House Purchase Advice

[G.Irish]

Owning your own house sure beats the shit out of renting an apartment and pissing money away.

It depends, and the attitude that 'owning a house is always the right choice' is part of what caused the real estate bubble.

Renting beats being underwater by $100k in a house you don't want to live in long term. Plenty of people went by the whole, "real estate always goes up" idea and bought houses that have lost so much value that they can't move if they wanted to. Sucks to have 5 digits or even 6 digits of negative equity.

Now prices aren't stupidly inflated anymore so it's making more sense to buy in a lot of areas, but even then you've gotta be prepared for the chance that home values may fall a more or lay stagnant, depending on where the house is.

Buy the first thing you see. Houses arent going to last around here.

Why be in a hurry to make a purchase that has tremendous repercussions on your financial future? It's not like we're going to see housing prices shoot up 20-30% year over year again.

[HAULN-SS]

I was just being a jackass..sorry

[Mike]

Tired of renting yet? :finger:

no, but i was tired of being in san antonio after three days.

[Feersty]

that was a compliment, Feersty

Thanks, out of everyone you always seem to understand where I am coming from.

Owning your own house sure beats the shit out of renting an apartment and pissing money away.

It depends, and the attitude that 'owning a house is always the right choice' is part of what caused the real estate bubble.

Very true, and a statement that may be true about the San Antonio market will probably not be true about the Washington D.C. housing market. But when housing es por ejemplo $640 for a 1bdrm apartment, $993 for a 2bdrm apartment, and $200,000 for a nice single family house in a safe neighborhood, it is almost a no brainer, if you know you are going to stay at least 5 to 7 years.

Tired of renting yet? :finger:

no, but i was tired of being in san antonio after three days.

It's not for everyone, that's for sure, and 59 days of 100 degrees or higher during the summer of 2009 always gets old. But there is more to the U.S. than the DC Metro area. Any jobs in your field near where your parents are now?...At least the cost of living is less in North Carolina.

[Mike]

i value quality of living too high above cost of living to move most anywhere else in the US (i've been a lot of places outside the DC Metro area, believe it or not). we're all different in that aspect.

[ViPER1313]

i value quality of living too high above cost of living to move most anywhere else in the US

Not trying to troll, but what about the NOVA area equates to a high quality of living for you?

[WRXtranceformed]

we're all different in that aspect.

For sure. My quality of living went up drastically when I moved to Charlotte....but everyone has different opinions on what a "good" area is to live in. You couldn't pay me to move back to northern VA.

[Mike]

i ride my bike to work, i walk to the grocery store (and can bike to 100% of the stores i need), i walk to the library, i have a plethora of great dining options (many within walking distance), i'm very happy with the local government, i can find a concert to attend any night of the week, and 95% of my friends are here.

i like having EVERYTHING i need close-by.

and the stupid-person density is pretty low.

[D_Eclipse9916]

i ride my bike to work, i walk to the grocery store (and can bike to 100% of the stores i need), i walk to the library, i have a plethora of great dining options (many within walking distance), i'm very happy with the local government, i can find a concert to attend any night of the week, and 95% of my friends are here.

i like having EVERYTHING i need close-by.

and the stupid-person density is pretty low.

Id have to disagree on the stupid-person density :lol:

But yes I love NOVA as well, yes traffic sucks (unless you live here and know how to avoid 99% of it), but I love it. That said, I am considering Charlotte, Atlanta, California and Texas in a few years. My reason is quality of life, my priorities have started shifting away from bars/nightlife/social life that DC/NOVA easily offers to more of my hobbies (biking/rowing/relaxing/working on project cars). I will definitely miss NOVA, but the price to pay is starting to lose its bang for the buck as I use less of NOVA's "facilities".

[Apoc]

It's a good area, if you like the lifestyle... otherwise it's a pretty boring place to live. I guess that could be said about anywhere, though. For a lot of people, they don't work with/for the feds so there's not a huge reason to be here.

For me, the older I get, the more I want to GTFO. Having lived here all my life, except 4 college years in Philly, I think I'm just bored with the area. I'd rather live in a city, that isn't DC, or do something like Colorado where being outside is a way of life.

[HAULN-SS]

yeah..i could stand living in nova for about 7 months. Then I bought a house 50 miles away. The only good thing about the area as far as I can tell is the different types of food you can get. If, however, you can get by on just a good steak dinner, you can get that anywhere. Ive been dating a girl who lives in arlington for over a year now. All I ever hear about is "I love living here because its so close to stuff to do, and close to the metro", yet I can count on two hands how many times the metro gets used per year, and I havent found a place to eat in arlington yet that was worth writing home about (Ray's places are about as close as it gets).

I could definitely do the denver thing, or new mexico. Previous job could have landed me in new mexico..current one I could probably get to denver if I finagled it just right. Caitlin is going to law school though I think within the next year or so, so thats probably got us tied down for a while at least assuming we make it. I dont know what's a worse place to live near, harvard or georgetown =\

[ViPER1313]

i ride my bike to work, i walk to the grocery store (and can bike to 100% of the stores i need), i walk to the library, i have a plethora of great dining options (many within walking distance), i'm very happy with the local government, i can find a concert to attend any night of the week, and 95% of my friends are here.

i like having EVERYTHING i need close-by.

and the stupid-person density is pretty low.

Makes sense, and I can see the draw of having everything close by. I just can't deal with how many people there are in NOVA - it just makes doing anything seem frustrating to me. I would rather drive 10 minutes to a store and 10 minutes back than wait 15 minutes in line at that store :dunno:

[.RJ]

My friends/family are for the most part in NoVa, the job market is good, the restaurant/activity diversity, proximity to mountains and other outdoorsy stuff to do, and the biggest thing is I dont want to commute 50 miles each way every day. Yeah, I'm tired of looking at it and would love to live somewhere different it just doesnt make sense right now.

Adam - If you're waiting 15 minutes in line at a store you're doing it wrong. Yeah the costs, traffic and congestion can be frustrating but thats the trade off :dunno:

[Apoc]

the job market is good

I think a lot of people take that for granted. Even in a down economy, it only took me 6 weeks to find a job within 10 miles of my house making more money. I certainly won't be leaving the safety net of Virginia until the market recovers.

I have no reason to, but I wanted to post a :dunno:.

[WRXtranceformed]

I'm actually in disagreement about there not being a lot of rude people / douches in NoVA. I notice it every time I come home. You definitely get spoiled living further south though.

[.RJ]

I'm actually in disagreement about there not being a lot of rude people / douches in NoVA.

There are plenty. But as long as you dont let it bother you, its fine.

[Apoc]

I'm actually in disagreement about there not being a lot of rude people / douches in NoVA. I notice it every time I come home. You definitely get spoiled living further south though.

He said stupid, which I think is a different. It would be hard to argue that Arlington isn't one of a douche capitals of the world.

as long as you dont let it bother you, its fine.

So what you're saying is if I don't let it bother me, it won't bother me?

[Ryan T]

I don't see how any of you all can stand it up there. I can visit NOVA for a weekend and be so frustrated with the traffic and people that I can't stand it. Give me a small town/small city anyday.

[Apoc]

I don't see how any of you all can stand it up there. I can visit NOVA for a weekend and be so frustrated with the traffic and people that I can't stand it. Give me a small town/small city anyday.

Where did you grow up? I feel the same thing about New York... but people love living there too. It's all a sliding scale.

[caa337]

I live in super small county so I'm not sure how living in NoVa would go, I've only been there 2 times I can remember(Reston) I wasn't driving the bus but waiting in traffic was horrible. I'll probably have to move to there for job opportunities or maybe just Richmond.