-
Absolutely not.
-
Yes, where I live 300K you could build a nice house or buy in an established neighborhood in the school district we want (which is a highly rated one.)
-
Ummmm no. It wouldn't even get you a studio apartment.
But where I grew up it would get you a pretty nice 4 bedroom house.
-
I guess it depends on what you consider nice. Move-in ready and updated? Then no.
We are house hunting right now and looking to spend 350k or less. That's going to give us a fixer upper--something that likely needs a kitchen remodel, new flooring, new millwork, etc. We haven't even been able to find one with a 4th bedroom--most of the ones we are looking at have 3 (we have 3 kids!). Maybe we will need to save for a while (live with my parents for longer than anticipated) so we can get closer to the high 300s/400k range.
For example: this is a house we wanted to buy. 325k. Super outdated, but in a good neighborhood, small view of the water, across the street from a huge park, but bad schools (we'd do private). But it was definitely a diamond in the rough! Would've been awesome with some elbow grease.
So in my book, a house with good bones that we can turn into our own is "nice." Because anything turn key is out of our price range!
-
Yep, I have one of the nicer homes in town and I spent 2/3 of that. 2700 sq ft, 5 bedroom (though one is tiny) 3 bath on 3 acres. School is fine; it is where both of us graduated from.
-
For that in my town you could get a nice 2BR, 1BA townhouse in a mediocre school district. You really need to be in the 400s to have something decent, and you're still not in a great school district or have a great commute.
For towns with better schools and better commutes it's double and triple your budget.
-
Nope! not even close
-
Yep! You could get a really nice house in a great school district for that.
-
No, not even close.
-
Not in my actual neighborhood or most of the surrounding ones, but if we were willing to have a longer commute, then definitely. This is why we don't own a house at this time...too spoiled by the short commute from our apartment
-
Yes!
Our house was 200K (2000q ft) and the high school is #10 in the state while both the elementary and middle school are are rated 8/9.
Major con being that the diversity is 2% since it's an affluent predominantly white neighborhood. Slightly worried about my son's experience in school since he will be a US born Black Hispanic Male (both me and my husband were born and raised in Puerto Rico) but hoping that by the time he goes to kindergarten in 6 years the diversity will have increased a bit.
-
I think the best school districts in the bay area are looking at palo alto (Standford College Campus) and cupertino (Apple campus) - also los altos (though I don't know much about what's there).
This might sound crazy but I think if your income was 300k (aka what you make yearly) you *might* be able to RENT there. It's crazy right now. Bananas!
-
@Mrs Green Grass: @swurlygurl: that's why when we moved to the Central Valley, DH and I said, we can't get used to these prices because we're not living her forever! We are closing in a home back on the coast, but further north than our old stomping grounds.
to the original question: where I live now, yes, you can get a nice (new!) house in a good district for $300K
where we bought a house, you need almost double that for a decent (but much smaller!) house. The district is awesome though!
-
In our city, you'd have to go to the high 300ks to get a nice 3bdrm (or higher, obviously). But if you go 10 minutes or so outside of town, or to any of the surrounding little towns, you could probably get something for the high 200ks.
-
Nope. Cheapest living situation in my zip code is $355K for a 1 bed/1 bath condo. Next zip code over has some mobile homes on the other side of the freeway for under $200K, but there's sex offenders living in there.
-
@Raindrop: after talking to my girlfriend who lives in the city, I shocked that anyone can afford to live there! The salaries she was talking about blew my mind and yet these people live in 1-2 bedroom apartments for $3000-5000/month!
-
@Rainbow Sprinkles: I would love that house! The front yard, and the pink tree!!!
-
@My Only Sunshine: We are in the Midwest too! $300k would put you on the lake in a more than decent house in my town! I like to think I live in a pretty nice house and we paid less than $200k for it.
In other news, I love small Midwest cities.
-
Nah, you need a lot more than that here
-
@birdofafeather: I know it's crazy pants!!
-
Sadly, no. For about 4x that, you could buy a (very) small apartment that would be tight for a family of four. To buy an actual house (brownstone/rowhouse), you'd need to at least add an extra 0 to that number. Which is why we probably ultimately won't buy in the neighborhood but will head to the suburbs....got to love NYC.
-
We live in an area where the cost of living is pretty average and that would buy you a really nice house! Maybe my standards are lower haha. Im really surprised at how many people couldnt live in a home at that price point. Maybe we just have a lot of urban moms on here?
-
@bluestriped bee: oh yes. You could get a beautiful house on that budget! Here are some that are within a few miles of our house in North Carolina
ETA: Budget 275-280,000
-
@babynumber1: My family is all in North Carolina and it just kills me.....gorgeous golf course homes and communities with pools and amazing schools!!! :::Sigh::: someday we'll tear ourselves away from this city!
-
@babynumber1: maybe we are just spoiled here? Thats what you can get close to me as well.
-
@Mrs. Lion: i just ran a quick search and anything under $325K is 1-2 bedrooms, a mobile home or apartment (so all have additional HOAs or something and no yards) and mostly in the not as desirable parts of town.
-
@Mrs. Lion: @babynumber1: I'm in NC too, and I'm blown away by some of these answers! I was sitting here thinking maybe our house isn't nice (built in 2008, 2000 sqft - definitely nice to my family!) or maybe our schools aren't good, but I think so? I'm in Wake Co... Anyway, it makes me feel so grateful to be in this area!
-
The only thing you can get in my zip for $300k is an empty 5 acre lot in a bad school district. So no.
-
I searched Zillow for a house under 300K and found mostly townhomes but this one came up - its under 1000 sq ft and has 2 beds/ 1 bath
Listed at 280K
@babynumber1: wow - I want to move to NC!
-
@jmarionsmith: i am in wake too
@birdofafeather: wow. Are you in a city? That just completely blows my mind.
-
You could get maybe a studio in my city but the schools aren't even that good. Honestly I can't think of any towns with good school systems within even within an hour from here where 300k could get you an actual house. You could get a house in a bad school district that is about an hour away. To get a good school system, you'd have to spend at least 100k more or else go way outside the city.
-
@babynumber1: whoa!!!!! Those would be over a million easily.
OH and actually some of the answers made me feel better because I thought we live in the most expensive housing market. Apparently not. -
I am really curious how this compares with the median income in an area. I thought ours in NC was pretty average, but that doesn't seem to be the case judging by this conversation...
-
@Mrs. Lion: a suburb about an hour from a major city, but it is beach side. most of the places i found though are in the less desirable town right next to it. also, CA so ya know: add a bunch of 0s, take away 500-1000 sq ft and a quarter acre to what everyone else gets! ha.
-
Absolutely. $300k would get you houses similar to what @babynumber1: posted.
-
Omg I wish! I'm in SoCal.....you can't even get a condo for that much.
-
It depends on your definition of nice. I think you could get a decent home in nearly move-in condition in a good school district here. It wouldn't be anything huge or fancy but it would serve its purpose.
-
Ha. No. A nice house in our ideal town would be triple that or more.
-
Ahhh. You couldn't even buy a one bedroom condo for $300,000 here. A fixer upper house with a tiny yard (lot size 33 feet wide) starts at $1 million+
-
Absolutely! We have a 4 bedroom, 2500 square foot house with a yard and deck and spent just over $200,000. Schools are some of the best in the state, although that's maybe not saying much
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
190 comments