Dennis Ferguson wrote:
Ryan, KC8PMX wrote:

Around here in this county I live in, home ownership is next to impossible,
except for spending at least $75,000 or better. The average small 3 bedroom
house, no basement or garage (slab built) on a half to full acre runs *at
least* 75 grand or better. Go immediately outside of the county lines of
this county, and the similar/equivalent structure is anywhere from 25-50%
less. I guess it is something about Midland county I guess.


The cost of a home always seems to be "next to impossible" relative to
the place it is located in, with the "next to" part being key. The other
constant since the end of World War II has been that the "next to impossible"
price very often looks cheap when viewed in retrospect, though I'm not sure
one should count on this being true everywhere forever.

In my little city, State College PA, there is 1 lower cost housing
development (actually about ten miles out of town, and of the locals,
all who are employed in the retail trade (save the owners) live outside
of town. It is not next to impossible, it truly is. It has caused a
strange anomaly. The only houses being built at this time are houses
from around 500K to the 2 million dollar range.

Note I use words like impossible and only. I don't doubt you might find
a 250 thousand dollar (low end) house being built around here, and there
is no doubt some people who work at the local Megalo-Mart and live near
town in a trailer, but that is certainly the trend around here


If there were $75,000 houses where I lived and intended to stay I think
I'd struggle to buy one. You have to live somewhere, and even if the
post-WW2 trend doesn't hold the prices other places have a lot further
to fall.

Hoowwee! Your not kidding! If you can get a house around these parts
for 75K, it is probably a major fixer-upper, or a mobile home.

- Mike KB3EIA -