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+--- Thread: Housing market slump? (/showthread.php?tid=5730)
- HAULN-SS - 04-02-2007
what do you mean "nice places to live?"
I'd much rather be at home living halfway up a mountain in a damn nice 250k house. I think you must have meant "nice place to find jobs" when you said that.
- .RJ - 04-02-2007
HAULN-SS Wrote:I'd much rather be at home living halfway up a mountain in a damn nice 250k house. I think you must have meant "nice place to find jobs" when you said that.
Diff'rent strokes man... some people prefer being in the sticks, some want to be in a filing cabinet in a major city. I like being inside the beltway, and the jobs thing IS a big part of that, but if I had the chance to own a house out past front royal where I could stay in the summertime and weekends that would kick ass too.
I may be biased since I grew up here and my family/friends are here, but this isnt such a bad area. Lots of good jobs, tons of things to do, and you're not that far (1-2 hrs at most) from getting "somewhere else" if you want some quiet or space.
- HAULN-SS - 04-02-2007
yeah, i'll give it that - there is stuff to do. But really, once you're married and shit, say 32+ what are you going to do? Go visit friends? You'll be over the bar scene, etc. You'll go visit your old friends, make new ones whereever you moved to, and if you want to go to something big in a city somewhere (motorshow, etc)..you can afford to travel to it by then hopefully. I dont see myself here past 35... maybe that will change
- Apoc - 04-02-2007
.RJ Wrote:I may be biased since I grew up here and my family/friends are here, but this isnt such a bad area. Lots of good jobs, tons of things to do, and you're not that far (1-2 hrs at most) from getting "somewhere else" if you want some quiet or space.
Wait what? What happened to "Fuck Nova" RJ?
- .RJ - 04-02-2007
HAULN-SS Wrote:yeah, i'll give it that - there is stuff to do. But really, once you're married and shit, say 32+ what are you going to do?
Hopefully nothing different than I'm doing now
Still going to the track, riding on weekends and so on. I never was big into the bar/club scene anyways.RJ - waits for the "you arent ever getting married because you're not dating any girls" commentary :roll:
- .RJ - 04-02-2007
Apoc Wrote:Wait what? What happened to "Fuck Nova" RJ?
I hate Nova for many reasons..... but if it sucked that bad I would've left when I quit my last job. I dont think I'll stay here forever.
And of course, there is the
![[Image: handcuffs.gif]](http://www.suck.com/daily/96/01/26/handcuffs.gif)
- HAULN-SS - 04-02-2007
the what? BDSM?
- .RJ - 04-02-2007
HAULN-SS Wrote:the what? BDSM?
:?:
Those are golden handcuffs.... ever hear the term before?
- HAULN-SS - 04-02-2007
never heard of it
- .RJ - 04-02-2007
Well, look it up.
Jobs in this area, for the most part pay pretty well - it can be a little harder to leave if you're getting paid well.
- HAULN-SS - 04-02-2007
ehh, i mean, granted i just started work a few months ago - but so far I'm unimpressed with the pay. I don't really know what jobs pay in roanoke, but i feel like i'd have a lot more expendable income there at least.
- .RJ - 04-02-2007
HAULN-SS Wrote:but i feel like i'd have a lot more expendable income there at least.
Thats the catch-22... make less $$ but the living expenses are less. All depends on how you balance it - maybe after a few years here you can gain some experience and move to roanoake. That said, what you're getting paid right out of school is damn good.
- HAULN-SS - 04-02-2007
Yeah - I definately have too much house right now...but then again, the year is already more than 25% over - so I'll make it, and hopefully next year will be better. I could have done it a lot smarter given a little more time to look for a place, find better roommates, etc, and then maybe i'd have a different outlook. I guess it's just hard to compare it when there you could be making a lot less, but, shit, if you had 5 people living in a house paying 300$ each, you'd have a pretty big house. here, they would be sleeping two or three to a room in a mid-size townhouse.
I think my long-term(ish) plans here is to buy a fix'r'upper out in ashburn, leesburg way. I saw a killer house on CL a while back that was 2 story, pretty good SF, had a detached 2 car garage for like 220k
It needed a few things - new vinyl siding, a few other things that I can all do myself, plus whatever improvements on the inside that I could do myself. I worked for my uncles construction company in the summers for like the last 10 years, hopefully that'll pay off for me for a deal like that in a couple years.
- .RJ - 04-02-2007
HAULN-SS Wrote:I think my long-term(ish) plans here is to buy a fix'r'upper out in ashburn, leesburg way. I saw a killer house on CL a while back that was 2 story, pretty good SF, had a detached 2 car garage for like 220k
Examples?
I'm not really calling BS... but I find it hard to believe that the market inflation hasnt exploded those prices too.
- Apoc - 04-02-2007
HAULN-SS Wrote:ehh, i mean, granted i just started work a few months ago - but so far I'm unimpressed with the pay. I don't really know what jobs pay in roanoke, but i feel like i'd have a lot more expendable income there at least.
Work a few months ago? I was making ubershit when I got out of college... that's how it is. I'm making twice what I was 5 years ago, you just gotta stick it out until you have experience.
- HAULN-SS - 04-02-2007
yeah - i was pretty shocked to see it. If I had a roommate who was reliable I probably could have jumped all over that - but it would have been hard to convince someone to make that drive unless they worked out this way near me. I'll see if I can find the ad again.
- HAULN-SS - 04-02-2007
I can't find it. I saw that ad like a month ago, so it probably expired - I did see some other farm house looking fixerupper on the western side of leesburg..a little farther out than I'd like, and a little more - it was around 250. I guess there are some 'handy man specials" to be had out there, they are just few and far between still. I'd still say that you can get a lot of equity built up by doing some of these improvements yourself if you know what you're doing and can do a nice job of it. You might not even want to flip it, after you get done, you can make an "old farmhouse" into a pretty nice place, that has some peace and quiet, and a nice size garage to put your shit in. I may even end up getting a place and just building a garage to my own specs. Tall ceilings are nice for lifts, and a little extra width is nice too. You can build a garage yourself for fairly cheap. Me and my dad built a 32 x 24 pole building a couple summers ago for like 3500$ total. Double that and you have your floor, siding, and wiring done...doing it yourself.
- WRXtranceformed - 04-02-2007
I have so many contacts in the construction industry and hands on building experience too, so I could renovate a place pretty easily. It looks like our family will be selling our 100 acre farm outside of Leesburg here pretty soon. I'll be basically be forced to buy a property with the profit within 45 days and build and settle on a home on it within 6 months (1031 Exchange). I may have to look at a resale or a spec home if our company has any at that point, because even though we can build houses very quickly, there are too many variables outside of anyone's control that could push a settlement past 6 months from contract.
If I don't find anything up here, I may pick up an investment property down in Charlotte or try to get in on a commercial property of some kind.
I'd never try to argue that this place is expensive to live in based on the overall salary people earn. Hell, I wish I made more money too! =P Pricing will never adjust because of that though, it usually changes because of more direct variables (ie interest rates). The DC area is a busy, popular area to live in... that will never change. As long as there is a prevalence of above-average to high paying jobs here, those two factors will prevent prices from ever plummeting that far (unless again, some huge disaster happens).
- G.Irish - 04-02-2007
Well prices in Falls Church and Fairfax County as a whole are already down about 10% this year (according to Zillow) so its probably going to get to 20% easily, if not more. Homes gained about 70-100% in value in about 5 years so naturally that is not sustainable and prices will have to correct themselves as interest rates come back into line and the glut of people buying homes they couldn't afford eases. Judging from recent news and rising rates prices definitely haven't hit bottom yet.
- ScottyB - 04-02-2007
HAULN-SS Wrote:what do you mean "nice places to live?"
I'd much rather be at home living halfway up a mountain in a damn nice 250k house. I think you must have meant "nice place to find jobs" when you said that.
i wasn't talking about NoVa. i mean roanoke, blacksburg, charlotte, even the tech triangle down in NC. i love the mountains, i'll live there someday and i'll find a job somehow, or work freelance if i'm fortunate enough. i don't mind a commute i'm just sick of the city.
i'll never go near DC but i'm sick of being totally removed (8+ hours) from pretty much every one of my friends.