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Are you a home owner?

I'm not too far away from Cali! Hahah, seriously, though. Some of these things for sale here or ADU's are just as, if not more so, expensive than apartments. It's getting kind of ridiculous.

I have a family member in Portland, she bought her house like 5 years ago, it was $330k I think. It comes with a studio apartment in the backyard that she rents out (used to be a detached garage that was remodeled). She also rents out a room in her house. Between the two renters they pay her mortgage 100%. She has a pretty sweet set-up. Her house is old and not pretty but it has its charm I suppose.
 
I have a family member in Portland, she bought her house like 5 years ago, it was $330k I think. It comes with a studio apartment in the backyard that she rents out (used to be a detached garage that was remodeled). She also rents out a room in her house. Between the two renters they pay her mortgage 100%. She has a pretty sweet set-up. Her house is old and not pretty but it has its charm I suppose.
Homes going for that price here now are absolute dumps or are a needle in a haystack. You might be able to find something more affordable like that in the outskirts, but at that price you're looking more at condos/townhouses. To find a decent home, you really need to be looking into the 400k's in Portland now.
 
Okay come out here to California, we can buy one of these on amazon for each of you to live in, I got a big enough backyard: https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/g27433317/tiny-houses-amazon-home/

Just kidding :p
Some of those are pretty cute! :)
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Home values in Portland, OR

Portland is a city in Oregon and consists of 90 neighborhoods. There are 3,232 homes for sale, ranging from $28.9K to $10M.

  • $550K - - - Median Listing Home Price
  • $329 - - -Median Listing Home Price/Sq Ft
  • $533.8K - - -Median Sold Home Price

Home values in Seattle, WA

Seattle is a city in Washington and consists of 94 neighborhoods. There are 1,927 homes for sale. Seattle has affordable multi-families.

  • $829K - - - Median Listing Home Price
  • $577 - - - Median Listing Home Price/Sq Ft
  • $800K - - - Median Sold Home Price

(realtor.com)
 
Some of those are pretty cute! :)
................................

Home values in Portland, OR​

Portland is a city in Oregon and consists of 90 neighborhoods. There are 3,232 homes for sale, ranging from $28.9K to $10M.

  • $550K - - - Median Listing Home Price
  • $329 - - -Median Listing Home Price/Sq Ft
  • $533.8K - - -Median Sold Home Price

Home values in Seattle, WA​

Seattle is a city in Washington and consists of 94 neighborhoods. There are 1,927 homes for sale. Seattle has affordable multi-families.

  • $829K - - - Median Listing Home Price
  • $577 - - - Median Listing Home Price/Sq Ft
  • $800K - - - Median Sold Home Price

(realtor.com)

I've been to both those cities. Portland seems more chill, and no sales tax :D
 
I don't see owning a house as a big investment. The cost of renting a house is a better choice for me at the moment till I am able to save a lot of money to start my building project.
 
I don't see owning a house as a big investment. The cost of renting a house is a better choice for me at the moment till I am able to save a lot of money to start my building project.

Rent must be cheap where you live. Where I live its backwards. People paying rent usually pay more than what they could be paying if they were paying a mortgage instead.
 
hell no, it's to pricey!! :(
 
I am a new home owner, and it hasn't really hit me yet.. I guess it is just the stress from the move and then sorting through our boxes and stuff and recovering from the issues caused by the mold, that still kinda has me feeling like I am still in Brooklyn..

I think that once we have finished organizing and sorting our stuff then maybe it'll hit me then as we start planning on fixing the issues here and putting our own touch on the place.

But so far, I am happy and very grateful that we were able to get out so quickly.. we spent more time casually browsing Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com on our phones than we did when we were seriously looking.
 
I am a new home owner, and it hasn't really hit me yet.. I guess it is just the stress from the move and then sorting through our boxes and stuff and recovering from the issues caused by the mold, that still kinda has me feeling like I am still in Brooklyn..

I think that once we have finished organizing and sorting our stuff then maybe it'll hit me then as we start planning on fixing the issues here and putting our own touch on the place.

But so far, I am happy and very grateful that we were able to get out so quickly.. we spent more time casually browsing Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com on our phones than we did when we were seriously looking.

Congrats on the new home! :dance:

I’ll bet you’re relieved the search for a house is over. I looked at maybe 80 to 100 houses (in-person) over a few months before I settled on one.
 
Thanks. :)

Honestly the search wasn't that bad.. my family did some of the walking for us when they visited my brother and his family up here.. and because many of the houses up here are so old, and many of them were colonials built in the 1800s and prior, we knew from the issues we were dealing with in our apartment (built in 1942) that we didn't want anything built before the 60s.. and with my husband being 6' 6" and built like a linebacker, we knew that we wanted a house that he could freely walk in without having to duck..

On one of the houses my family walked, we saw a house, that had uneven floors and low ceilings.. in one room, my mother was able to touch the ceiling, and she is 5' 5" like I am.. and in the room connected to it, my sister in law was able to touch the ceiling and she is like 5' 1" they later met up with my brother who couldn't even stand up in the attic which was connected to the 2 rooms they went through.

In that same house the basement ceilings were so low that my brother had to lower his head to walk and he is 6' 1" with a medium build and he couldn't fit his shoulders through the doorways.. so we didn't take that house, but a lot of the same issues were prevalent in a lot of houses up here, even with basements that were moldy or were very moist.

So between their walkthroughs and our research, we eliminated a lot of houses.

And we saved the listings of the houses we did like, so that we have layout and design ideas too..
 
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Well you're both west coast peeps where the wages are higher. Save up that west coast money and move to the south or the mid-west where they're practically giving houses away. :p
Exactly; heck, come to Appalachia where the land's cheap, costs are low, there's lots of moonshine...wait, scratch that last one. :LOL:
 
I rent with my dad in a low-income apartment complex. My area is hard enough to afford to rent, let alone buy a place- especially when you're on minimal income through the government as a disabled person. Moving is just not very easy either, since moving is also expensive... Can't really win.
 
Twice now. Bought a cheap little townhouse fixer-upper in the last city where I lived to cut down on rents (wife and I were in different cities so were paying rent on two apartments). Then when we had a family and finally got to the same city, we bought the place have now.

Fact is, rent generally works out more expensive in the long haul than the costs of a house, esp. if the rent doesn't include utilities, without generating any equity value (i.e. you can't sell the apartment at a profit if its value goes up). And owning your own property makes for work, but it also means there's a little piece of land where you are in control. In an apartment, you're always at the mercy of the landlord and other tenants. I once had roaches due to a hoarder in an apartment a couple floors above me.

So I think that for people that can afford one, a house is a decent investment, though that may vary depending on the local housing market. I'll own for as long as I can.
 
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