how do people buy these houses for over 250,000 .....what jobs

[2Design]

do they do??....if no one is making great money anymore....how do you buy housing...????

[KG]

1. what kinda drugs are you on?

can i have some?

[2Design]

16. not on drugs???/ not sure I understand your question....is my price of

housing too low

[lazarus]

2. yeah

riddle me this: How can people afford to own a home here in San Diego, where the median house price is over $500,000?

We consider ourselves lucky to have found a very small 2 bedroom apartment, 45 minutes from my wife's work, for only $800/month. We really need a bigger place, but haven't found anything under 1200.

[kaos]

23. Ever think of moving?

?

[bo44]

27. The choice for many to be sure

Leave a great city or town because you are priced out and move to a dump like the Central Valley or stay and live in box.

[lazarus]

40. Sure

Where? My wife's career is here, and we don't have the 5-10k it would cost to move cross country, etc., anyway.

Just up and moving often isn't an option. For instance, my wife's career requires her to be near one of very few Naval bases.

[LWolf]

3. The really low interest rate helps.

My son just bought his first house. It wasn't $250,000, it went for $180K. He bought it in partnership with a long-time friend, they got a really low interest rate, and rented out one of the bedrooms.

[flamingyouth]

4. Ha ha, have you tried to buy a house in Seattle lately?

Geez, $250,000 can't even buy a vacant lot!

[physioex]

6. Yea no kidding you have to go out to Issaquah......EOM

[flamingyouth]

9. Even out there, sheesh...

:shrug:

[The empressof all]

14. There are houses in Issaquah for under $250,000

Where???? Maybe White Center or Marysville.

[physioex]

15. Sigh.... I know...

Maybe you could get a piece of land :shrug:

[The empressof all]

20. No thank god I bought before the boom

I'm in good shape in regards to housing. Not much else mind you--but at least I have a place to call home.

[shanti]

37. yes, give thanks

i also bought before the boom. it's only 975 sf, but it's MINE, and i'm in california.

[senseandsensibility]

5. The easy answer?

They don't. Or,it goes without saying that both husband and wife work at professional jobs, save for many years while paying extremely high rent, and finally buy in their forties. Welcome to reality, as it's been in California for atleast twenty years now. Houses here go for 600,000 or more. Condos are four hundred thousand. It's really tough out there. isn't it? I guess we're kind of callous about it in California, but some areas of the country are just getting hit by this now, and it must be a shock.

[PurityOfEssence]

29. Here in Silverlake (Los Angeles)

There's a small and thrashed house on this street (997 sq. ft., 2 br) with virtually no yard and needing about 50K for foundation work that's on the market for $460K. I doubt they'll get it anytime soon, but it's not out of keeping for the area. Okay, it's got a good view...

This is all nuts, but there's only so much land, and this area still has a growing population...

[senseandsensibility]

44. I hope things

work out for you. Have you thought of a mobile home? They have some nice ones now, and I lived in one once. It wasn't too bad, and it had air conditioning, unlike a lot of apartments.

[kaos]

7. Economy..

I know the economy sucks.
Well that's what Kerry keeps telling me.

[DieboldMustDie]

28. 1.3 million more people in poverty than a year ago...

and that's from the Census Bureau, not John Kerry. :shrug:

[bahrbearian]

8. I don't understand it either..

I bought my house with 5 acres for $75,000 26 years ago now its worth 350.000 I can hardly afford the taxes. The New houses around me sell for 500,000 to 750,000.

[skippysmom]

10. welcome to the world of lending

They have loosened up the requirements for qualifying for a mortgage, so many people who have no business buying a house that expensive get approved anyway.

And when they default, the banks can make money on the foreclosure.

[KoKo]

19. You can get a mortage for 120 % over the asking price...and mortgages

are the lowest rate with no down payment, minimum downpayment and you can go three times you income. In the 70's and 80's the requirement was 20% down and 2 times your income to qualify for a mortgage. You couldn't get an "adjustable" until the mid to late 80's and so you went with the 30 year. During Reagan the rates in his last term were 15%! Meant you couldn't afford much when you were paying 15% with 20 percent down you had to save for, or borrow from your parents.

The regulations have been loosened so much that one can literally "Master Card" a housing purchase these days. Started at the very end o Clinton...but accelerated under Bush's "low interest policy" and de-reg of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...the FED Housing Loan programs.

That's how housing prices have increased and folks are affording little McMansions and Big McMansions. Other folks just have big bucks made off the dot coms that they made big bucks off of while they suckered millions of Pension Funds and Little folks into buying while they took the profits and left us "holding the bag."

Those folks are the ones along with the Bush Rich from tax cuts who still have what they made off the stock market, company mergers, downsizings, golden parachutes and the rest of the Bush Giveaways who are buying the "truly big" McHuge Mansions with the swimming pools and landscaped gardens.

The rest of us are in what's left over on the "downside."

[whalerider55]

11. here in MA

In a nice, but not too-too town, our house went for $12,000 in 1967. We paid $177,900 in 1994. And barely, with two incomes (one of them in human services), managed to get into it.

our broker, giving us a guesstimate for refinancing, said he wouldn't put it on the market for less than $475,000.

now, that is nuts.

whalerider55

[notadmblnd]

12. we have some friends that work assembly for GMC

and they ate nothing but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for ten years saving for their down payment on a 250,000 + home. We were invited over to their house after they had been in it for a few years and they had almost no furniture. The living room was totaly bare.

[AmandaRuth]

13. it takes 2 incomes and makes for a miserable life

especially if kids are involved. And especially if kids and commuting is involved, and as most of these houses are out in developments in the 'burbs.

It takes alot of time and energy to commute and parent, when both are doing it.

[greenman3610]

17. there is still reasonable housing

in the midwest, outside of the big cities.
the problem is finding any kind of decent work.
I believe the trade off of working couples both
in high pressure/long commute jobs is
way too high a price to pay to live on the
coast...

[Yupster]

38. In my homeown

Midland, Texas, you can get a three bedroom, two bath respectable home with a fireplace and garage for $ 55,000. I sold one for $ 53,000 about three years ago.

We bought a 3,400 square feet 5 bedroom, three bath, two car garage for $ 113,000.

You may not want to live in Midland, Texas, and see all the signs about the president's hometown, but it is not a bad place to live. We have some of the best beach in the world. Just no water within 200 miles.

No trees or rain, but we have horny toads in the back yard, and my wife doesn't have to work, and we can afford a housekeeper and yardman, and private school for the kid on one salary.

You make your tradeoffs.

By the way, the house the Bushes lived in while W was growing up is still extant. It's a palin old 3 bed 2 bath home like the one I recently sold. If they had big money while Bush was growing up, they sure didn't spend it on housing.

[Wapsie B]

46. That's so true.

Waterloo, Iowa has traditionally had some of the lowest housing prices for any metro area in the US. But ever since John Deere's downsizing, good-paying jobs there are hard to come by.

But by the same token I just can't see moving to either coast. I recently talked to a cabbie in California who happened to be from the KC area. He didn't know how much longer he could stay out there because of the ungodly cost of living. I absolutely love CA, but I just can't see putting myself through hell to pay the bills just so I don't have to deal with snow and cold temps every winter.

[2Design]

18. I don't have two incomes and haven't for all of my life...

when I was married I support both of us for most of the marriage...

I am deep in debt and can't seem to find a way out and in to stable living or working environment......I am not young

[sallyseven]

21. Bought my house in 1965.

16,000. Real Estate person said I could get 350, or more considering the upkeep of my home. I only have 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, living, dinning and kitchen, large deck and family room. I am amaized. People both have to work and there are very few starter homes out there. I live on an cul de sac in an area where there used to be starter homes. It is crazey.

[LastDemocratInSC]

22. Follow the money - who has the greatest interest in high prices?

Who is driving the prices up? It's either the buyers or the sellers. If it's the buyers then that means they are creating demand. If it's the sellers then that means they are controlling the supply. With that in mind, consider that the buyers - almost all of them - cannot afford the prices being asked by the sellers but because they are acting as individuals instead of as a group, have no ability to drive the prices downward. The sellers, on the other hand, have the real-estate brokers on their side. The higher the price, the more the seller gets and the greater the real-estate broker's commission. Consider as well that the costs of the seller and broker are relatively fixed.

The broker's job is to get as much as possible for the property. He knows that the buyer has a relatively fixed amount to work with and will defer other big-ticket expenses, such as a new $40,000 car, to get into the house. The broker's job is to get the price up to where the buyer is bleeding but not too much - push him over the imaginary line and he won't buy, and then the fixed costs of selling start over for the broker again.

Real-estate businesses have industry organizations in every part of the country. They are heavily organized and work hard to keep prices at the buyer's bleed points. What buyers need are an equivalent representatives to watch out for their interests, and then that little bungalow will drop back down to a price that will let you get it and that shiny new car as well.

That won't happen in today's business climate.

[ellie]

24. I live in NW Ohio

There are no jobs here except for hospitals. There is a Jeep plant but I think it only employs like 5,000 people. There are new houses going up everywhere! I live out in farm country and the sprawl is just taking over. Who are the people that are buying these houses and where do they work? I ask myself that ever time I pass these developments. In debt up to their eyeballs or they have houses with no furniture because they can't afford it.

[2Design]

25. This is what I see all over the place and hear from other areas...

so.....where does one go......

there is lower cost housing here.....but in really iffy neighborhoods...

I am thinking of getting a used RV......and moving around depending on where jobs are......

or if Bush gets in....leaving the country...for where ...doing what ... I don't know....

[comradebillyboy]

26. let me take this opportunity to gloat

my house (worth over 200k) is all paid off, i do not make montly mortgage payments

and i'm just a puky school teacher naaanannannna

[Droopy]

31. Did you hit the lottery?

I know school teacher don't make a lot of dough. How did you do it?

[Droopy]

30. I just bought a 2 bedroom bungalow for $70,000

I live in southwest Ohio. The same house I bought can be had in the city (Dayton) for about $50,000. Property is actually cheaper here in the cities than in the suburbs and the country. This is excellent for me because I don't make a lot of money. I'm very lucky to live in a place where housing hasn't sky rocketed. If you don't make a lot of money and want to own a home, then consider living in the midwest if you can find a job there.

[Philostopher]

47. Even in the 'burbs, in the area you're talking about, it's cheaper.

At least for older houses in inner ring or older 'burbs. Mr. Nownow and I paid less than half the amount in question in the original post for a quarter acre city lot and a fifty year old house that's in really good condition -- it'll probably last longer, for having been built in the '50s, than most houses that have been built in the last ten years.

Oh, it ain't the size of a football field, mind you -- less than 1,500 square feet -- but it's only the two of us, and to have bought anything bigger would have been egregious and wasteful.

Mr. Nownow knows somebody who built a house down around Cinci that cost more than twice what ours did. Over 4K square feet, on a nearly half-acre lot. Two of them rattling around in it, and they have to shut off large parts of the house in the winter just to afford to heat it. Not only that, but they're fifteen miles from civilization -- which means they burn up an extra gallon of gasoline every time they go somewhere just to get from their house to anything they need to go to.

We could have financed considerably more than what we did, but why? As it was, we had to bump our upper limit up to find the one we did, though it wasn't much more than we'd originally said we'd be willing to pay. It was a seller's market several years ago, in that area, and we had a hell of a time finding something we liked that didn't have major flaws by our criteria.

Our property taxes are moderately high for the area (though there are many places that are much higher even around there, and people in other parts of the U.S. would laugh at me for saying what we pay is moderately high, probably), but we get loads of services and have highly-rated schools in the bargain. The houses don't appreciate very fast -- but they maintain their value, and they sell in our neighborhood for a comparable rate to what we paid for our place.

I don't know what drives people to overspend on a house. I never wanted a new house, neither did Mr. Nownow, so I guess we'll probably never see the wisdom in spending twice as much as you need to spend to have a roof over your head.

[HEyHEY]

32. $250,000 is cheap where i'm from

Average price we'll set at around $400,000

[HEyHEY]

34. $320 will only get youone of these

Welcome to vancovuer!

[HEyHEY]

35. Silly me I mean 489,000!!!!

[Droopy]

36. Damn, I bought a house similar to that for $87,000 here in Ohio. n/t

[elfin]

33. Debt, debt, and more debt

Two-three jobs, expecting an inheritance, no furniture in many rooms.

This cannot be sustained.

[TexasSissy]

39. A married couple earning $125,000 jointly should be able to buy

a $250,000 house. The note cannot be more than about 1/3 of your total net income, I think. Whatever that formula is.

If the man earns $70,000, and the wife earns $55,000, they've got it (after they've saved for the down payment). If the wife is a legal secretary, she could easily be making $55,000 (or more) here in Dallas, TX. If the man is an account manager (sales), he could easily earn in the $90,000 range in my area.

The average home here costs about $180,000, I think (or maybe less). So a $250,000 is either very nice, or it's in an exclusive or desirable area.

OR...you could buy a $125,000 home and wait 10 years, at which time it will be worth $250,000.

A $250,000 is too stiff for me, but lots of people in my area seem to be able to swing it. Still....even if you can technically afford it, do you really want a house that you'd lose if one of you became unemployed? Or that you'd have to forego vacations and other luxuries for, in order to make the house payment?

[Droopy]

42. Your last paragraph nailed it

People shouldn't be buying houses that are at the extreme end of their income range, i.e. the maximum they can afford. There's so much that can be said for the peace of mind that comes from living a simple lifestyle well within your means.

[2Design]

43. Your numbers are interesting...so far most everyone said they

make around 30 - 35,000....so how do they do it...

I can see with the numbers you have and two earners that maybe they can do it.....

but it seems most people I talk with are only finding jobs in the 25-35,000 range.....HHHHHHmmmmmm

so it is still a mystery to me how people can buy all these new homes I see going up in the 250 -400,000 range.....

[Speck Tater]

41. First, give up that money wasting FOOD habit....

Then save yourself the expense of a car by walking everywhere. (Barefoot is best because it saves on shoe leather expenses.)

[PVnRT]

45. Uh, home loans?

That's usually how it's done.