depending the size of the lot and the condition of the house.
I just posted on another thread that we HAVE to have a new house before a baby because we have no space but reading all these posts definitely makes me appreciate where we live and the space we have.
pear / 1837 posts
We're in a suburb of DC and while our house is nice, the neighborhood and schools are kind of crap. We paid $325K... when we want to move to a house in a decent school district, I imagine we'll probably budget $450-600K.
pomegranate / 3329 posts
A decent home, nice sized that doesn't need work will cost you between $225,000 and $350,000. A smaller home is about $190,000 - $215,000.
What we want (5 acres, a shop, clean and updated, 4-5 bdrms, 2200+sq ft) will cost us about $350,000-$450,000.
cherry / 166 posts
Where we live in rural NE Ohio, you can get a decent starter home for about $85,000 to $125,000, depending on how much work needs done/how much land.
We just looked at a great colonial, kind of in the country (neighbors pretty close by) with just under 3 acres. For three bedrooms, 2 full baths, 2 car garage, 1800 sq ft, and a full basement the listing price was $139,900. We would have put an offer on it but our house needs a few things fixed before we can sell for what we need to get out of it and the house is not 100% what we want (more land/trees & less neighbors/traffic).
We are lucky in that even though our house is very small, we don't NEED to buy a new house yet. However, we are looking and if something catches our eye, we'll take a closer look. We don't want to settle.
I'm also thinking we very lucky to be living where we live! Some of your housing prices are crazy high!
GOLD / pomelo / 5167 posts
We purchased our first home back in 2009. At first we wanted to buy something 175 000 - 200 000$ but in our neighbourhood (which is up and coming and actually getting more and more expensive) it wasn't worth it.
So we went a little over budget but got the house we instantly fell in love with for 224K. Seeing it was our first home and all we opted for a longer mortgage, but I can't wait to renew to lower it from 35 years (no longer available in Canada) to a 20 year maybe even 15.
I love my house (split level) and even though it's not very big, I want to live in it for more than 10 years. I want my kids to grow up in it. Sure it's small but its do-able, and yes we will need to renovate the kitchen and upstairs bathroom but that won't be for another 5 years.
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts
Wow, I guess where we live it's pretty cheap. I'm in the Tampa, FL area. We just bought a house about 6 months ago, 3 bed 2 bathroom. It was about $135,000, short sale. It's not a fancy neighborhood, but it's a very artsy fartsy community and has good schools so I love it!
pea / 22 posts
It really does vary. I live in West/Central Florida and you can purchase a bank owned, beautiful property for as low as 90k-110k, then drive 10 minutes in either direction and purchase a beautiful starter home for 200k-250k, and THEN drive 5 minutes from the bank owned property a block away from the water and spend millions.
It's crazy. Our budget is around 100k, so I guess we can go with that figure.
pomegranate / 3032 posts
We live in the northern suburbs of Philadelphia and we purchased our 1950's 1300 sq ft 3 brdm, 1 bath home for 230k 2 years ago. Currently our home value is just under 200k - thanks crappy economy! Where may parents live in South Jersey most areas are like 200-400k. when my parents built their house in 1983 they paid 72k.
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