s/o on moving thread: how great a house would 450K get you where you live?

[yellowperch]

Just wondering....

[WeeBeaks]

Pretty average 3 bedroom, 2 bath house (1500ish square feet probably) in an acceptable and safe but not higher end/highly desirable area.

[QueenCat]

We live in an area with pretty low housing costs. $450,000 would by 3500-4000 square feet, less than 10 years old, on 1-2 acres, with major upgrades, especially in the kitchen. You would find tile and wood flooring, no vinyl/laminate. Possibly a pool, not an extravagant one but not bare basics either. It would be in a good part of town...... Where we used to live, it would be about 2000 square feet, good part of town, but not as many upgrades.

[bigdogs29906]

A VERY nice home. That is well above the median price here.

[mrs.m]

HUGE! 4-5 bedroom with a study on the main level. A finished walk-out basement and a 3-4 car garage. Beautiful kitchen! In a very upscale neighborhood, too!

 

I want one.

[Tess in the Burbs]

LOL, the townhome I am renting!!! I believe the owner paid close to 450K when she bought it. It's not worth that today. I couldn't buy 450K of any housing....but we can rent it :D

[DarlaS]

Here it would get you acreage (10+) with a nice BIG house of about 3000+ sf and either lovely barns or lake frontage.

 

Of course, this is Michigan and there's no jobs to pay for it...

[Erica in PA]

Just wondering....

 

I don't know anyone who has a home worth that much around here. I think our friends with the most expensive home are probably around $250,000-- that is for a very large house, 4-5 bedrooms, two living rooms, several bathrooms, 2 acres of land, in a very nice neighborhood. I can't imagine what $450,000 would buy here!!

[ourjourneys]

LOL, the townhome I am renting!!! I believe the owner paid close to 450K when she bought it. It's not worth that today. I couldn't buy 450K of any housing....but we can rent it :D

Is rent substantially lower on a larger house? Here rent would be 2000/month and I would think one could by a house if they were paying that much in rent...

[DawnM]

Depends....acreage or no land? No Land (or little land), around 4,000 sq. ft. in a good neighborhood.

 

Land will get you almost the same, but further out from town and with land for the same price.

 

Now, this is where I live now.

 

In our last location a 1500 sq. ft. house sold for 600K. I hear now it is worth about 450K though. No land to speak of and built in 1910.

[Chris in VA]

You could get a 4 bedroom home (2 of the bedrooms would be in a converted basement) here, with a smallish yard. I don't know about square footage, but the houses I'm thinking of are probably 1500 or so. The houses have teeny little kitchens, but finished basements. No dining room, just a living room (no den). 1 Bath or maybe a redo in the basement with a 2nd bath. We are 45 minutes from DC during rush hour, 20 minutes during non-rush hour.

[Sun]

A two-bedroom, one-bath house, with a single-car garage, about 800-900 sq. ft for the house, in a reasonable neighborhood. The kitchen and bath would probably be a bit dated/worn. That would be on a lot of about 5000 to 7000 sq. ft. There are some 3-bedroom ones for around that, but they tend to be on busier streets, in more run-down areas, or in the suburbs. Or you might get a "three" bedroom house for that in a reasonable area in the city, but one of those "bedrooms" might be in the basement and not legally qualify as a bedroom.

[Ellie]

In San Jose, California, a small 3 bedroom house; here in parts of central Texas, a mansion.:)

[Renee in NC]

A nice, regular house on beachside (or an oceanfront condo) or a 3300+ monstrosity on the mainland.

 

I think I would pick the smaller house beachside - who needs 3300 square feet?

[SOCKSINFOX]

You'd be able to get a huge, gorgeous house here for that. A nice 4 bedroom, 3000 sq. ft house on 1/3 to 1/2 acre here would cost you less than $200,000, so for $450k you'd get all the bells and whistles plus property too. I just looked it up... you can get a 6 bedroom 5 bath home with a gym, indoor spa and sauna, 3 acre horse property, wood floors, upgraded appliances, outbuilding, 4 car drive-through garage, view, etc for that price :)

Edited August 9, 2010 by SOCKSINFOX

[Carrie12345]

I'd be able to get a newish-to-new 5-6 bedroom house with finished basement, walk-up attic, high end kitchen, office area, at least 3.5 baths, probably on 3-6 acres. Or I could get less land, but with lake frontage.

 

Where I *want* to live, I could get a little less. Maybe just 4 bedrooms, and the house would be around 15-20 years old. The kitchen might not be top notch. And the taxes would be 3 times as much as here, so the price of the house winds up being irrelevant, anyway! :tongue_smilie:

[KidsHappen]

We have a 3000 sq. ft., 4 bedroom, 3 bath home on 3/4 of an acre in a communter town outside (about 40 miles) Nashville. It is a perfectly average but newish house and cost $300,000. For that amount of money I could buy a house like this more northwards towards Nashville in Franklin or Brentwood or I could get a house here with more upgrades or more acreage here.

 

Where my brother (TX) and my dd (GA) live that would buy a McMansion. My dd's house is larger than mine and cost $130,000. My brother's is slightly smaller and cost $144,000.

[GWOB]

There are currently no houses in my area for that high a price. The biggest, most modern, nicest house in the "nicest" (talking about housing, definitely not people) neighborhood just sold for around $390,000. About 2 years ago a working winery on about 60 acres with a gorgeous Victorian house in immaculate condition was listed for $600,000. Still, a lot of the houses here are over-priced, in my opinion.

[ChristusG]

Down here in north FL.....we could get a VERY nice, large, home in a VERY nice neighborhood.

[rafiki]

.

[RamonaQ]

An older home 1000-1500 sq ft. 3 bedrooms (not all on the same level), smallish kitchen, city lot for yard.

[elegantlion]

450k is the upper tier here. There are some nicer homes for 500-600k and then all the bells and whistles for a million and up. 450k will get you 3-5k sq feet in a great neighborhood, with land, or closer to the water.

[PinkInTheBlue]

We live in an area with pretty low housing costs. $450,000 would by 3500-4000 square feet, less than 10 years old, on 1-2 acres, with major upgrades, especially in the kitchen. You would find tile and wood flooring, no vinyl/laminate. Possibly a pool, not an extravagant one but not bare basics either. It would be in a good part of town.

 

Same here in Alabama.

 

Our house is 3,400 sq ft, 5 bedrooms, small office, 3 1/2 baths, 2 car garage, 1 acre, great pool, great little neighborhood and was $315,000 last year. It was built in 1996. $450k would be newer, bigger (4000 sq ft up) and in an overpriced neighborhood.

Edited August 9, 2010 by PinkInTheBlue

[Quiver0f10]

3000-4000 sq ft 4-5 bedroom with upgrades located in a sub division, maybe 1-2 acres but acreage is more pricey here.

[hsmom]

There is a few nice ones it depends on land or no land in town or not.

 

Like out of town here is one http://www.casperidx.com/listing.php?mls=20102664&site_id=1665

 

In town would be something like this http://www.casperidx.com/listing.php?mls=20103409&site_id=1665

 

Or this house that I love, it used to be a bed and breakfast with a guest house and such http://www.casperidx.com/listing.php?mls=20104734&site_id=1665

 

Here an average home would run you about $80,000- $250,000.

Edited August 9, 2010 by hsmom

[Jan in SC]

You could buy a 3 bedroom, 1 or 2 bath house (that is in need of updating) on the lake. You could buy a 3500 square foot house with four bedrooms and three baths in a nice neighborhood.

[Laurie4b]

Huge house, lots of land. Pretty much anything I would dream of.

[leighp]

$450k would get me a McMansion! Well, not really, but it would easily buy a 3-4k sq ft house with a good 25 or more acres.

[Dobela]

We live in an area with pretty low housing costs. $450,000 would by 3500-4000 square feet, less than 10 years old, on 1-2 acres, with major upgrades, especially in the kitchen. You would find tile and wood flooring, no vinyl/laminate. Possibly a pool, not an extravagant one but not bare basics either. It would be in a good part of town...... Where we used to live, it would be about 2000 square feet, good part of town, but not as many upgrades.

Same here except you would have all that in a gated community and the house would be on the lake - on the main channel.

[Crimson Wife]

Where we currently live in the East Bay: medium sized (1500-1900 sq ft 3 BR) condo/townhome or smallish (1100-1700 sq ft 2-3 BR) house that needs updating on a small lot in an okay neighborhood.

 

Where we used to rent on the Peninsula: a small (<1100 sq ft 1-2 BR) condo in an okay neighborhood or a small house in a bad neighborhood.

[Tess in the Burbs]

well we bought a home in our previous town at 293K and we couldn't go any higher and our house payment was more than our rent is now. So I guess how you do the loan would matter on the payment. But we are short selling our home due to this new job/move, so I literally couldn't buy ANYTHING right now, lol. But yes, the rent here on my townhome is cheaper than our mortgage payment was!!!

[mommaduck]

Where we used to live in the midwest, a mansion. Where we live now, an upper middle class home.

 

For the average working class family, it could buy three to five homes for several families.

[mhg]

Go to www.realtor.com and enter 425k to 475k in the search box and choose a zip code and voila!

[joannqn]

A brand new 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 3,000 square foot home in the nicest part of this city.

[Nestof3]

Let's just say I couldn't imagine living in a house that cost that much. ;) We live in a neighborhood in an 1,100 sq ft house with detatched garage (that my husband built) on a small piece of property, and I think it's assessed at about $194,800. Land is priced very high in the city.

 

Structure: 82,000

Land: 112,800

 

It was assessed at about 70,000 in 1988 when he bought it.

[Barb_]

We are facing this right now. When we bought our house here in the West Valley of the Phoenix Metro area, it was worth about $450K (after a 180K drop, believe it or not). We have just under 3000 sqft, 4br and 3.5 bathrooms. It's a nice house and fits us very well. Nowdays it's worth about $200K and $450K could buy us a 5br, 4br 5000sqft house with a pool on a triple sized lot. But in San Francisco, where my husband just got a job, $450K gets you exactly nothing in the city but for a cool 1.5mil we could buy a 4br 2000sqft row house with no yard. Or we could get 2500sqft house with an hour commute.

 

Barb

[tofuscramble]

In my neighborhood that would not be enough to buy anything. The 3 bedroomed 12 - 1500 sq ft houses here cost 500 - 700k. In this city you might be able to buy a small condo in one of the worse areas for that much. :glare:

[keptwoman]

Melbourne has 4 million people. Close to the city you might get a 1-2 bed apartment. If you went out 15 miles or so, a small and unrenovated 3 bed, 1 bath, no garage. Out where we live at the 35 mile mark, you'd get a 4 bed, 2 bath, garage reasonably modern in a low-mid income suburb.

[Audrey]

Just wondering....

 

With that kind of money, I could build just about any house I wanted. :lol:

[Spy Car]

Where I live I don't think you could buy a lot--much less a house-- for $450k, even in a deep recession.

 

Bill

[Caitilin]

Some really big houses (3-4K sq.ft.) with no trees in brand-new ugly developments in town, or a similarly sized house on an acreage of about 10 acres.

[Audrey]

Where we used to live in the midwest, a mansion. Where we live now, an upper middle class home.

 

For the average working class family, it could buy three to five homes for several families.

 

Just checked the nearby town's local for sales. For $450K you could buy 6 of the 7 homes for sale. I mean, buy the whole lot of the 6 of them for that price. Home # 7 is the big old empty former doctor's house, though, and that is listed at $299,990.

 

P.S. All those are small homes though. Most of them are 2 beds being sold by old people moving into the retirement centre.

Edited August 9, 2010 by Audrey

[Crissy]

In my immediate area you might find a 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 1500-1800 sq. ft. home for that price.

[edithcrawley]

It would give you about 5,000 square feet in a pretty nice neighborhood

[ereks mom]

There are several 4 Bed, 3.5 Baths on one acre lots situated on the nearby recreational lake that are listed in that price range as well.

[Big Buckin' Longhorn]

It would buy your a bonified McMansion where I live.

 

Median home prices are around $150K and ours is a nice 2000 square foot home with a very big front and back yard and cost less than $150K brand spanking new.

[QueenCat]

Just curious.... how do you all define "McMansion"....

[Heidi]

5 bed, 4 bath, 4500 sq. ft. MANSION

[Jeannie in NJ]

nothing really that "inexpensive" could be found here on this island. Our house which is not on the beach or the bay is worth about $650.000, it is about 2200-2400sq. ft (I'm not positive because we put an addition on) 3 bedroom, 2 bath, living room, family room, dining room, 2 sun rooms and not much of a yard at all. Was built in 1971, very small kitchen and bathrooms. Houses on the beach are listed for 4 million and on the bay for 1.5 million.

 

We bought our house in 1994 for $170,000. At the housing peak several years ago we could have probably sold in for close to a million but it would have cost us about the same to buy another house on this island and no way is dh ever going to move (he was born and raised here and will not live off shore).

[Nakia]

In my little tourist town there are two houses listed for right at $450,000. Both of them are on the side of a mountain. One has appr. 1700 sq feet and about an acre and the other has appr, 3000 sq ft and almost 4 acres. So that's a big difference. Both are 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

 

In other parts of the county, you could more house for that money. It depends on how much work you want to do and how much land you want.