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Kefit posted:At first I thought that floorplan looks remarkably similar to the townhouse I bought for half a million last year in the Seattle area. But on a second look I realize that my townhouse is a good 1.5x the square footage of these Aussie units. God those are some small bedrooms. My roommate moved out to move in with his girlfriend, and then they pretty much immediately moved out of their because the landlord was being a creep. Two places ago I moved out because my rent got jacked up too high. Last place I moved out because I moved in with a friend who needed a place to stay and needed a roommate to afford it.
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Sep 15, 2023 06:58
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Motronic posted:And one would be a fool to do so, because that's leaving money on the table That does not follow - you have no way of determining the rental price that the market could support, $3000 may be as much as the unit is able to fetch.
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Sep 15, 2023 07:40
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Breetai posted:Meanwhile, more and more blocks of land that used to house a single dwelling have been subdivided in order to accommodate disgusting little shitbox townhouses such as one that I found nearby in my neighbourhood, where the actual footprint of each two-story townhouse was 3 m by 10 m, but the price was from half a million Australian dollars each. In American units, am I right in understanding that a ~640 sq foot townhome costs $320k in an "affordable" city? And $1M+ in the more expensive cities? Thats easily comparable to the most expensive US cities on a per sq ft basis, though finding a place that small in new construction would be hard. The newish townhomes near where I live in the Bay area start at 1800 sq feet (and were something like $1.7M a couple years ago when they were new, lol).
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Sep 15, 2023 09:47
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drk posted:In American units, am I right in understanding that a ~640 sq foot townhome costs $320k in an "affordable" city? And $1M+ in the more expensive cities? poo poo's hosed. The market has been deliberately overinflated by a succession of governments with awful policies that have turned houses from a place to live into a taxpayer subsidised investment vehicle which is great for cashed up developers and the rich but poo poo for everyone else.With regards to actual owner occupiers, now that interest rates aren't lower than 2% anymore the bottom 20% of earners with a mortgage are paying 60% of their take-home pay on average towards servicing those mortgages. My partner and I are extremely lucky in that we paid off the house just before interest rates tripled and we're secure in our housing, because a bunch of people are eating poo poo at the moment. The housing market is in a situation where prices need to massively correct in order for owning one's own home to be a realistic prospect, but the correction required would need to be of such a magnitude that a massive amount of people would be underwater on their home loan. Also a bunch of construction companies are folding up completely at the moment, so if you bought off the plan and put down a $250,000 deposit then whoopsie doodles there goes your entire life savings. No recourse.
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Sep 15, 2023 10:18
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QuarkJets posted:That does not follow - you have no way of determining the rental price that the market could support, $3000 may be as much as the unit is able to fetch. If you think about it price setting is just a process where you say a random number
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Sep 15, 2023 11:20
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QuarkJets posted:That does not follow - you have no way of determining the rental price that the market could support, $3000 may be as much as the unit is able to fetch. If the location is desirable there really isn't an upper limit, at least not in a way that matters if you're not rich. Generally what happens is they invest a few bucks in updating the finishing when the current tenants leave and new ones come in. Good example: our last apartment was near public transport in a city where that's desirable. Pretty basic apartment building that was probably built in the 60s or 70s based on the construction. 700 sqft, pretty OK apartment, gally kitchen right off a main living room. At $1100/mo it was a pretty OK place for me and my wife. Appliances were basic apartment grade, but new, and the carpet and countertops were pretty much landlord grade basic poo poo. Laminate countertop and that really basic thin carpet that you know they rip out and replace between tenants. Basic bathroom. We moved out when the rent went up to just shy of $1800/mo. We were back in town and visiting the old neighborhood a few weeks ago and decided to look up the old apartment complex on some rental sites. We knew they were updating the apartments as people moved out and converting them to "deluxe" apartments which ran about 25% more. So the deluxe version of our place when we first moved in was ~1400/mo. The upgrades were visible but not crazy. Nicer carpet, some really basic stone or engineered faux-stone countertops, slightly fancier appliances that were still rental grade but like the tier above the absolute basic unit you get at home depot. Glass door instead of curtain in the shower, mildly updated bathroom. Stupid (and cheap) bowl sink instead of a normal inset one. Basically the kind of HGTV-grade flipper poo poo you find in houses that were quickly updated for as little as possible to make a quick buck. They didn't list anything for less than $3k/mo and don't make the distinction between normal and deluxe anymore. I assume they finished upgrading everything. Now, part of that had to be the results of covid. It's really beautifully located if you're a person who nominally works in the city, can WFH most of the week, but still want to be close enough to transit to get in easily when you need to. But those people can pay more for apartments, so do the minimal upgrade to make them feel like they're getting what they're paying for and bank a nearly doubling in your rental income. edit: this wasn't some mom and pop rental place either, the company that manages it owns a gently caress ton of apartment buildings across the entire metro area. gently caress, probably nationally, for all I know they're themselves owned by a bigger company. It's one of those deals where your apartment complex will be named Townhouses at Hooverville or whatever and there will be a note that it's managed by Regional Company Who Owns Everything LLC.
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Sep 15, 2023 13:49
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drk posted:In American units, am I right in understanding that a ~640 sq foot townhome costs $320k in an "affordable" city? And $1M+ in the more expensive cities? 640 sqft townhouses are very rare in "affordable" areas, most are considerably larger. Outside of a few cities most places in the US are much larger than EU or AUS counterparts. Something like this is very common in my city, and this is in a decent, desirable area of Saint Paul: https://www.trulia.com/p/mn/saint-paul/250-saint-albans-st-n-saint-paul-mn-55104--2101721054 But in San Fran or NY? Yeah that place would be $1M+ If you go out into the sticks you might even find a place that size for $150k or less. Lockback fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Sep 15, 2023 |
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Sep 15, 2023 15:27
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Lockback posted:640 sqft townhouses are very rare in "affordable" areas, most are considerably larger. Outside of a few cities most places in the US are much larger than EU or AUS counterparts. You're not going to find a new build like that out in the sticks. If nothing else the economics of building out something like that to sell a bunch of sub-$150k town homes just doesn't work out. If they're going to build a larger building like that out in rual nowhere's-ville it's going to be an apartment, and if they're building individual houses it's probably going to be SFH's or maybe larger condos. That kind of price per square foot insanity really only happens in places where space is at a premium and you're paying a premium price just to be in the desirable city.
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Sep 15, 2023 15:41
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Lockback posted:If you go out into the sticks you might even find a place that size for $150k or less. Made me curious, found a 1,500 sq ft house with garage in an okay area of Peoria for $90k. I think that's more than what my friend paid for his place in a nicer part ten years ago. (edit, I'm wrong, about what he paid, actually surprised he spent that much) Seeing dozens of places for $60-75k, but not in nice places. There's a 2,400 sq ft place off the highway for $15k! Uthor fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Sep 15, 2023 |
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Sep 15, 2023 15:49
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i will give someone mid five figgies to NOT live in peoria
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Sep 15, 2023 15:56
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:i will give someone mid five figgies to NOT live in peoria But how much would you pay to be a cop in Decatur? https://www.levernews.com/american-oligarchy/amp/
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Sep 15, 2023 16:04
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the rural home hate is a little overdone on internet forums full of city dwelling tech nerds. if you have good internet and access to good essentials (safety, highway, schools, food, etc) then there can be some real good situations for efficient cost of living non-megacity life, including affordable homes.
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Sep 15, 2023 16:07
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pmchem posted:the rural home hate is a little overdone on internet forums full of city dwelling tech nerds. if you have good internet and access to good essentials (safety, highway, schools, food, etc) then there can be some real good situations for efficient cost of living non-megacity life, including affordable homes. Absolutely agree This doesn't apply to Peoria though.
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Sep 15, 2023 16:12
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pmchem posted:the rural home hate is a little overdone on internet forums full of city dwelling tech nerds. if you have good internet and access to good essentials (safety, highway, schools, food, etc) then there can be some real good situations for efficient cost of living non-megacity life, including affordable homes. Agreed, but there are a lot of things that can prevent people from picking up and moving to some place more affordable, usually job stuff. That said, there is rural and then there is rural. I've lived the latter at various points in my life and it's very much something people need to go into eyes open.
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Sep 15, 2023 16:14
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pmchem posted:the rural home hate is a little overdone on internet forums full of city dwelling tech nerds. if you have good internet and access to good essentials (safety, highway, schools, food, etc) then there can be some real good situations for efficient cost of living non-megacity life, including affordable homes. I grew up in a rural area, lived there for 20 years. I'm not going to begrudge anyone who is into that sort of thing, but the amount of money that would be worth having to go back is well into the seven figures, and even then only if it was a temporary situation. It is loving miserable.
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Sep 15, 2023 16:17
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pmchem posted:the rural home hate is a little overdone on internet forums full of city dwelling tech nerds. if you have good internet and access to good essentials (safety, highway, schools, food, etc) then there can be some real good situations for efficient cost of living non-megacity life, including affordable homes. Lots of luck finding a meaningful job in Peoria or any of the rest of the 70% of the geographical US that is either just like Peoria or just wilderness. e: ^^^^^ sooooo, how did that conversation with a lawyer that you definitely had yesterday go?
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Sep 15, 2023 16:22
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Breetai posted:poo poo's hosed. The market has been deliberately overinflated by a succession of governments with awful policies that have turned houses from a place to live into a taxpayer subsidised investment vehicle which is great for cashed up developers and the rich but poo poo for everyone else.With regards to actual owner occupiers, now that interest rates aren't lower than 2% anymore the bottom 20% of earners with a mortgage are paying 60% of their take-home pay on average towards servicing those mortgages. My partner and I are extremely lucky in that we paid off the house just before interest rates tripled and we're secure in our housing, because a bunch of people are eating poo poo at the moment. pmchem posted:the rural home hate is a little overdone on internet forums full of city dwelling tech nerds. if you have good internet and access to good essentials (safety, highway, schools, food, etc) then there can be some real good situations for efficient cost of living non-megacity life, including affordable homes. It's a lot more complicated than "good Internet and you're fine". You commit to doing a lot of your shopping mail-order, because the only local stores are small boutiques of one kind or another. You commit to limited health services. You commit to somewhat limited groceries. I talked to the local butcher, a real break-the-carcass butcher, a couple of weeks ago about getting veal. "We haven't been able to get any from over the hill since the pandemic." (My son located some ground veal in the 'luxury meats' freezer case in the Safeway, nestled next to the bison and venison.) I love it here. Would I have moved here with young children? Hell, no.
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Sep 15, 2023 16:39
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I have also read that in the UK there's no such thing as a fixed-rate mortgage, only variable-rate. Is that true? Because ouch. Ham Equity fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Sep 15, 2023 |
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Sep 15, 2023 16:48
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Ham Equity posted:AL lives right next to where I grew up (I was about twenty minutes from the city she mentioned). The schools aren't terrible, but if you're a kid you're almost certainly either really into outdoorsy/farm poo poo, doing drugs and drinking, or spending a well and truly catastrophically unhealthy time in front of a screen. Given my presence here, you can probably figure out where I fell. There's no shame in being a TCC poster.
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Sep 15, 2023 16:50
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Ham Equity posted:....but if you're a kid you're almost certainly either really into outdoorsy/farm poo poo, doing drugs and drinking, or spending a well and truly catastrophically unhealthy amount of time in front of a screen. There is room for all three, we got time!
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Sep 15, 2023 17:04
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Peoria is my literal hometown and i'm here to say: it sucks rear end. don't be fooled its cheap for a reason
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Sep 15, 2023 17:09
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I grew up in a small town (grocery store, library, gas station, and a burger joint that was perpetually going in and out of business). School was pretty drat good, probably because the richest people in the area were Mormon farmers and at least out there they cared about education (I'm told Idaho Mormons disdain it). The nearest town with a Walmart or a Chinese restaurant was 40 minutes away. I did a lot of farm work and spent a ridiculous amount of time in front of a 486, dreaming about escaping the farm life so I could go touch computers professionally amongst other dedicated computer touchers. Now I'm in a big city dreaming about becoming a gentleman farmer (read: bad at farming) who doesn't have to touch computers so goddamn much. I don't know that I have anything of value to add to the conversation, except to note that humans are exceptionally good at being unhappy where they are, and that even when you've lived on both sides of the fence, the other side can still look pretty loving green.
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Sep 15, 2023 17:15
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I have also read that in the UK there's no such thing as a fixed-rate mortgage, only variable-rate. Is that true? Because ouch. We do have fixed-rate mortgages but the term is much shorter, so rather than fixing for the entire term of your mortgage you'll fix for the next few years – usually 2, 3 or 5 years but I think some places offer longer. Then when that period expires you'll go onto the variable rate until you remortgage with a new fix. This is causing a lot of people pain right now, as the average mortgage interest rate was really low for years, and in 2021 you could be fixing with less than a 2% interest rate. However over the last year or so the average rate has gone up to almost 6%, so anyone coming off a fix right now is getting hit with a massive increase in their monthly payment. I do wonder if much longer fixed terms will become more common after this.
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Sep 15, 2023 17:23
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Oh hey, it’s Friday!
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Sep 15, 2023 17:54
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Volcano posted:We do have fixed-rate mortgages but the term is much shorter, so rather than fixing for the entire term of your mortgage you'll fix for the next few years – usually 2, 3 or 5 years but I think some places offer longer. Then when that period expires you'll go onto the variable rate until you remortgage with a new fix. We have those too in the US, but they're not as popular. They're called X/Y Adjustable-Rate Mortgages (ARMs), such as a 7/1 ARM which would be fixed for the first 7 years and then readjust every 1 year thereafter.
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Sep 15, 2023 18:00
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Peoria is just a small-ish city. My wife got a job offer there to work at Caterpillar. I’m sure it sucks, but it’s not like the total sticks.
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Sep 15, 2023 18:00
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Sundae posted:Oh hey, it’s Friday! We could do with a Mod Challenge that HE can't post in this thread again until he admits he did not talk to a lawyer
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Sep 15, 2023 18:01
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Eric the Mauve posted:We could do with a Mod Challenge that HE can't post in this thread again until he admits he did not talk to a lawyer Didn't he say he talked with the lawyer 2 days ago?
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Sep 15, 2023 18:04
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Lockback posted:Didn't he say he talked with the lawyer 2 days ago? I'm still  waiting for an update. Did something happen?
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Sep 15, 2023 18:14
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Nope, he only said "I have a call with a lawyer today" and has not commented since. If you're less cynical than I am and you believe this whole thing isn't a gimmick, you can believe he talked to the lawyer and the lawyer said "holy poo poo stop posting about this on the internet you nincompoop".
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Sep 15, 2023 18:15
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Eric the Mauve posted:Nope, he only said "I have a call with a lawyer today" and has not commented since. If you're less cynical than I am and you believe this whole thing isn't a gimmick, you can believe he talked to the lawyer and the lawyer said "holy poo poo stop posting about this on the internet you nincompoop". Ham Equity posted:I expect most of the thread feels similarly. I can definitely understand the win/win of "I hope this goes well for you, but if it doesn't, there's always schadenfreude." Although honestly I don't think there is much to talk about until the sellers actually say what they're going to do.
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Sep 15, 2023 18:18
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rjmccall posted:Peoria is just a small-ish city. My wife got a job offer there to work at Caterpillar. I’m sure it sucks, but it’s not like the total sticks. the sticks have merit, there's fun redneck/outdoors poo poo to do in the sticks Peoria is like the rust belt without the culture. It's the worst of all possible worlds. There's like one good part of town. Also a very good low key taco joint.
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Sep 15, 2023 18:25
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The dearth of emergency medical care is the primary reason we haven't bailed on the bay area for rural california paradise (well that and, uh, the paradise of your town burning to the ground with no way out, but that's avoidable by selecting a paradise with more than one road, maybe). My wife and I are knocking on 50 years old, we both have had medical problems including my wife needing life-saving surgery a couple years ago, our parents are elderly and sickly, and it's pretty tough to think you could be left alone without your partner because you were a hour ambulance ride away from care that they needed in 30 minutes to keep them alive. There are reasons beyond just "that's where my job is" for why 70+% of americans live in cities. It's where all the other goods and services are concentrated too. And you know what? Goods and services are great, they loving rock. Looove me some services in particular. I love trees and solitude and ecosystems and peace and quiet and clear air and independence but also I looove having four choices within five miles for my vietnamese food, a fire station six blocks away with 24/7 paid professional firefighters inside and a fire hydrant outside my house they can hook up to, a dozen+ mechanics competing with each other to fix my car, and a municipal sewer system.
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Sep 15, 2023 18:42
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rjmccall posted:Peoria is just a small-ish city. My wife got a job offer there to work at Caterpillar. I’m sure it sucks, but it’s not like the total sticks. It's actually worse in every way than nearly every other comparably sized city I've been to in the entire state. Except maybe Springfield. It's similar to Springfield. Move to Bloomington. Move to Champaign. Move to the burbs. Why would you go to Peoria
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Sep 15, 2023 18:51
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Maybe the options are Peoria, Jackson MS, Preston ID, and Torrington WY
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Sep 15, 2023 18:57
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I'm still amused about this being such a perfect lesson in how leverage shifts after you sign the big check. I know buyers *feel* like there is all this pressure on them and its a sellers market, yada yada. But really you have a ton of leverage, all the way up until closing.
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Sep 15, 2023 18:57
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Hotel Kpro posted:Maybe the options are Peoria, Jackson MS, Preston ID, and Torrington WY hmm you got me there
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Sep 15, 2023 19:01
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Outside of some stupid, out of my control factor like money or climate change or whatever, I will never ever ever not live in or directly adjacent to a top 15 US major metro. Even with that, I probably wouldn’t accept living in half of the ones in that category. I’d also accept international major metros, but that’s more complicated.
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Sep 15, 2023 19:13
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Hotel Kpro posted:Maybe the options are Peoria, Jackson MS, Preston ID, and Torrington WY That Arkansas town the tech millionaire turned fusion crackpot was buying up incompetently.
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Sep 15, 2023 19:22
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:i will give someone mid five figgies to NOT live in peoria What? you don't want to work for CAT? My uncle has done his whole career there. Bounced between Peoria, Decatur, and Japan. He is 2 years from retiring and they are buying a house in Colorado. They don't want to live in either Peoria or Decatur as "we want to be some place our 4 kids actually wan to visit". T-minus 5.5 hours to the Ham key exchange.
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Sep 15, 2023 19:25
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