View Poll Results: What do y'all think is 'pricey'?
over $10 less that $100,000
35
23.18%
$100,000 - $200,000
17
11.26%
$200,000 - $300,000
28
18.54%
$300,000 - $400,000
23
15.23%
$400,000 - $500,000
8
5.30%
over $500,000
20
13.25%
over $750,000
8
5.30%
over $1,000,000
12
7.95%
Voters: 151. You may not vote on this poll
What do y'all think is 'pricey'?
Senior Member
Joined: 06-26-2008
Posts: 4,152
From: N.W. Burbs Chicago
A few of the places i've worked in the last two years.
27,000 sqft new constuction home in barrington il. - The driveway cost more than my house.
$ 30,000,000 rehab on a three flat on Astor street in chicago (google it).
$27,000,000 new construction in naperville il. 13,000 sqft
$5,000,000 trump tower 2 bedroom unit.
It's all about the location , And the zipcode.
The highest taxes i've heard , Lake front, lake forrest il. $325,000 per year.
At the end of the day , I come home to my wife of 20 years, My two girls , And my $225,000 - 2400 sqft home Thats 30 miles away from most of the places i work , and it's all good.
27,000 sqft new constuction home in barrington il. - The driveway cost more than my house.
$ 30,000,000 rehab on a three flat on Astor street in chicago (google it).
$27,000,000 new construction in naperville il. 13,000 sqft
$5,000,000 trump tower 2 bedroom unit.
It's all about the location , And the zipcode.
The highest taxes i've heard , Lake front, lake forrest il. $325,000 per year.
At the end of the day , I come home to my wife of 20 years, My two girls , And my $225,000 - 2400 sqft home Thats 30 miles away from most of the places i work , and it's all good.
Senior Member
Joined: 06-26-2008
Posts: 4,152
From: N.W. Burbs Chicago
28 months = 53,000 miles , Ya it hurts me to be killing my most favorite ride ever, Everyday. I wish i could park it , And just mess with it every day. Retractable rocker panel black leather wings that spring out at the push of a dash switch. WOW this beer is strong.
Rest In Peace
Joined: 06-13-2010
Posts: 2,301
From: IL.
This is an Oldie of a Thread.
I bought my 3BR 1 and 3/4 Bathrooms Brick Ranch style on a crawl space with a Detached 22x24 heated garage, side concrete drive way, 12x12 family room addition on the back with fireplace about 19 years ago for $112,500.00.
Thats on a typically small suburban lot.
Our Area is typically blue collar workers with white collar workers nice neighborhoods. Were near Chicago so the Suburbs around here are built up and congested, but the Work is in this area and moving further away just means even More travel time to and from work.
You gotta go pretty far now to reach "Rural" areas with lower cost homes.
Back in 2006 (when this thread was started) our home was worth/selling for $280.000.00 and in our area of the town were in, the houses that did go up for sale Sold within Days.
Todays value, about $220,000.00, and you may Wait Months for a Buyer who can actually get a loan.
Up until 2006-07 they (Contractors) were buying up Older small wood frame houses that were early Suburban houses that were built on Double lots and Tearing them down and building TWO houses in it's place. Two stories with more square footage and smaller lots.
Trend being people wanted More House, Less lot size to Maintain. Selling for $350-$400,000.00 mixed in with our smaller 1950-60's built suburban houses.
In 2005 I was doing up some remodeling projects like covering the houses eaves with aluminum so they never needed painting and vinyl siding the garage for the same reason to make the outside 100% maintenance free.
And was gonna Sell and Move out further away to a more Rural area to get More land and I wanted either a Pole barn type building or a Second 2-3 car garage for a Shop.
I was gonna make the Longer drive daily to get what I wanted, then while doing those outside projects I was injured on the job, had a few repair surgeries and stints of rehab for the injury between surgeries and slowly watched my Equity shrink away.
I bought within our means when we bought, got a 30 year loan. and Never refinanced or touched our equity, I watched friends and family refinancing for lower rates, taking money out at closing and spending it Foolishly on new furniture, Vacations and nice cars. Since then Some are now stuggling to make their payments and some Lost their homes living beyond their means.
Playing that "keep up with the Joneses" game, and Lost everything.
I'm a Construction worker, Union, and lived well enough taking care of 4 kids with 2 in College now and my Home is Almost paid off in Full.
Even though I watched a large chunk of Equity slip away these past few years, I am still way ahead of the game.
Once a Settlement is reached on my injuries, I will move to a nice Rural area and finally have my large Shop on my own land.
I will use my homes sale to make that purchase free and clear and my settlement will be used Wisely to live on during Retirement.
Don't get me wrong here, we Like Nice things too. But in order to get them, I worked Hard and worked Every single Overtime hour offered and did Sidejobs to Pay for all the Nice things and paid for them in Cash.
Right now my HHR I bought Used, got what I wanted and SAVED ALOT over buying it New. My Loan for it is from a Bank, and is a 36 Month loan.(That's the Minimum loan Length they would give) I am making Triple Monthly payments to pay off my HHR within 12 Months. I will Own it free and clear before the Factrory Warranty expires.
And I still have done most of the Mods to the HHR that I wanted to do, all of them paid for in full.
I use credit cards Sparingly and when I do, I have the CASH already set aside to pay that item off in full.
I remember growing up and my Parents never even had a credit card until I was old enough the know what they were, and there one and only one for years was a SEARS card, used for Emergencies only.
My Dad was a Union construction worker and did Sidejobs after work to buy the nice things and paid for them in cash, I guess thats were I get it from.
Your day job, Paid the Bills, your sidework, bought you the Extras.
I bought my 3BR 1 and 3/4 Bathrooms Brick Ranch style on a crawl space with a Detached 22x24 heated garage, side concrete drive way, 12x12 family room addition on the back with fireplace about 19 years ago for $112,500.00.
Thats on a typically small suburban lot.
Our Area is typically blue collar workers with white collar workers nice neighborhoods. Were near Chicago so the Suburbs around here are built up and congested, but the Work is in this area and moving further away just means even More travel time to and from work.
You gotta go pretty far now to reach "Rural" areas with lower cost homes.
Back in 2006 (when this thread was started) our home was worth/selling for $280.000.00 and in our area of the town were in, the houses that did go up for sale Sold within Days.
Todays value, about $220,000.00, and you may Wait Months for a Buyer who can actually get a loan.
Up until 2006-07 they (Contractors) were buying up Older small wood frame houses that were early Suburban houses that were built on Double lots and Tearing them down and building TWO houses in it's place. Two stories with more square footage and smaller lots.
Trend being people wanted More House, Less lot size to Maintain. Selling for $350-$400,000.00 mixed in with our smaller 1950-60's built suburban houses.
In 2005 I was doing up some remodeling projects like covering the houses eaves with aluminum so they never needed painting and vinyl siding the garage for the same reason to make the outside 100% maintenance free.
And was gonna Sell and Move out further away to a more Rural area to get More land and I wanted either a Pole barn type building or a Second 2-3 car garage for a Shop.
I was gonna make the Longer drive daily to get what I wanted, then while doing those outside projects I was injured on the job, had a few repair surgeries and stints of rehab for the injury between surgeries and slowly watched my Equity shrink away.
I bought within our means when we bought, got a 30 year loan. and Never refinanced or touched our equity, I watched friends and family refinancing for lower rates, taking money out at closing and spending it Foolishly on new furniture, Vacations and nice cars. Since then Some are now stuggling to make their payments and some Lost their homes living beyond their means.
Playing that "keep up with the Joneses" game, and Lost everything.
I'm a Construction worker, Union, and lived well enough taking care of 4 kids with 2 in College now and my Home is Almost paid off in Full.
Even though I watched a large chunk of Equity slip away these past few years, I am still way ahead of the game.
Once a Settlement is reached on my injuries, I will move to a nice Rural area and finally have my large Shop on my own land.
I will use my homes sale to make that purchase free and clear and my settlement will be used Wisely to live on during Retirement.
Don't get me wrong here, we Like Nice things too. But in order to get them, I worked Hard and worked Every single Overtime hour offered and did Sidejobs to Pay for all the Nice things and paid for them in Cash.
Right now my HHR I bought Used, got what I wanted and SAVED ALOT over buying it New. My Loan for it is from a Bank, and is a 36 Month loan.(That's the Minimum loan Length they would give) I am making Triple Monthly payments to pay off my HHR within 12 Months. I will Own it free and clear before the Factrory Warranty expires.
And I still have done most of the Mods to the HHR that I wanted to do, all of them paid for in full.
I use credit cards Sparingly and when I do, I have the CASH already set aside to pay that item off in full.
I remember growing up and my Parents never even had a credit card until I was old enough the know what they were, and there one and only one for years was a SEARS card, used for Emergencies only.
My Dad was a Union construction worker and did Sidejobs after work to buy the nice things and paid for them in cash, I guess thats were I get it from.
Your day job, Paid the Bills, your sidework, bought you the Extras.
Senior Member
Joined: 06-21-2008
Posts: 1,458
From: SE Michigan
Hey, A&P, stop using logic.....
I've done pretty much the same, 1 credit card that is used only for reserving hotel rooms.
When I had to change jobs, and take a pay cut, I called my mortgage company and arranged a short sale since I could no longer afford my home.
After 6 months with no bids, the mortgage company signed over the deed. Seems it was going to cost more to take the house than to just write it off.
Haven't had a house payment in a year, however, I have a car payment since I took a loan out on the HHR in order to save my house from back taxes.
I've done pretty much the same, 1 credit card that is used only for reserving hotel rooms.
When I had to change jobs, and take a pay cut, I called my mortgage company and arranged a short sale since I could no longer afford my home.
After 6 months with no bids, the mortgage company signed over the deed. Seems it was going to cost more to take the house than to just write it off.
Haven't had a house payment in a year, however, I have a car payment since I took a loan out on the HHR in order to save my house from back taxes.
Senior Member
Joined: 03-06-2010
Posts: 6,869
From: Ohio
Paid $43,000 cash for my home before the market fell apart (worthless now, nothing sells in this town) and cash for my used HHR this spring. Divorced/Single, no kids, no debt...... I do okay. Never fell for the "keep up with the Joneses" I don't even know who they are and don't want to....... 
Rest In Peace
Joined: 06-13-2010
Posts: 2,301
From: IL.
I got it. Youve made it this far, you'll do OK.Doing sidejobs I hope?
My Father always bought his work vans Cash.
Drive them for about 175,000miles all the while keeping them looking like New. And all the while making a "car Payment" to, Himself monthly.
Then when it was time for a new one, he would walk in and pay for it in full.
And then start over making a car payment to himself, always using his sidejob money for that "payment".
My mon always had either a Cadillac (Had 2 that I remember) then my dad bought her a Jaguar from the Jaguar dealer 1/2 a block away and around the corner from us.
She LOVED those Jags. XJ6's and a Vanden Plas.