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Looks like $300k in Seattle gets you a one bedroom condemned trap house https://www.zillow.com/homes/f...

Where I'm from, a millionaire is someone who owns a two bedroom condo.

Two bedroom condos is Silicon Valley

I don't think that's an incorrect normalization but let's humor you.

Zillow predicts housing prices in California will rise 7.7% in the next year ( https://www.zillow.com/ca/home... ). That comes out to an increase of value of $42,049.70 for the average house in the state. Adding an extra $10k that will result in the increases in mortgage payments being offset by a lower electricity bill is relatively meaningless.

Yeah, adding 10k to the cost of a 550k home ( https://www.zillow.com/ca/home... ) is going to be the tipping point to price the middle class out of homes in California. You're a frick'n genius.

I haven't been there, don't know much beyond the stereo types, but I looked at their promo shots. It looks rather shabby, and under resourced. I'm not sure there's much that could be wrecked; definitely could use some gentrification. Personally, if I was going to go cheap and "rough it" Tulsa certainly wouldn't fill the top slot. I'd much rather go take their median home price and head down to Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, etc..

https://www.zillow.com/homes/f... Skiatook OK (one of the nicer burbs) real estate

looks like you can get a 3-4 bedroom house, with land, for a mortgage equal to, or even less, than what you would pay for a shit-hovel apartment in NYC or SF...

just sayin... that might appeal to some

"Without rent control you get a lot of expensive housing that often sits empty for a long time waiting for someone willing to pay those sky high rents."

You very clearly don't live in California. The sky high rents are due to a housing shortage. People are lining up to pay these rates because they need a place to live and like living around here. I know renters, when they have to move to a new home they have to move fast on deals like $2,500 for a small 3 bedroom single family house because that's a really good deal around here.

Just watch and see how long homes below 3k stay on this list https://www.zillow.com/sonoma-... . It's not very long

Zillow disagrees...

4,000 sq ft. for $269K (and it even has a pool)

https://www.zillow.com/homes/f...

This is wrong in Manhattan. Yes is is true in most of the world. But in areas of high value, speculation on future profits have driven purchase prices sky high. People are renting out just to cover/reduce the costs, not to make a profit, trusting that as the market goes up their profit will come from the sale, not the rental income.

Here: is a real world example from Manhattan:

https://www.trulia.com/propert...

For sale at $649k. Estimated Mortgage = $3,760 per month (apparently includes maintenance, insurance and taxes).

Total square feet = 498.

From this website:
https://www.zillow.com/homes/f...

It says a condo 2 floors above, with the same 498 sq ft, rents for $2450/month.

So assuming you get the same rent, that means you pay $3760/month to own, get $2450/month for rent.

That is the reality of owning in Manhattan.

People make money by buying and holding. Over time, the value of the apartment goes up and eventually you can choose to rent it out at a profit.

But that assumes the real estate market goes up. It's ripe for a bubble bursting that could wipe out people's life savings.

Here is a 4 bed, 4 bath house in Beverly Hills for $3.4 million, 1 story on a very busy road. (For some reason, there are no 4 bedroom houses with fewer than 4 bathrooms in BH!)

Look at a mortgage calculator...

A $1,000,000 house with $50,000 down means monthly payments of $5,900 a month. You can't afford a house, creimer.

my side business
$3/day from a side business isn't considered a business. You'd need to double your salary to afford that house, and that's not keeping in mind that as a 47 year old in the technology industry, you're vulnerable to losing your job and never getting it back, and as a morbidly obese man you are vulnerable to health complications that require expensive hospitalizations or prevent you from working as much as you might want.

I don't know if this is what you meant by "home" but this is a residence that exists in the area and is under $400K. https://www.zillow.com/homes/f...

I would seriously love to hear about why this absurdly cheap seaside trailer is not a good place to purchase. I enjoy learning that kind of thing. "Trailer park" is obvious, but what else do you notice?

Oh, I'm not so sure... Zillow will probably have some choice where it files its lawsuit

No, they have no choice: they must file in King County, Washington (or in filing elsewhere assert blogger has no case to answer).

Remember, they are not claiming that said blogger infringed their copyright (as she would obviously be protected by Fair Use). Instead the complaint is that she breached the Terms of Use pertaining to accessing their site. (Note clause 15.)

No, this is criticism, and as such, falls so solidly into the fair use bucket that I'm embarrassed for Zillow's lawyers and seriously question how they could possibly have passed the bar exam if they think the infringement is actionable.

"Fair use" a defense in an action for infringement of copyright. Zillow is not suing under copyright (for obvious reasons). They are suing for breach of the Terms of Use of their Website.

I hope this goes some way to answering your serious question.

Four bed, four bath, 2650 square feet, around $2000 per month for a mortgage. Just need to look outside the expensive LA and Bay areas. Ventura is really nice, quiet, low crime, great weather - and really convenient for working in the Valley, Santa Monica, anywhere in Ventura or Santa Barbara counties.

Banks typically want you to be in the 1/3 of your cost. So, as a super rough estimate, multiply your annual salary by 3x and that's the house you can afford. $300K is about all you can do on $100K salary without a huge down.

Seattle isn't far behind. Rents are increasing 20%-40% annually. As are housing prices;
Here’s a house pending sale on Zillow:. Look at the price history;

2/7/2017- sold $485K
2/18/2015 – sold $367K
10/27/14 - Sold: $240K
12/28/07 – Sold; $170K

https://www.zillow.com/homes/f...
The only way to get into real estate is buy some thing small and crappy and fix it, stay a few years, and move up - which is, by the way, exactly what we used to do. There were things called "starter" homes. You built equity then moved up.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/f...

You obviously have never lived in the Bay Area. When I want to prove to someone how crazy expensive the Bay Area is I show friends this: https://www.zillow.com/homedet... This is a listing for a poorly built 70's townhouse. Cost 1.2 million. The average starter home in the Bay Area is 1 million. Rent averages $2500 to $3500 (with roommates). Say you are moving and want to overlap a month, which is very common. For 2x $3000 a month rent and 2 x a $3000 deposit you are temporarily out $12,000! Not to mention the $30 for a grilled cheese and coke. Not kidding. I live in Austin when I dont have to be in Palo Alto. My rent here is $800 with a yard for my dog. Dont diss the bay area money complaints.

http://www.zillow.com/homes/fo...

HOA

What's one of those? Out here you just have to worry about the township telling you where and how much to dig.

if there were jobs there I could live out there but jobs are not located in rural america.

Tesla is hiring out here:

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

Lets give you a short commute. Here's a 3 bed, 2 bath for $99k Another 3B, 2B for $60k Both larger than 1000 sqft too.

Then lets swing you to a long commute and set $200k as a ceiling. This house is 4 bed, 2 bath on 2.1 acres, $125k for 1600 sqft. 3B/2B. Or if you like a really well built house 4 beds 4 baths 3,106 sqft, built in 1855 (Ask the Europeans if that's 'old'). In a town no less.

You can repeat that experiment all across the US.

HOA

What's one of those? Out here you just have to worry about the township telling you where and how much to dig.

if there were jobs there I could live out there but jobs are not located in rural america.

Tesla is hiring out here:

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

Lets give you a short commute. Here's a 3 bed, 2 bath for $99k Another 3B, 2B for $60k Both larger than 1000 sqft too.

Then lets swing you to a long commute and set $200k as a ceiling. This house is 4 bed, 2 bath on 2.1 acres, $125k for 1600 sqft. 3B/2B. Or if you like a really well built house 4 beds 4 baths 3,106 sqft, built in 1855 (Ask the Europeans if that's 'old'). In a town no less.

You can repeat that experiment all across the US.

HOA

What's one of those? Out here you just have to worry about the township telling you where and how much to dig.

if there were jobs there I could live out there but jobs are not located in rural america.

Tesla is hiring out here:

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

Lets give you a short commute. Here's a 3 bed, 2 bath for $99k Another 3B, 2B for $60k Both larger than 1000 sqft too.

Then lets swing you to a long commute and set $200k as a ceiling. This house is 4 bed, 2 bath on 2.1 acres, $125k for 1600 sqft. 3B/2B. Or if you like a really well built house 4 beds 4 baths 3,106 sqft, built in 1855 (Ask the Europeans if that's 'old'). In a town no less.

You can repeat that experiment all across the US.

HOA

What's one of those? Out here you just have to worry about the township telling you where and how much to dig.

if there were jobs there I could live out there but jobs are not located in rural america.

Tesla is hiring out here:

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

Lets give you a short commute. Here's a 3 bed, 2 bath for $99k Another 3B, 2B for $60k Both larger than 1000 sqft too.

Then lets swing you to a long commute and set $200k as a ceiling. This house is 4 bed, 2 bath on 2.1 acres, $125k for 1600 sqft. 3B/2B. Or if you like a really well built house 4 beds 4 baths 3,106 sqft, built in 1855 (Ask the Europeans if that's 'old'). In a town no less.

You can repeat that experiment all across the US.

HOA

What's one of those? Out here you just have to worry about the township telling you where and how much to dig.

if there were jobs there I could live out there but jobs are not located in rural america.

Tesla is hiring out here:

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/...

Lets give you a short commute. Here's a 3 bed, 2 bath for $99k Another 3B, 2B for $60k Both larger than 1000 sqft too.

Then lets swing you to a long commute and set $200k as a ceiling. This house is 4 bed, 2 bath on 2.1 acres, $125k for 1600 sqft. 3B/2B. Or if you like a really well built house 4 beds 4 baths 3,106 sqft, built in 1855 (Ask the Europeans if that's 'old'). In a town no less.

You can repeat that experiment all across the US.

The real issue is that some people want to live in a place where their neighbors can't leave trash out or have cars on their lawn (and to have enforcement that has teeth, unlike some municipalities). Some people want to raise roosters, other people think that owning a rooster violates your neighbors' right to quiet enjoyment of their homes. People that want those restrictions, and are in turn willing to accept the reciprocal restrictions on themselves, can voluntarily and knowingly live in a place where everyone agrees on that basic deal.

Now, that sort of thing isn't for me (and I bought a house in a nice district with functioning public parks and whatnot with no HOA) but it is extremely illiberal to deny a group of people the right to voluntarily associate in a manner than they all find beneficial. And since we are on the topic of choice, I see you are somehow suggesting that the non-HOA living arrangement is somehow in danger, which is patently ridiculous since 20% of existing homes and 40% of new homes don't have one.

TLDR: Freedom includes the right to create your own arrangements. Some of them might seem silly to us, in which case we should just not partake instead of being righteous about it.

74k is $6,166/month or $209/day

At $5,254/month, I could afford this monstrosity in Encinitas, CA. All 470m^2 of it.

6 beds 5 baths 5,001 sqft

For Sale $1,499,900

Zestimate®: $1,763,445

Est. Mortgage $5,254/mo

A must see home in the gated community of Quail Ridge is the lowest price per square foot for an executive home in Encinitas--LUXURY and VALUE. This home has a chefs kitchen adjoining a huge family room opening to a peaceful backyard. Large formal dining and living rooms are perfect for entertaining.The Master Retreat features expansive bath adjoining office two huge closets and ocean view sunsets from balcony. Just minutes to the finest beaches best schools shopping and all that San Diego offers.

Zillow did a study that predicts 1.9 million homes in the US will be under water (literally) by 2100 at current projected sea level rise.
If sea levels rise as much as climate scientists predict by the year 2100, almost 300 U.S. cities would lose at least half their homes, and 36 U.S. cities would be completely lost.
http://www.zillow.com/research...

Engineers are good at making useful things out of worthless land

Except there are lots of places where desert land is EXPENSIVE. Phoenix isn't as bad as Los Angeles, but it's not a cheap place to live. Median home prices in Indian Wells are $700,000. In fact you can't afford a 2-br apartment in Palm Desert. Land in Detroit is probably MUCH cheaper than desert land anywhere in California, yet no engineers running out there.

Edison looked at a small village in the California desert and thought it would be a great place to produce his new moving pictures.

Edison made his films in New York or New Jersey, and NEVER had any desire or intention to move anywhere. Hollywood was founded by other film-makers, in large part to get away from Edison's patents, which were enforced in New York, but not so much on the other, distant, coast.

And just as importantly, Hollywood is NOT A DESERT. Never has been. Southern California's water problems are due to a huge and thirsty population, with insufficient surface water sources in the area.

Houses in WA under $100k for $363 month mortgage.

Same here. Problem is that selling a house with this kind of pre-2000 net connection is not going to be easy.

I never really understood such comments, but perhaps there are situations I don't know about.

I have friends who have had trouble selling their houses in the past, comments like, "ugg, we've been on the market for 5 months, no serious offers..."

Nonsense, what has REALLY happened is, "you've been on the market 5 months OVERPRICED and no one is even asking you to dance, much less make a deal."

If a house is listed for sale for 30 days and it hasn't sold, then generally the price is too high for the existing conditions. Either improve the conditions or lower the price.

Note: The above applies to locations that generally have houses on them already, not to vacant land, which is another beast.

Example house:

http://www.zillow.com/homedeta...

That house has been on the market for 811 days. It is a beautiful house, but it is also overpriced and won't sell at that price. It probably won't appraise either, so even if it sold, you couldn't get a mortgage on it without a massive downpayment.

Drop the price to 1.99m and you'll get people to dance, and probably sell at 1.85m to 1.9m. At 2.3m no one is coming to the party.

For $20k/year you could afford a nice house in seattle and still have $700/month play money.

No, this is the one in NC. It's only an hour from the outer banks, if that temps you! I've been gone from there for 6 years. Only paid 2 months mortgages myself in that time, so it's a very rentable property. With about $250/month cash flow.

If I lived near it, I would keep it. But managing it from 2000 miles away while working a full time job + family is just too much.

http://www.zillow.com/homes/37...

I really want to sell so I can rent closer as I do realize that it's a good investment with good cash flow (if you want/need it). Appreciate the details you & experience.

That's a very nice apt complex. We just went to Maine a few weeks ago, Sebasco Harbor, and loved it.

Sure. Zillow places estimates for cost of rent and cost of mortgage for different properties on the market. Here's an example:

http://www.zillow.com/homedeta...

There's an estimated mortgage cost and an estimated rent cost. Having recently looked at getting a mortgage on another house and putting my current one up for rent, I can say that the Zillow estimate for my own house (not the one linked above, mind you) is pretty accurate. For this particular house, both figures are realistic, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to have the mortgage about 5% more or the rent 5% less.

I think that mainly comes from the fact that if you rent out the house, you as the owner are responsible for certain maintenance, whereas if you buy a house, nobody cares what you do with it except for the lender who just wants it to be insured.

I.e. if your AC unit on your house breaks, YOU have to fix it, not the person renting it.

The average home price in LA is over $500K. In San Francisco it is over $650K. In NY the median home price is over $350K. A nicer home in a better neighborhood in Houston is less than $300K. You can take your pathetic condescending attitude and shove it up your ass.

Optimal income levels? You wouldn't believe how bad some of the neighborhoods are in Kansas City that Google Fiber is providing service to.

For instance, I have friends in zip code 64128 with Google Fiber. Check out how the median price of homes for that area is $15,500 on Zillow.

Unless it's a huge mansion, you're not paying $700K for the house. You're paying the bulk of that for the real property the house sits on.

Eh, not so much

Dunno about that one, but here's a snapshot of much of the market:

http://www.zillow.com/visuals/...

Not to mention: many UVA grads likely stay in Virginia, and Stanford grads likely stick around in Silicon Valley (e.g., 100% of the Stanford grads that I know). The cost of living in Silicon Valley is dramatically more expensive than in Virginia. E.g, the cheapest condo in Palo Alto listed on Zillow is priced at $548,000 (which is > $300k above the already insane appraisal value) and for that, you get 679 square feet. Since I was an intern, my housing was (fortunately!) covered by my employer when I worked in Mountain View, but my boss ended up taking a job elsewhere because he and his wife simply could not afford anything more spacious than an RV. If you don't adjust the salary to the cost of living, your study is fundamentally flawed.

In older areas, a "neighborhood" is usually a self-identified group of houses in a given geographical area, that might or might not share a common construction history, but have banded together to promote their common interests. The neighborhood I live in was constructed over some 25 years, with early 1940s houses in the south extending into the mid-to-late 1960s in the north, though there's now enough tear-down and rebuild that some places are brand new.

In contrast, for some older neighborhoods (usually in historical areas) and most newer neighborhoods, the term is mostly interchangeable with "subdivision": the area was planned and platted by a single developer, usually the houses were built at around the same time by a selected number of builders, and there's very often deed restrictions that set up a mandatory home owner's association, which has the ability to create and enforce rules over the appearance and use of properties in the area. Opinions about HOAs vary from loathing to appreciation, depending on the person. With common deed restrictions and a mandatory organization that owners must join, there's a pretty strict legal definition.

Part of my neighborhood - called Shoalmont Addition - was built at once, by a common set of builders, and have very limited deed restrictions (mostly illegal now, heh) but no HOA to enforce them. But the larger Allandale Neighborhood Association (an optional group with no enforcement powers of its own) claims the entire Shoalmont area, and residents of Shoalmont probably don't even know that's where they live. Legally, the ANA has enough clout that the city recognizes it and sends a representative to neighborhood meetings, and zoning correlates with neighborhood boundaries and wishes, but there's not really any legal definition when there's no deed restrictions or HOA involved. Indeed, a small area claimed by the Allandale Neighborhood Association in the south is also claimed by the Rosedale Neighborhood Association, and I think people in that area can join both.

Two definitions based on the evolving style of neighborhood construction. Hope that helps!

Here's a listing for a 2600 sqft house for sale for $190,000. http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/Alexs-Ln-Austin-TX-78748/2119505827_zpid/

How much would a comparable property cost in San Francisco?

I work a job at a military base in San Antonio, about 1.5 hours from Austin. I live in a 700 sqft apartment that is 15 minutes from work in morning traffic. I pay $685 per month. How much would that cost in SF?

Some things, such as health insurance, are expensive everywhere, but Texas in general is a great place in terms of the cost of living.

This isn't the one I was thinking of, because for some reason Zillow aren't listing it, but:

this is close by in West San Jose for $424k (albeit a foreclosure, that isn't much of a problem these days, it's not exactly exceptional any more), or

this one for $500k.

That took about 4 minutes to find. If either of the above don't suit, perhaps (just maybe, with a bit of effort looking) there are more ?

So quite frankly, it is you, sir, that is full of shit and don't know what you're talking about.

This isn't the one I was thinking of, because for some reason Zillow aren't listing it, but:

this is close by in West San Jose for $424k (albeit a foreclosure, that isn't much of a problem these days, it's not exactly exceptional any more), or

this one for $500k.

That took about 4 minutes to find. If either of the above don't suit, perhaps (just maybe, with a bit of effort looking) there are more ?

So quite frankly, it is you, sir, that is full of shit and don't know what you're talking about.

"gated community" is not inconsistent with "HIGH crime".

The complex (The Retreat At Twin Lakes) was not a "high end" gated community with five million dollar homes. These are town homes that sold for between around $75K and $140K in the last few years. Looking at a few real estate listings, it appears they are attached town homes with one car garages. There have been many foreclosures in the complex as housing prices have plummeted.

The entrances are not manned - reports are that residents key in a code to gain entrance, but obviously the gates and walls are low so it's likely easy to enter without a code (or just piggyback on someone else who is entering).

Overall, I wouldn't attach too much significance to "gated community" here. Gates in cases like this are largely a "feel good" feature rather than an effective crime deterrent. Esp, in a complex which now has many renters. Actual crime stats would be much more useful to determine the crime rate in this complex.

no it doesn't. not everyone wants to be julia roberts or another top tier star. they don't even make that much money after all the taxes and agent fees are accounted for.

You're right, I'll be she can barely scrape together the money make the payment on her $20 Million house in Malibu, or her two ~$4 Million apartments in Mahnattan. I just don't know how she survives.

I'll wait until Zillow posts the pics.

Zillow.com has a detailed listing for the White House saying it's worth $270,050,000. Interestingly, its purchase value peaked at $331M on April 1, 2008.

Mr. Alexander Peter Kowalski
903 East Division Street
Syracuse, N.Y. 13208

Mr. Clone is not the one stalking you, AlecStaar.

Mr. Alexander Peter Kowalski
903 East Division Street
Syracuse, N.Y. 13208

We are watching you, AlecStaar.

According to Zillow.com, the listed home was last sold in September of 2009 for $625,000.

You might be OK with the concept and execution of Google Street View. However, a lot of people most certainly are not happy. We don't want our houses plastered up on an easily indexed, location linked, photography database.

And it's going to happen anyway, with or without Google. I've posted hundreds of geolocated photos in Earthscape and Picasa. More will come. In 5 or 10 years, perhaps every photographable thing on earth will have at least one geolocated, maps-searchable photo pointing at it.

You're worried about photos of your house. Have you bothered to check Picasa, Flickr, Imageshack, Photobucket, Bayimg? TerraServer? Real estate comparison sites? What of the hundreds of other image and geographic services I have not named?

If not, can you claim with a straight face that this issue is important enough to warrant government involvement in private photography? It is unclear to me that there should be an a priori restraint on publication simply because "a lot of people are not happy". If that's a problem, toddle on down your Congressman's office and see if you can get enough people interested to pass a law. If you don't care enough to bother, fine, but don't tell me it's important to you.

I'm a veteran of these wars. I fought Lotus Marketplace, I wrote letters to my legislators and to Lotus and to Mitch Kapor. That success was utterly irrelevant. What I have learned is that you need to pick your battles, and pick them only when there is real harm being done. Otherwise you risk creating an unwieldly, overbearing enforcement environment that hurts everybody.