what do homes go for in your area??

[Smash255]

just wondering what the average home price is and what the values are in everyone's area

here in Nassau County NY (Long Island) home values are skyrocketing.  Average price is around $465,000 in Nassau and around $525,000 in my area, values have skyrocketed here in the last 5-10 years.  What are thhe values in your area?

[Smash255]

my area Massapequa/massapequa Park, just looking at homes currently for sale the range is 350k- 1.6 million, (thats just for sale now, their are homes in the $2million range) most homes though are in the $425,000-$675,000 range.  

Outside of forclosure properties you will be hard pressed to find a home in Nassau County under 250,000 (even in the bad neighborhoods) with values in the 3-4 million+ range in some areas.   Values for the most part tend to be between 350,000-650,000, but quite a few towns have average values of near $1million or more especially along the North Shore

[Smash255]

$97,400 is the median according to city-data.com

not too expensive but our median household income is only $33,956. ouch.

Actually, your median income is pretty much in line with the rule that you can afford a house that costs about 3x your annual income.

That's a much healthier market in terms of affordability than exists in my area.  I would guess that our median home price is well more than 3x the median income of the area.  The newcomers have much higher incomes than those who have been here a while.

The so called industry standard rule of thumb is a bit more complicated than that.  Basically your monthly debts (mortgage, credit card, car and other payments) compared to your monthly income (pre-tax).  Generally if your liabilities tend to be 50-55% or less of your monthly income the affordability matches up.

Cost of living is generally quite a bit higher in where we live, compared to much of the other parts of the country, but income is higher also. 

ANother thing is those living in areas with lower values where the properties don't appreciate that much it becomes harder to refinance, and pay off credit cards, car loans & other high payments that  can roll into their mortgage with a lower rate because the equity didn't build up enough in order to pay off those things in the mortgage.  in areas where values are skyrocketing its pretty easy & quick to build a large amount of equity so you could pay off a whole bunch of stuff refinancing & still come out well ahead because of the massive amount of equity you have built into the property.  People can buy an investment property here, sell it in a couple years and make well over 100k from the equity (hard to do that in other parts of the country).  So it is without a doubt harder for someone to afford a home in our areas (and more needs to be done on affordable housing) their are other advantages that people in NY, CA, WA, MA, CT (& other areas with high values) have that people in other parts of the country don't have such as very quick equity buildup

[Smash255]

300k - 750k but we get much more house for our money than people in the new england area. My mom works with a team in new york and they compared houses and our 2,800 sqr ft home would be worth almost 4 times as much in long island.

It cuts both ways as far as benefits go.  The same home down where you are is MUCH CHEAPER than here, but the insanity in the esculation of values, if you sell your home within a couple years you could make hundreds of thousands of $$$ on equity alone.

[Smash255]

I'm strictly an apartment man myself, what with my non-committal nature and all, but I can tell you we looked into buying as an investment recently.  I can say that the difference between the part of Alameda Co., California I lived till August, and the part of Lowndes Co., Mississippi that I have lived in recently are bigger than I would have imagined.  For example, a newly built, never-lived-in home in Alameda County in a small (~50,000) city in a nice Republican (predominantly white) neighborhood with amenities about 3000 square feet cost on the order of 900 thousand dollars.  The same house with the same amenities of the same vintage in the same type of neighborhood in Lowndes County costs about 150 thousand.  Only real differences:  decent schools versus sorely underperforming schools, arid sunbelt climate versus subtropical humid climate, and higher taxes versus lower taxes.  We haven't bought any properties, and are not likely to in the near future, at least till we find that little corner of America where we want to grow old (and after living in more than 30 cities in 11 states I can tell you I haven't found it yet).  But I do investigate the potential for investment, and I am amazed at the nationwide differences.

Another amazing phenomenon is the difference between housing prices over time.  In 1996 I moved into a 3-apartment, 3-story dwelling about 4 miles north of downtown Boston, MA.  I lived there for five years.  The man who bought the property at the time I was moving in (an otherwise well adjusted middle-aged laywer who liked to go onto the internet and pretend he was a 20-something, well-built, gay fireman, no kidding) paid 258 thousand for the property.  In the summer of 2000, about a year before I moved out of the property, he sold the building for 505 thousand dollars.  Nearly a one hundred percent profit over a period of just four years!

Two morals here:  1.  Real estate was a good investment in the period from the mid-90s to the turn of the century.  2.  If one could have a California salary and a Mississippi rent one would have it made in the shade.

Just some observations I thought relevant to the thread. 

Real estate still is a good investment, you just need to know where to invest.   Long Island, NYC, hudson valley in NY are good places to invest, much of CT are great places to invest, most of Massachuttes (especially near Boston) are good places to invest.  Washington D.C burbs (even the city) itself are good places to invest (Fairfax County, VA especially), much of California especially the Bay Area are great places to invest & so is the Seattle area.  The home values in these areas tend to be quite expensive, but rent out the property and have an interest only mortgage payment it suddenly becomes affordable, then sell the home within a few years and make a profit on the equity.  Haven't done it yet myself, but this is something that i'm really taking into consideration.

[Smash255]

just wondering what the average home price is and what the values are in everyone's area

here in Nassau County NY (Long Island) home values are skyrocketing.  Average price is around $465,000 in Nassau and around $525,000 in my area, values have skyrocketed here in the last 5-10 years.  What are thhe values in your area?

Pretty f***ing depressing isn't it Smash.  The only values you will really find are in areas that are considered "turning" - read blacks and spanish moving in- like valley stream, elmont for a while now, Baldwin, Malverne(because people don't want their children to go to school with n#ggers (used for effect)  from Southside- heavans forbid.  I laugh when I look through Real Estate books at the amount of codewords they build in to say hey your neighbor wont be black. 

Most homes even in those areas still go for 350-450k