Firewatcher

I still live in the town both my wife and I grew up in. Over a hundred years ago, it was industrial/farms. A lot of property dissapeared under water when 25% of the town was flooded as the Metropolitan Water Works needed more water for Boston. Nowadays we have a mixed bag of business, with NStar Gas/Electric and EMC as the major employers. We are just under 25 miles from Boston, 12 miles from Worcester. We have 2 of the oldest boarding schools in the US. The farms have dried up. The last herd left town last year for more development. The average cost for a home right now is $550,000. We have 4 subdivisions with homes in the area of $700,000. We have 2 subdivisions where the the homes start at $1,650,000. Thats where that link I posted leads. My neighborhood is one of two left where the homes were built in the mid 1800's (mine was 1852). People have actually purchsed homes in excess of a million and torn them down for bigger homes. Ex. - A couple bought a home for $1,200,000. The fire department used the place for training, then it was razed. A new home was built.....this is no lie....6,500 square feet under the roof, including an attached carriage house and huge pool house. Sits on 3 acres. Construction cost........$3,500,000. Crazy, ain't it? Oh yeah.....6 beds, 4 baths, hubby, wife, 2 kids. And the dog!

Pizzaman

OMG!!!!! I have a 4 bedroom, 3 full bath home, with 2000 sq. ft, in one of the best neighborhoods in my town, 3 MD's and 2 corporate execs on my street, it is nearly 30 years old, but ithas been nearly totally renovated. We have 1 acre of land and we also have a 2 car attached gar as well as a 1 1/2 story 900 sq. ft detatched gar that is 1 yr old and we just had it all appraised for 190,000 and I thought it seemed over valued. I wish i could move it to cali to sell!!!!!! i love Batesville!!!!!!

Low Tone

Man, you guys are being harsh on the kid and he's probably right!

If you live in a coastal state, chances are you're going to pay out the ass for a house. I paid $50,000 for my house here in the Midwest. It's nothing special but the same house on the market in Cali would most likely run $100,000 to $150,000 easy depending on location. If his parent's place is exceptionally well kept and has any space at all, I'm not the least bit suprized about a $276,000 price tag.

booksmitty

You must also remember incomes here are probably larger to compensate for the cost of living.

Low Tone

Exactly.

GDZHHR

Everybody has lost the point I was trying to make which was to say that saying that $675,000 is NOT "pricey" is not true for most people anywhere in the U.S..

Making an allowance for it being SoCal is a little like saying that since I live in Missouri all of the homes are $100,000 to $160,000 since mine falls into that price range.

I live in a home in a nice area that was appaised at $130,000. There is also a town within 5 miles of my house where the median price is well over a million.

Does this mean that a million is not "pricey"? It would be average for that area.

This still does not change that fact that $675,000 is still "pricey".

You can buy cars which cost well over a $100,000. Yes they are exceptional cars, yes they may be worth it, yes if I had the funds I would be driving one....that being said, they are still "pricey".

I know that I may have come off as being hard on the young man, but I can not help but think that such a casual attitude towards such a large sum of money is a sign of either immaturity which I am sure is the case here (I don't mean that in a bad way, just as a sign of not having any perspective) or being spoiled and not having a clue, which I don't think is the case here.

I just think that for someone as young as he is to have such a casual attitude towards such an amount to be normal, that just bothers me and for that I will offer no apology.

My point was that ANYWHERE, $675,000 is "pricey", whether its a good fair price for that area or not and that most young people about KK's age lack the life-experiance to even be able to make a judgement like that because their world is so small. Just because something is worth what you pay for it doesn't make it any less expensive!

I am sorry that this has gone on as it has, Kar Krazy I appolgize to you if you felt that this was an attack on you, it was not really meant to be that. It was just my bad attempt at pointing out what I thought was a unrealistic statement.

booksmitty

Oh Grasshopper, they still do not understand...

$100K would buy the dirt, maybe in SoCal. I have seen property in our big cities sell by the sq in. (100K population isn't that big here, hence it's not a big city) But I know it would be huge in many states. Some towns in some states have 15K pop. and it's the county seat. Here that's kinda a hick town. No offence meant.

Here, 100K pop. it's just another city.

Einstein said, "it's all relative."

But most of us want to be HERE!

booksmitty

Our HHR's are assembled in Mexico. I lived in Mexico almost 3 years. The average person working in their factory probably makes $40-50 a week. That's a six day week.

We look at the HHR as a lower priced vehicle. The SSR is $40K. So we have a bargain?! Right?

Now tell the person in Mexico, building your car and making say, $50 a week, that the $20,000 you're paying for it isn't a lot of money! Oh, and a bag of beans in Mexico cost more than the same bag of beans here in the US.

That what "being relative" means. And now you may understand why many down south want to come north.

p.s. Mexico is a great country. I loved it there, y hablo espanol.

Kar Krazie

I accept your apology. But there are some things that still bug me.

I have an excellent perspective of the prices and real estate in my area. I constatly watch it, so I do know what is "pricey" in my area. My area is a more expensive area because it's in California. In other areas such as the midwest, $675,000 is "pricey" Its all relative to the area in which you live.

I am not immature, I have a very good idea, especially when it comes to prices. I am very upset that you would say something like that.

TomsHHR

I have a 2 bedroom with unattached garage, 64 ft dock 120' on a lake .5 acres, well, brand new septic. bought it for in the low-low 30's 10 years ago and have houses around me running for 250,000 lately. This year the taxes were assesed st 84,000, now thats ?? or Luck

Yep Kar, I know guys in the NYC area that their houses run 1.2 mil.. it all depends on the area..