posted on August 17, 2001 02:34:37 PM new
saabsister
LoL Neither can I. When you mentioned lay of the land, his name just occurred to me. I have no idea what his houses sell for.
I sometimes go to estate sales in which the homes have sold for 2 or 3 million. I just can't imagine how so much territory would be handled by two or three people.
I think that Gravid has the answer. You can always trace it to the dollar bill. Maybe it's just an investment and avoidance of capital gains taxes that is motivating the purchase of such big houses...
posted on August 17, 2001 03:11:45 PM new
I'm usually bothered by new houses in my area, and also in other areas I've been, because they tend to be built close together in those "cookie cutter" suburban developments. They're nice inside, but the quality isn't usually what you'd find in some older homes.
About living in big houses -- I'd love to have a big, old Victorian home. Big so I can spread out in it, Victorian for the character. My house right now is about 2700 sq feet, with hubby and the cats and me living there. It's a perfect size for us, though style-wise it's not our dream home (very Brady Bunch).
posted on August 17, 2001 03:28:46 PM new
Hepburn, that's what my brother is going to do.
If you buy a house you put down 10% but if you buy empty land to build, then you must put down 25% because there is no real equity THEN apply for a separate building loan.
So his solution was to find an upscale mobile home dealer which will finance the whole ball of wax at 10% like a "regular home". Then when the mobile home starts to deteriorate, he will have saved up a downpayment for a building loan and be ready to build. They have finally found land and are on the way to being homeowners. He is 27 years old, no kids, in a "college community" apartment.
posted on August 17, 2001 04:11:05 PM new
Besides the fact that if you live in tornado alley, the only real problem with mobile homes is that they depreciate in value. The land that you've put it on, may have increased in value, but the actual home is going to be worth nothing, or next to nothing.
posted on August 17, 2001 05:42:38 PM new
The new houses around here look like rich folks' log cabins. It's very mixed here with some homes being very upscale, and some (like mine) being small homes that were built for miners and their families in the 20's (though my basement was built in the 90's).
If you're resourceful and determined, you can find a home. I had no visible means of support (though I had healthy savings), and I purchased my little treasure for $12K down and I worked out the mortgage so it's paid for in 13.5 years. Owner financed - I love it because no bank got any money - it all goes to a retired couple who still live in town. It's small, but it has a full basement and unused attic space if I ever need more living space.
A couple of miles from here is a very mixed neighborhood, where some houses go for upward of $250k, and right across the street might be a little A-frame left over from when hippies bought land here because it was practically given away.
An hour and half west of here is Seattle. The entire purchase price of my house probably wouldn't be a down payment there.
posted on August 17, 2001 07:13:50 PM new
We have a number of Wright homes here and they are cheap.
They are interesting to look at but hell to live in.
There was a reason he designed furniture for the homes - if you try to put normal furniture in there is not room.
They are small, dark, hot, they leak, they rot and are almost impossible to modernize both by design and because the people who fall on their faces adoring the great man want you to keep them original like a shrine. They are impossible to escape in a fire.
I am not impressed with architects. Heinlein said it best. "They copy each other's mistakes and call it art."
In particular architects avoid the reality
of winter and summer. They design roof lines that shed water on the side walks so they are a glare of ice in the winter. They design a parking lot that can not be seen under a few inches of snow so it can not be plowed and do not leave a place to accomadate the plowed snow so that it is on the walk or filling needed parking spaces. They design air conditioning capacity for the BUILDING ignoring the fact that a room will have 200 people in it each of whom disapates the equivelant of a 50 watt bulb in body heat - or the equal of 10 space heaters running full blast.
I could go on.....
posted on August 17, 2001 07:46:24 PM new
Gravid, I agree with much of what you've said about architects. Often they don't have to live with their failed experiments. When I toured Fallingwater a few years ago, I was astounded at the money budgeted for upkeep. (Of course, I believe that having thousands of people touring it each year has an effect on that.) However, my husband and I were confounded by an area in our house and his uncle who was an architect took about two minutes to look at it and come up with a solution. I worked out the details with a carpenter and ended up with a darkroom, entryway,closet for my computer , and storage space.
Sadie999, my neighborhood has a lot of the hippy houses too.
The Frank Lloyd Wright houses and buildings are old but still in better condition than the brand new cracker box houses made of strandboard that architechs in Potomac Maryland sell for 800,000 to 3 million.
I suppose it's a matter of taste. I prefer Frank Lloyd Wright.
This is a site that you can use to search for a Lloyd house or building in your zip code area.
Wright houses sell for much less than the Potomac Maryland houses but the quality is far superior in my opinion and I would not characterize them as "cheap".
Helen
To remove double sig.
[ edited by Hjw on Aug 17, 2001 08:39 PM ]
posted on August 18, 2001 08:34:48 AM new
How they look seems to rest on where the people have moved from. This is pretty much a retirement town that has the draw of two huge lakes and many rivers. Hunters and fisherman spend their vacations here. People who love the water and enjoy boating are drawn here too.
An example, the people who have moved here from the Illinois, Wisconsin or Minnesota areas seem to prefer the english country style, similiar to what your picture shows. I've been told it's because in the areas they were from homes make totally of brick are more well insulated against the weather. They are also expensive to build there, but very affordable here.
This area (north-central AR. - 12 miles from the MO. boarder) is very diversified in it's housing, both in looks and cost. There are trailers, shacks and manufactured homes across the roads from huge brick homes, and only a few 'pockets' of same-style housing here. There are many very old homes with mostly painted wood siding. There are homes, newly built that have redwood siding, some that are all vinyl, some that are 1/2 vinyl and 1/2 brick. I've seen only a handful of stucco homes in our county.
Then you have the homes with winter only lake views, all year lake views, lake access on a short distance away, and walk right down into the lake from your own front lawn lake homes. A house has additional value if it has its own boat dock also.
The newer the house, usually the more it sells for. Square footage to build runs anywhere from a low of $65.00/per sq. ft to $95.00/per sq ft. for the average house. Depends on the quality of fixtures and upgrades you want.
Much different than the areas in So. CA (beach areas) and Central CA (San Jose) we lived in. There tract housing was all over and
pretty much each sub-division looked the same. When we moved here there was a sub-division that was just completed in the Almaden area....huge homes with only 5-6 feet (if that) between them. No back, front or side yards to speak of. Most of these homes had a 10 x 10 patio area with about the same amount of grass for a back yard. They were selling with beginning prices of $750,000.00 right next to the dump. The way they did the low-income housing was to build two 3,000 apartment/condo units right along a very busy expressway.
posted on August 18, 2001 09:05:30 AM newsaabsister I'll take that mason built house anyday over one of those cheesy wood builts with those tin two by fours... with vinyl siding. At least masonary will be around for years to come. But, most lazy people don't like it cause it requires maintainence in the long run. They don't heat well either and are hot boxes in the summer in the North East. The vinyl likely reduces the sun/heat absorption where the sun pounds it likely the back of the house by the sound of it. What no cirle windows or gargoyles to ward off evil neighbors?
Ugh, a Frank Lloyd Wright house? We have them in the North East. Besides a ruler and saw the man had no imagination... yuck to him! My opinion. Now Antonio Gauti's work was interesting at least! Two very differen periods though.
[ edited by Empires on Aug 18, 2001 09:10 AM ]
posted on August 18, 2001 11:15:51 AM new
When my fiance and I bought our house almost 5 years ago, we paid $66500 for 2.018 acres in the woods and a 3 bd, 1 1/2 bath rancher. Talk about rural location. Our backyard was a cow pasture for 3 years and there were many times when we would see a cow walk by our front window. One night we were awakened by the dogs barking and found about 20 cows having a meeting in the front yard. BTW, we live in Delaware and the owner of the cows lived in Florida. Right now, the house he used to live in here is for sale for $265,000 (it's right up the road a piece). If we walk to the end of our driveway we can see 8 chicken houses. As far as how do we fill up 3 bedrooms for only 2 people. Well, he has a room, I have a room and we have a room. Works out great.
posted on August 18, 2001 10:43:57 PM new
Hi! Long-time lurker here posting for the first time! This subject caught my eye. And I mostly wanted to respond due to being from a different region than what it appears the rest of the posters are from. The Good Life" of Nebraska (not a GREAT life just a GOOD life!) I live in Omaha and this city has so much variety for homes. The neighborhood I live in is quite historical and my tiny little Bungalow of a house is just one block away from well built Mansions from the early 1900's that regularly sell for $200,000 +. I am definitely a huge fan of the older homes as they have such history and character behind them. Though the newer huge super expensive homes are very impressive and enviable in our city, I can't help but notice they are VERY close together and so out of proportion with the amount of land they are sitting on.
When my husband and I bought our house, the loan was based on my income only (we weren't yet married and weren't ready to combine our income). I hated that we could only afford a $60,000 home! What we got was a post WWII cement slab house with 1000 sq ft. Initially, I HATED IT!!! However, it is located in the very best school district in the state. Somedays I find it impossible to keep up with messes and could never imagine having anything bigger!!! We just keep making modifications which help it feel larger. I also get a kick out of the fact that my mortgage payment is 1/2 the size of by best friends mortgage and always less than other friends monthly RENT!!! Plus, with many nearby city area changes, our property value has gone up over $15,000 in 3 years! Equity, equity, equity!
I have many friends who live in very large overdone homes in the newer, ever expanding section of our city. They do not know their neighbors. Perhaps this is because the interior of their homes are SO large they never have to go outside. With my tiny home and my neighbors with the same, we treat the outside like 1 large room and meet everyone. The absolute best part of any home is your neighbors!!!!!!!!
posted on August 18, 2001 11:44:21 PM new
Homes in Indy vary in size, architecture, price and availability, based on location. Indianapolis (Marion County), is divided into nine townships (excluding the metro-are).
The architecure of a home will depend greatly in the township. Older, better built homes, will be located in the city and can cost anywhere from $80,000 to $1.5 million. We have that kind of development here.
The home I purchased is located right outside of the old city limits. I am "quasi" suburban, but not by much. It's a 10-minute commute from my home to Downtown, where I work.
The purchase price of my home was much lower than the appraisal, partly because it was a "spec" home, the builder ( a small custom builder), was looking to complete development he had started six years before I came along to the neighborhood. My home is newer, but is considered "in-fill" development, i.e., newer homes built in existing neighborhoods.
I got a pretty good deal, based on the condo I had previously purchased. I now have 2,500 square feet (compared to 1,500 in my condo), on nearly two acres (backyard mostly). However, my property assessment continues to rise and I wonder how long it will it be before I will have to move due to escalating property taxes.
posted on August 19, 2001 01:47:29 AM new
Welcome Spanishcat!
I think you may really be onto something there. We know our neighbors but we hardly spend time with anyone. As I have said before, people stay home and go to work. When we moved here to an old house that was our goal. We set out to have the woods for hunting and hiking, open land for horses and the telescope, built a barn, put in a goldfish pond with kid swings and trampoline. It already had a large workshop and a greenhouse. Then inside we turned a room into a library with more books than the local one, created a studio with a view, a science lab, a darkroom, a hobby room for hubby, kid play areas, livingroom for tv, built a deck, and now we have a full arcade. (I don't care for the arcade.) Hubby built a stairway to the attic and put in a train layout. Then we quit our jobs to ebay and enjoy it and brought the kids home to homeschool. Anyway, the point is, we don't really NEED to go anywhere aside from taking an 18 wheeler to Wal-Mart once a month to stock up...and that was our goal, to create a self-contained world. At the time, I think we were thinking we would often have people over and would enjoy all these things with others...but then they all have created self contained worlds too so no one comes over aside from visiting sleep-over kids. Another minor factor may be that all our close neighbors are elderly and we are in our 30s. No "neighborhood" kids at all. Everyone owns land from 5-150 acres so that spreads us apart too no matter the size of the house.
Last night I was watching an educational tv show about communities that made some good points. They talked about how in cities ethnic groups clump, about how people are closely packed but very detached and members of non-geographic communities (including work associates and aerobics classes). That in small towns, communities tend to be more geographic often surrounding worship and school and neighborhood.
They said upper classes are almost always uniquely non-geographic in their communities (finding a club, group, work setting) and that middle and lower classes tend to nearly always be members of truely geographic communities. They made the point that georaphic communities tend to be more truely mixed when it comes to social classes and ethnic groups.
I don't know what's wrong with us..LOL. We are definitely lower-middle class and the only "communities" that I am involved with are chat boards and convinence store clerks.
My hometown growing up was definitely a "geographic community". Then we lived in the city and were "non-geographic" in our "communities". Now I think maybe we live in a very rural setting near a small town where we are not "natives", but very close to a good size city and it just screws everything up completely.
Was an interesting show. I was thinking of this thread.
T
~It's that mosquito again. I haven't slept in a month.
posted on August 19, 2001 04:39:56 AM new
We have a lot of people here in the Detroit area that have cash businesses like grocery stores and will have a 20 million dollar business with 40 employees and claim $22k income for the year. Right.... So they have what they call NODOC loans. If you have 30 to 40% down they will write you any loan you want because it does not matter if you ever make a payment. If you default there is so musch equity in the home from the start they will still make out after all the expense of taking it back.
We did have one couple however that made a no doc and they called they were going to be about a half hour late to closing. When they came in they had the down payment and closing costs cash which is very unusual. Turns out later they had had a finacial reversal the week before and robbed a bank on the way to closing!
