The Home Ownership Thread

[Gibonius]

You live in a DC suburb, right? You could get a couple of a house on a couple of acres for $2-3M. That's piob level housing spend.

I just was lucky and bought at the right time and in the right way. I did sweat for a bit with two houses, but overall, the Great Recession was a really good buying time.

The schmucks who previously owned our house bought it for $450k and put at least $100k into it, and sold it to us for $500k ten years later. Ha ha?

But yeah. I've only got rich government scientist money, not health care money. Pretty hard to get "I can't see my neighbors" housing around DC.



My parents are 60 miles from DC, and can barely see the neighbors. We had cows behind the house growing up. But that's legit 2 hours (rush hour time) from where I work these days.

 

[imatlas]

“I can’t see my neighbors” starts at around $25M around here.

 

[Omega Male]

Reading this in the hot tub. There is one MILF across the valley who habitually lays out naked and I might have a telescope to keep up with that. Otherwise, neighbors are at the preferred remove.

 

[PhilKenSebben]

Reading this in the hot tub. There is one MILF across the valley who habitually lays out naked and I might have a telescope to keep up with that. Otherwise, neighbors are at the preferred remove.

View attachment 1483820

@ piobaire has really really good eyesight

 

[UnFacconable]

I was up in OM's neck of the woods today hiking with the family. Some beautiful homes but alas for a variety of reasons we can't decamp to north of the city. If we did and had Gatsby money, there is definitely some appeal for me, plus I could live closer to my favorite mountain biking trail and hit it up during weekdays while WFH.

Of somewhat more topical relevance, my wife has also determined that if we aren't moving soon (which we aren't, given what's going on with real estate where we live now and where we want to move to) we need to get motorized shades. For similar reasons to @otc, she wants to be able to adjust the sunlight to optimize video calls in what has become her de facto office. We currently have horizontal sliding shades (I guess they're called panel track) over the sliding glass doors that lead to our deck and she's thinking we add black out roll down shades over the whole thing. I recall we didn't do that originally because we would need to cover like 15 feet horizontally and it wasn't possible to get a panel that large but it's been a few years and I don't have a good memory for this stuff. We're also thinking about putting in a comprehensive mini-split system before the heat returns next spring but now that summer is over we may forget about it as is our wont.

 

[brokencycle]

I was up in OM's neck of the woods today hiking with the family. Some beautiful homes but alas for a variety of reasons we can't decamp to north of the city. If we did and had Gatsby money, there is definitely some appeal for me, plus I could live closer to my favorite mountain biking trail and hit it up during weekdays while WFH.

Of somewhat more topical relevance, my wife has also determined that if we aren't moving soon (which we aren't, given what's going on with real estate where we live now and where we want to move to) we need to get motorized shades. For similar reasons to @otc, she wants to be able to adjust the sunlight to optimize video calls in what has become her de facto office. We currently have horizontal sliding shades (I guess they're called panel track) over the sliding glass doors that lead to our deck and she's thinking we add black out roll down shades over the whole thing. I recall we didn't do that originally because we would need to cover like 15 feet horizontally and it wasn't possible to get a panel that large but it's been a few years and I don't have a good memory for this stuff. We're also thinking about putting in a comprehensive mini-split system before the heat returns next spring but now that summer is over we may forget about it as is our wont.

I did a quick google, and this was a top result. It looks like they can do motorized rollers up to 16' wide.

https://assets.hunterdouglasarchitectural.com/documents/windowCoverings/RollerShades/RollerShades_TechnicalDrawings.pdf

 

[imatlas]

If you need a distributor / installer, Mitch at Pacific View is the best there is:

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[norcaltransplant]

Clearly, None of you lives in a suburb within commuting distance of NYC.

I live in the NYC suburbs, and although property taxes are absolutely punishing (e.g $10-15k for a modest 2k square foot house, and $20k+ for nicer neighborhoods), Bay Area housing prices are on another level. The description that Pio gave (80') from your nearest neighbor, reminded me of places like Woodside or Los Altos Hills where empty lots start around $3-4 million.

 

[imatlas]

I live in the NYC suburbs, and although property taxes are absolutely punishing (e.g $10-15k for a modest 2k square foot house, and $20k+ for nicer neighborhoods), Bay Area housing prices are on another level. The description that Pio gave (80') from your nearest neighbor, reminded me of places like Woodside or Los Altos Hills where empty lots start around $3-4 million.

I spent the latter part of my childhood in a tony CT suburb, and my 1300’ sq ft condo in SF is about equivalent to a really nice home with an acre of land in my hometown. I was really startled by that.

 

[Lizard23]

i have no doubt that the bay area is worse... that doesnt make here good, just not as bad.

I was generalizing, of course. “Close” to nyc is also relative, i suppose.

I would be so happy with 20k in taxes...

around here, if you want good public schools and an acre or more of land you are in the 2.5M plus range and probably 50kish in taxes. You can decrease the taxes by conceding the good public school and also probably get some more land, but then you wind up paying the difference in private school anyway.

We sold our 2 bedroom//bath 1300sf apt in nyc in 2015 and bought in the suburbs. Our monthly outlay is about the same. I considered keeping and renting the city apartment, but decided it wasnt worth the headache.

Regardless, it is my (idiotic??) choice to live here. No one is forcing me. I usually just put it out of my mind until I hear about living basically anywhere else (CA excluded) and then i begin to wonder what it is I am doing here

 

[NorCal]

Reading this in the hot tub. There is one MILF across the valley who habitually lays out naked and I might have a telescope to keep up with that. Otherwise, neighbors are at the preferred remove.

View attachment 1483820

Dude, **** that Pampas grass.

 

[Numbernine]

Dude, **** that Pampas grass.

When we were teenagers a friend of mine used to tell people those were nauga tails. They would ask " what the hell is a nauga?" He would say " thats what they skin to get naugahyde" You kids prolly don't even know what that is.

 

[Omega Male]

Dude, **** that Pampas grass.

It’s the least-flammable variety and our fire district allows it. Might still pull it out one day.

 

[Numbernine]

It’s the least-flammable variety and our fire district allows it. Might still pull it out one day.

He's probably referring to it's invasiveness.

 

[SirGrotius]

Do any of you use a "mulching-mower"? I usually have a lawn service clean our property of leaves (I'm in PA with a good bit of land, so lots of leaves), however, my wife has been reading about the ecological advantages of mulching not bagging up (don't know what happens after that?) leaves. I'm totally fine with this solution, but don't want to spend weekends fruitlessly mowing a wet lawn and killing the grass, etc.