Bike or drive to commuter rail station. Problem solved.
Just got preapproved for a new haus
- Thread starter Sandwich
- Start date
Waltham is a good town. The Fitchburg line stops in Porter Sq Red line station and has fairly flexible time schedule.
My house buying rule - do not mortgage more than your combined annual income and have at least a years worth of payments in the bank after the down payment. Also - the smaller the house the less it will cost to heat and cool. 
QFMFT!!!Also - the smaller the house the less it will cost to heat and cool.
I finally get central air and the house is too big! I can't afford to run it!!!
I haven't turned mine off in 6 weeks... so wasteful and yet so affordable. 
QFMFT!!!
I finally get central air and the house is too big! I can't afford to run it!!!
My house is 1350sq. ft., and since it's a newer house (built in 1996) it's well insulated. Heating last winter wasn't bad at all (and it got pretty cold here....lots of nights below 0). This fall my parents are giving me their old fireplace pellet stove insert they don't use anymore. That combined with the open living room/dining room/kitchen layout should cut down oil quite a bit this winter.Also - the smaller the house the less it will cost to heat and cool.
i just had to look it up to see where the hell Hubardston was. it's not really no mans land.
good luck finding a place Sandwich, i'm looking for a condo myself. tired of renting.
It really isn't at all, but to people who live in and around the city they think it's "western MA". To me it's just far enough to get away from the crappy city living without breaking the bank/patience commuting so far.
When I was looking for a house I was staying in my parent's cabin on the Quabbin Resivoir for 8 months in New Salem (right near Orange/Athol).....that commute was pushing it (65 miles each way, only had the Jeep at the time with 31" All-Terrains and gas was peaking at $4/gallon). I was spending what I thought was an absurd amount a month on gas.......then I got a mortgage
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thanks dude...I think we'll have some luck. There are some pretty neat houses out there, and it's all a matter of sorting out what we need as a couple and as a future family. There's a lot of junk on the market too, so it's kind of interesting. Hard to see the value of the place we're renting now compared to someplace else that's fully renovated, when they cost the same.
To toshi/jdcamb-
Waltham is neat because the northern suburbs are pretty "suburby" but the south side is straight up city. You can get pretty great ethnic food and then be back home in no time. The commuter rail is downtown which is great, but provides challenges for getting there from the northern burbs, which is where we're looking. Riding a bike would be a fine option for me....but soon I'll be driving north, where there's ZERO public trans, and the wife is not a bike rider, no matter how hard I try. Parking at the station(s) is limited and costly. When you add it up, you're paying $4-6 a day to park at a station, plus the cost of the T pass, plus any gas you use. I'm willing to bet the $125 T pass plus the cost of daily parking comes out to similar cost in gas and vehicle maintenance, but you save ~1 hour each way and you don't have to ride the notoriously poorly maintained T. If that were a better service, I'd plop us down somewhere on the rail line and not think about it...but it's a risky proposition at best and I truly believe catastrophe is around the corner.
Interest rates are killer right now, great time to buy. We're in the process of refinancing and locked into a rate of 4.37% on a 30 year fixed. Pretty damn stoked!
hey sandwich just start working from home
wow, never heard of that length of term. we go max 10 years fixed up here (at a couple points higher than that).
some pretty sick deals to be had down there, too. the market here is relatively nutty:
http://www.crackshackormansion.com/
I got proved for 4.5 @ 30yr fixed no points.
WF is ~4.375 right now... Might have to refi after the next financialpocolypse takes things down even further.
We did 3.75 last November on a 15-yr fixed.
Jeebus. In Vancouver, you'd have to be EXTREMELY wealthy to pull that one off...My house buying rule - do not mortgage more than your combined annual income and have at least a years worth of payments in the bank after the down payment. Also - the smaller the house the less it will cost to heat and cool.
A 1,000sqft condo will run you about $500,000 within 10km of downtown Vancouver.
Gah.
Good luck on the search. If you're not in any kind of time constraint, look into short sales. I have a couple friends who just got more home for the buck by waiting out a short sale. I also just saw some house hunters show where a couple was looking for a house and settled on a short sale somewhere north of Boston.
Moved out of the City 6 months ago. Miss some aspects of it. The traffic...I do not! Plus the 15-20 minutes to riding spots like Nam/Foxboro/Borderland/Hale/etc vs a hour to anywhere but the Fells is a plus.
Before you buy/plan on buying, make sure you create yourself a spreadsheet to show yourself how much $$ you are actually going to be forking over to the bank. It's absolutely sickening when you look at it. And check out the same price with the 15yr fixed. The mortgage payments aren't that far off and you can pocket a lot of money in the long run.
It's never going to be like our parents/older relatives who, in the 80s, bought an inexpensive house with 20% down, and were paying 13% interest. Then 5-10 years later, interest rates dropped while the Stock Market skyrocketed, so it made sense to refinance and invest money while you had a mortgage. Then because interest rates were low, people could afford to pay more $$ for houses, so housing prices increased to a point where people can not afford to buy a house even on a 30 year loan...but they still received those loans. Now were ****ed. Moral of the story, Straight Cash Homey!
Moved out of the City 6 months ago. Miss some aspects of it. The traffic...I do not! Plus the 15-20 minutes to riding spots like Nam/Foxboro/Borderland/Hale/etc vs a hour to anywhere but the Fells is a plus.
Before you buy/plan on buying, make sure you create yourself a spreadsheet to show yourself how much $$ you are actually going to be forking over to the bank. It's absolutely sickening when you look at it. And check out the same price with the 15yr fixed. The mortgage payments aren't that far off and you can pocket a lot of money in the long run.
It's never going to be like our parents/older relatives who, in the 80s, bought an inexpensive house with 20% down, and were paying 13% interest. Then 5-10 years later, interest rates dropped while the Stock Market skyrocketed, so it made sense to refinance and invest money while you had a mortgage. Then because interest rates were low, people could afford to pay more $$ for houses, so housing prices increased to a point where people can not afford to buy a house even on a 30 year loan...but they still received those loans. Now were ****ed. Moral of the story, Straight Cash Homey!
And THAT's why you don't have a pool!My house buying rule - do not mortgage more than your combined annual income and have at least a years worth of payments in the bank after the down payment. Also - the smaller the house the less it will cost to heat and cool.
Of course I can't buy groceries.
Then you shouldn't buy... people in the Seattle area commonly live above their means so I suppose Vancouver is no different.
Save before you buy because it will be hard to save after.
Save before you buy because it will be hard to save after.
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Hmmm....and my wife is from Seattle....and she really pushed for us to buy our house.....hmmmm....coincidence?
It absolutely is NOT.
BurlyShirley bought his chicka a 65K house...
Yup. Quite comfortable renting and saving now...Then you shouldn't buy... people in the Seattle area commonly live above their means so I suppose Vancouver is no different.
Save before you buy because it will be hard to save after.
Damned comforts of our high quality of life! Now we're spoiled.
There were openings posted in SEA today. Very tempted but real estate is stillThen you shouldn't buy... people in the Seattle area commonly live above their means so I suppose Vancouver is no different.
Save before you buy because it will be hard to save after.
it's insane there.There were openings posted in SEA today. Very tempted but real estate is still
Jeebus. According to teh interwebz I'd have to make 10 grand more a year for equivalent life style. Housing 52% more than here says CNN money comparison calculator.
Think I'm going to wait for PDX. SEA isn't really where I want to go anyway.
the one nice thing about having already lived in LA and currently living in NJ, is that there are only a handful of places I could move that would actually be MORE expensive.Jeebus. According to teh interwebz I'd have to make 10 grand more a year for equivalent life style. Housing 52% more than here says CNN money comparison calculator.
I've been able to save quite a bit of cash living in Montana versus the I5 corridor and I live 8 minutes from work
Jeebus. According to teh interwebz I'd have to make 10 grand more a year for equivalent life style. Housing 52% more than here says CNN money comparison calculator.
and thats no points no fees
A 1000sqft condo for 500$ within 10km of downtown. **** when I stop living like a bum Im moving to Van. In Warsaw a 600sqft condo is around 700k$ and we earn probably a fourth what you earn in Canada(Mean Income in Warsaw is 1200$). Also by Condo I mean an older appartment, a new one built in the last 10 years will be 2-3x as much.
Sandwich - good luck with your search.
I stalk wayyyyyy more than I post. But you should buy this place, and host an always and on going monkeyfest.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/83-Kingswood-Rd_Weehawken_NJ_07086_M50884-02005?ex=NJ536429638
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/83-Kingswood-Rd_Weehawken_NJ_07086_M50884-02005?ex=NJ536429638
OK, found a house, need to make an offer. How low can you go before it's insulting? House is listed at 429, we feel it's worth 390. I'd be comfortable with a 380 offer allowing for leeway up from there. Is 11.5% too low of an initial offer? The market isn't very hot, but the house just came on the market a few days ago, so it's doubtful any offer would make any waves until it rots for a few months, like every other house is doing.
Of the four houses I've purchased, I always put out the offer I wanted to pay (in your case $390k) as a take it or leave it. You can always negotiate further after inspection or if current owners have any conditions to sale that you find annoying.
In this market people are more likely to accept a reasonable offer that lets them avoid months of showings and lowball quotes. I always sold my properties to the buyers who were the least PITA. I simply toyed with the ones who thought they were Donald trump. My guess is the owners want $400k.
In this market people are more likely to accept a reasonable offer that lets them avoid months of showings and lowball quotes. I always sold my properties to the buyers who were the least PITA. I simply toyed with the ones who thought they were Donald trump. My guess is the owners want $400k.
What does zillow say its worth? Personally, in my market, I'd start 20% lower and pay absolutely no more than 10% below what zillow says its worth. Its a horrible time to be a seller and lots of people are desperate to sell. If you don't get a hell of a deal on a place your doing it wrong. YMMV of course and every market is different, but even if your in a relatively decent market area (of which there are few to none) if you don't get at least 2.5% lower than market value, you got ripped off.
I think the boston area has stayed fairly strong. It's been pretty level in Waltham, from what I've seen.
The house we're looking at is an estate sale, looks like it was sold for a dollar not too long ago and then they just picked a value and put it on the market...we've seen a couple of those. The "zestimate" is 411k, and assessment at 360k. To us, it seems like this is a decent property that needs some elbow grease...good roof, structure, space, etc....but it's ugly as hell inside, and the only thing selling in the neighborhood tends to be rehabbed or new construction houses.
I'd have no problem flinging out a 360k offer on this house....in a month. The house we're renting now has been rotting on the market for 6 months and they refuse to change the price...lots of sellers are doing that, and nobody is buying their houses. There's something like 30 houses in our price range on the market in the area.
The house we're looking at is an estate sale, looks like it was sold for a dollar not too long ago and then they just picked a value and put it on the market...we've seen a couple of those. The "zestimate" is 411k, and assessment at 360k. To us, it seems like this is a decent property that needs some elbow grease...good roof, structure, space, etc....but it's ugly as hell inside, and the only thing selling in the neighborhood tends to be rehabbed or new construction houses.
I'd have no problem flinging out a 360k offer on this house....in a month. The house we're renting now has been rotting on the market for 6 months and they refuse to change the price...lots of sellers are doing that, and nobody is buying their houses. There's something like 30 houses in our price range on the market in the area.
oh, it's got a 70's era intercom with built in radio, from the bedroom to what we currently call the "boom-boom room"
