Last night Toney and I watched two episodes of a new show on HGTV called Self-Made Mansions. It’s basically House Hunters for people who recently became self-made millionaires. It’s an odd premise, but whatever. We watch these kinds o’ things. And there were a couple of things that struck me:
- Both couples seemed appreciative and grounded, not cocky and demanding like many people we see buying high-end homes on those types of programs. Yeah, I only saw two episode, which is a small sample size, but both couples seemed genuinely grateful. It was so unusual, I noticed it right away.
- Also, despite having almost identical budgets, the types of houses each couple had to choose from were wildly different, because of where they lived. I mean… strikingly different.
The first couple was in Charlotte, and had an $800,000 budget. And the houses they looked at were sprawling and luxurious, with a crazy amount of square footage. I don’t know if you’d call them mansions, but they were really, really nice.
And the second couple was in Portland, OR, with the same approximate budget. But the houses they looked at were similar to the one we live in here. I mean, it’s not bad, but nowhere near what those Charlotte folks were contemplating. It was amazing.
Today I thought I’d take a trip through Zillow and see what $250,000 would buy me in the various places I’ve lived during my life. Toney informed me that $250K is the average home price, so that’s why I chose it. And before we get started… I want you to know that I tried to choose a representative house for each city/town, I didn’t go with anything trying to be dramatic. So, let’s get started, shall we? I’ll do them in backwards chronological order.
Clarks Summit, PA
This one’s about $240K, in the town where we currently live. Here’s the listing, if you’re interested. It’s 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2083 square feet. It’s a ’70s throwback, but there’s a pool table.
Santa Clarita, CA
I had to raise the price to $300,000 on this one, because I was only getting results for land — no actual houses — at $250K. This one is listed at $279,999. It’s a 700 square foot, 1 bedroom, 1 bath condo built in 1985. Here’s the listing. “Cozy” and “super-cute” don’t bring me much comfort.
Lithonia, GA
I’m not sure why there are random shutters missing, but whatever. This home is listed at $260,000. It has 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2976 square feet. Here’s the listing. Looks nice! They need to place an order for at least six new shutters, though. Maybe there was a windstorm?
Atlanta (Virginia Highland area)
Atlanta is huge, so I limited my search to the area near where we lived. This is a 2 bedroom, 1 bath condo with 723 square feet. For $240K. Check out the listing if you’re interested. That area is not cheap.
Greensboro, NC
This one is listed at $249,000. It’s 1942 square feet and has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. Here’s the listing. The inside looks nice. Reminds me of the house my parents had after they inexplicably moved to Charlotte for a few years.
Dunbar, WV
This is the most expensive house currently listed in my hometown. It’s $219,000: 4 bedrooms, 3 baths. There’s no square footage listed, but it’s big. Here’s the listing. I hope you love paneling!
So, there you go. The outliers, of course, are Southern California and our old neighborhood in Atlanta (where we were renters). The rest are relatively similar. Well, the Dunbar house is cheaper and probably bigger, and the one in Lithonia is big too. But it’s not as dramatic a difference as Charlotte vs. Portland on that show we watched last night. That was insane.
If you’d like, please share a link of a $250K house listing where you currently live. I used Zillow, but any will work.
And I’m calling it a day, my friends.
Have a great one!
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https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/283-Park-Ave-W-Mansfield-OH-44902/2079899162_zpid/
250k gets you a 6 unit apartment building in town, or this super sweet old church turned into a house if you haggle a little.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3775-Franklin-Church-Rd-Mansfield-OH-44903/118632007_zpid/
Mansfield! I sold Gorman-Rupp pumps for 20 years and spent a bunch of time there.
We currently live in a township near Northville, Mi. There’s a ton of new money here and a lot of “noteable” people in the area- athletes, politicians, executives, etc. $250k doesn’t buy much in the city, but five miles in any direction will about double your square footage https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/334-Pennell-St-Northville-MI-48167/88483387_zpid/
This next one is a few streets away from the house I owned before the current one. It’s in a slightly nicer neighborhood and a little bigger than the one I had but fairly typical for the area. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/205-Elmwood-St-Dearborn-MI-48124/160169310_zpid/
This last one is from the area where I grew up, just a few blocks from my old elementary school (which was torn down and replaced by a Target). The price is high for the area by about $75k but it’s on a larger corner lot and seems to have a lot of updates, etc.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/26209-Midway-St-Dearborn-Heights-MI-48127/88104495_zpid/
I didn’t include any places where I lived fairly temporarily.
And just for fun, I’m in the Detroit area, (same county) and decided to just take a look in the city. This one is just a couple of blocks from Hitsville, USA, the original Motown studio. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2525-S-La-Salle-Gdns-Detroit-MI-48206/88465843_zpid/
Also, it’s nice to see some more regular updates.
A grand total of 8 single-family homes <280K are listed in the 27587, 6 of which are marked as contingent and 1 of which has yet to be built.
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Wake-Forest_NC/type-single-family-home/price-na-280000/sby-1
It's gotten expensive to live here.
This is the only one in the $250K range in my area. Homes are in high demand because of the school district.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/17034-Bradford-Ave-Greenwell-Springs-LA-70739/121250947_zpid/
Zillow – not that popular in Canada. I rounded up the USD to CAD so ~$320K. There was one 420 sq ft condo, 1 bed, 1 bath, probably a catch to it in the Vancouver area. That will usually just buy you a small piece of land – not building.
Wow! $250k wouldn’t buy diddly or squat in our suburb of Columbus, Ohio! Most homes are selling well above their asking prices and in just a few days, too. Our cozy (dinky!) post-war ranch (960 square feet) in the nearby township commands $200k, which just seems crazy to me. We’ve considered selling, but all the houses in Central Ohio are at the top of the market right now, so that money wouldn’t buy very much!
Where I currently live in New York this is one of 2 houses that fall in that price range. Everything else is a condo.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/124-Ressique-St-Carmel-NY-10512/31913565_zpid/
Where I have my condo in Rhode Island but it’s the next town over with higher taxes: Anything where I am is just land
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/31-Pine-Tree-Ln-South-Kingstown-RI-02879/83197016_zpid/
The town where I had my first apartment – Danbury, CT:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/15-Lakeview-Trl-Danbury-CT-06811/57269044_zpid/
Sigh… Everything is so goddamn expensive around here.
By co-inky-dink and off topic, there is a person on one of my tech-nerd mailing lists whose screen name is CarmelNY. Personally I have never lived anyplace in NY between Kings and Rensselaer counties.
We’re in Putnam County – the forgotten county of the Hudson Valley. We’re wedged between Westchester and Dutchess. (sniff) everyone ignores us!
Holy kamolies! That house in Danbury, CT was only 684 sq ft!! I grew up in Newtown, CT and we always went to Danbury to go shopping (this was before Newtown got as built up as it is now).
Anyways, after taking a look at what’s currently avail in Newtown, I think this listing would be the most indicative of what one could purchase there for ~$250,000 (only 698 sq ft!):
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/84-Edgelake-Dr-Sandy-Hook-CT-06482/57336771_zpid/
I checked out the estimated price of the home I grew up in .. WAAAY out of my price range.
Not much here for that kind of money. Here’s a 1-bedroom condo, 692 sq ft, for $265k. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4405-Weatherington-Ln-UNIT-201-Fairfax-VA-22030/68907321_zpid/
I found, during research the other month, that a brand-new Mooney costs about as much as a single-family house in Arlington: about $700k to $800k. Both are out of my league.
The thing with housing prices is that, if I could sell my house for one meelion dollars, any comparable new place would cost about that much to buy. So that means either move far away, or downsize (which makes sense in many cases).
I live about 30 miles south of Seattle, where a comfortable 2,000 SF home like mine in a pretty good neighborhood goes for $300K or a little more. But up north is Seattle, in the long shadows of Amazon, Microsoft and other infotech giants, you can’t buy a thrill. Here are a few photos of homes for sale in the sub-$300K category in some of the more notorious knifing neighborhoods of lesser Seattle:
Outdoor living:
https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Untitled-1-5c77e96b9f803__700.jpg
Room with a view:
https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/terrible-real-estate-photos-11-5c35e7c7e12d6__700.jpg
Handy bathroom facilities:
https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/terrible-real-estate-photos-11-5c35e7c7e12d6__700.jpg
Deck with ice-cold beverages:
https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/terrible-real-estate-photos-39-5c35ea97be066__700.jpg
. . . and there are a few that would be out of the question due to aesthetic considerations. I omit those.
jtb
I looked at Zillow listings in my old neighborhood in Brooklyn. Between Smith St. and the BQE, single family houses start at $5M. While Brooklyn does indeed owe the charmer, nobody owes me that kind of coin. And I’d be a fool to do the dirty work.
Then drive me to Harlem or somewhere the same.
jtb
Or Hackensack.
That’s the problem with Can’t Buy a Thrill: only one deep cut, so if you want to talk back and forth like the katydids, jumping tracks won’t do it. You might as well just accept the fact that wherever you move, whatever the shape of your pad, you’re going end up living next door to Victor Feldman. There are worse neighborhoods. In truth, there aren’t many better.
I somehow ended up with a Victor Feldman “solo” album in the 70s, having no idea who the fuck he was. That damn vinyl seemed to always end up on the turntable. A bunch of music losers were getting a little culture and we had no idea. Katy lied, but Victor always somehow told the truth.
John
Nice Steely Dan reference slipped in there JTB
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2601-Durango-Dr-Benton-AR-72019/71715973_zpid/
Nice!
At some point in his life he probably lived in a house, so it must be okay to say R.I.P. Hank Aaron.
Henry Aaron is remembered as a home run hitter. He certainly did that, but he was a 3-time gold glove winner in right field, had a lifetime .305 batting average, and despite rampant racism, was both respected and admired throughout major league baseball. I watched the 1957 World Series with Grandpa Jack (we didn’t get to see many Milwaukee regular season games), in which Mr. Aaron hit .393 with 7 RBIs. He was 23 years old. I remember it pretty clearly, because my grandfather died about a week after the series ended.
As wonderful a ballplayer as Henry Aaron was, he was an even classier person. Jackie had left the game the previous year, and Mr. Aaron picked up both the respect for Black ballplayers and all the racist taunts. He somehow prevailed with class and dignity. And a bigass bat. He certainly had a hammer.
John
Hank Aaron was just on TV about a week – 10 days ago smiling as he got the covid vaccine. He looked pretty darn good for a gentleman in his 80s. Sad. RIP.
It would buy me exaclty where I live now, in Nokomis, Florida. I live here alone, in a 3 br two bath house. I want to get the fuck outta here soon, and move north. People want to charge me 1400 to move one room of shit.I will find my own way.
As one of the elitist code monkeys ruining Seattle I can confirm johnthebasket’s observations. I don’t like wearing mustard colored pants but… it’s the law.
I actually bought my place in the Magnolia neighborhood for slightly north of Jeff’s target at $350k. But that was December 2001. What it’s worth now just sickens me. It’s vulgar, really. I’m ashamed of myself.
Not.
To be honest I could never get in my place now. I bought it with a zero-down, three-year-balloon/ticking time bomb of a mortgage. After a year it appreciated enough to refi out of the mortgage insurance I was paying and into a seven-year ARM. Then I got into a 30-year fixed a couple years later. And then the bubble popped.
My millennial neighbor, who bought the two bedroom craftsman bungalow next to me for a little more than a million, walks around watering his grass with a thousand yard stare like it’s his first night at Shawshank.
Dundee housing for $250000.
https://www.tspc.co.uk/Search/Property-in-Dundee-up-to-180000
If I understand correctly – which I probably don’t – that money gets you the building (in the case of a standalone house), but not the land it sits on.
And holy shit, I just made the connection! Dundee is where the Tay Bridge Disaster happened! …too soon?
I live 15 miles outside of Charlotte NC. Last summer we paid 340K for our brand new 5 bedroom 3.5 bath house with a 2 car garage and partially finished basement. Basements are rare in this part of the country, it was what I had missed most since moving south.
I recently move to a retirement home at the beach in NC (Kure Beach). Nothing for $250K here, but Carolina Beach has a 1 BR 1 Bath Condo for $230K. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1411-S-Lake-Park-Blvd-B1-Carolina-Beach-NC-28428/54354520_zpid/