Just read in the paper here in Nevada County California the median price for a home is 275,000. Just being nosey but what is it in your neck of the woods?......Kirk

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Answers

My house and acreage was $35000. The same parcel 30 miles NE of me could fetch $125000. Thats why I live in this county and work in the next one :>)

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Yeah, Houses are pretty darn high, I wouldn't know what the average are, but I would say an ordinary three to four bedroom house with two bathrooms is any where from 125,000 on up. Our house well, it isn't what the ordinary person would settle for, We have ONE TINY little bathroom, one full bedroom and one walk through bedroom. And NO closets! Our little two acres with all of its trees, shrubs, and flowers tho.holds more charm for me, then any of their primly mowed lawns and it was only 79,000. Sometimes I do think it would be awfully nice to have another bathroom tho. but you know just a little outhouse out back would suit me, someplace for emergencies you know!

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Our house, when we purchased it , cost us $66,000. Its 4.7 acres, 3 bedroom storet and a half house, drilled well. We have been talking about moving again though and the house we find best for our purposes a mere 20 minutes away is on the market for ..get this..$199,000. 25 acres, big barn, beautiful old house and walking distance to my son's school so I won't have to drive about 80 minutes a day in school transport, and 2 convenience stores. Also has a gorgeous view out the back windows. It will cut the worst part of my husband's commute off too. The only way we can even think about a house like this is because Richard's grandmother died and there will be an inheritance to use for a hefty down payment if we decide to go for this house rather than remodel what we have. I guess the median price in this province would be around $100,000 or so but thats just a guess.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

I'd say it is in the low $100,000's. Many cheaper but plenty that are $300,000+. I do not know who is buying these houses. No one I know! I'm just glad we already bought one all those years ago. I cannot fathom spending that kind of money. But then I don't make that kind of money either.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

I live in a very populous and popular area of Southern Wisconsin. Prices are high and taxes equally so, but I don't know the median. Maybe $150,000, possibly higher. If I ever do buy land in the country, I don't know if it will be around here or not.

Heck, even my podunk home territory (where Julie still lives) has shot WAY up. I guess because it is a very beautiful area (though no business to speak of other than tourism). Of course, the properties on water are more expensive, but in general, the real estate costs are high. Also has a peculiarity of market -- there are tiny, rundown houses, and there are $250K and up houses (often the ones on the water, but not necessarily), and not much inbetween. When Julie was looking for her own house (about 12 years ago), we had a terrible time finding anything in good shape for a reasonable price, even to look at. Diligent searching paid off in the end. And recently, I think there are more mid-range houses built and/or available. Lots of older folks retire to the northwoods, then have to leave when they get too old to cope with the winters.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

The largest town in our county is the county seat which has a population of around 10,000. The further North and West you go from this town the cheaper the prices, so where we live you can buy a couple of acres with a fixer-upper outbuilding or barn and a fixer- upper farmhouse for between $70,000 and $80,000. The house would probably have new siding or new windows or both and a kitchen from the 40's, maybe a new well. Upstairs would probably have no heat and plaster walls and ceilings in need of repair. Downstairs might have carpet and paneled walls and one bathroom. Anything that is in better shape is going to be at least middle 90's and up.

In a smaller town near us you can still find houses that sell in the $50,000 range but they are small and older. Hope this gives you an idea.

Property taxes on a house that is appraised at $70,000 are around $800 a year.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Well, before I tell you, please let it be known that we can't afford to live in Seattle (we don't want to anyway...fixers start at $200k, in a BAD neighborhood, if you can even find one in that neighborhood). City prices are around $350k to $500k , with tons of houses from $500k to $1 mil and up. I'm just tell you so you'll get an idea about our appraised value, as country prices aren't cheap either since they are in close proximity to urban work.

We bought this place (5 acres with a 1977 2-bdrm house and 1-car attached garage...950 sq. ft) for $150k 8 years ago. Last time we had it appraised (re-fi) was a couple of years ago, and it was $250- ish. Any lot or buildable property starts at $85k or so, maybe a little less; I haven't been looking lately, though.

I thought that prices would come down b/c of the local recession, but I haven't seen anything much happening (yet). I do see a lot of the premier houses (lakefront, on Puget Sound, or great view, etc.) listed a lot more frequently in the papers. I don't know if there's more on the market, or more advertising or?

I do know that when we move to E. Washington (2 lots= 5 acres for $40k, which was expensive, but we have irrigation rights, and power and water to the property, plus paved and plowed roads), we won't be able to move back to W. Washington, unless we take on a lot of debt (or win the lottery)! We'll start losing equity the minute we move. I sure hope we know what we're doing when we make that commitment.

Kirk, your real estate is supposed to be some of the most expensive in the world (outside of Japan, maybe!)...or at least closer to the Bay area anyway.

And taxes. Hmm. Just imagine a whole lot, I guess.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Here in Hancock County, there is an incredible range of prices for property. Costs for houses is higher in the towns where this county's largest employers are (Jackson Lab and International Paper). But in the northern reaches, for example in Aurora, Me. where the population is 121, and in the unorganized territories, houses with some acreage can still be found for well under $50,000. But in the county seat (Ellsworth...pop. 6450), Prices are at least triple that!! And then of course, near the tourist towns and near the ocean the demand for property is unreal. In the next town over from me (Castine), houses with maybe a few acres are selling for a half a million! I know, also, that houses are much less expensive in the western and northern parts of the state. If it ever gets too crowded here, we'll be heading for the Allagash Wilderness :-)!!

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Kirk, this is maybe more of what you meant? This was last May for King County, WA...where Seattle and Bellevue are (from the Seattle PI newspaper), but I don't think prices have gone up too much more. And I live in the next county to the north, which is more affordable, mostly.

"The new data showed prices in King County jumped sharply, shooting up 7.6 percent. The median home price rose from $246,250 a year ago to $264,950. In March, home prices increased just $900 compared with the previous year, the service reported.

Only 52 percent of the homes on the market in King County as of yesterday were listed below $350,000, according to Multiple Listing Service data. Only 35 percent are under $250,000."

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

Well I guess there are some places left that are within reason. Not california and not Seattle!! I just can't figure out who's got the money to buy some of these places??

Sheepish I saw this Lennete Jennings show that featured houseboats in Seattle. My goodness how beautiful. Wonder what those jewels go for??...Kirk

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2002

I live in the county where the state capitol is located. The median home price is around $85,000, but that covers everything from inner- city shacks to multimillion-dollar waterfront homes. I live in the second-poorest township within the county. I had a new home constructed in one of those cookie cutter subdivisions about 5 years ago. It's 1800 square feet, 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath on 0.2 acre lot and cost $125,000. Housing prices are flat to declining slightly in this area so the appraised value of my home has not changed in the 5 years I've owned it. If I'm lucky I won't lose too much money when I sell. Property taxes are $1,200 every six months and due to the state changing the way they do their assesments my taxes will probably double next year.

The city of Indianapolis takes up the entire county so to find any amount of land you have to go to one of the surrounding counties. Land prices vary from $1000 an acre for a bare farm field in the middle of nowhere to $1 million an acre for prime waterfront property. Land suitable for my needs is running around $3000 an acre.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2002

Kirk, I don't know about the houseboat prices, but coincidentally, I ran into an old friend from 20 years ago a couple of weeks ago. One of our mutual friends (of mine from 20 years ago) owns a housboat on Lake Union. I imagine I'll be finding out sometime....if so, I'll let you know.

There's a lot of Microsoft, etc., money out here. Plus money from Asia, and of course, all the Californians who moved up here. The Puget Sound area is narrow, so land is kind of limited, if you want to be close to work. And all the water and views of the mountains are valued, #-wise. When I read about how much more reasonable prices are elsewhere, I'm tempted to leave, but I have family here, and despite my grousing about the rain, the climate is wonderful, for the most part...

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2002

The local paper recently had an article on median home prices for all over oregon. I'm afraid I don't remember the exact figures but it was somewhere around $130K here in Josephine County, SW part of the state. In the ten years between 1989 and 1999, which the data were based on, the median price here went up about 78%, compared to the average wage, which rose about 18-20%, as I recall.

These data are for all types of homes, of which about a third are in the incorporated areas, and two thirds in the country.

Part of the reason for such huge price increases, as I see it, (at least here in Oregon), is that there is a big push to restrict new development to urban areas. This results in lots less available land for building on/living on in the country.

My cynical side says this is due to government's desire to be able to control us more easily.

My more sane side says that it is more a result of increasing population pressures on all our resources, from gasoline to roads, to schools, to ESPECIALLY water.

We have no reasonable way to determine how many folks our rural aquifers are capable of supplying, even in "normal" years. The cost for any kind of accurate studies would be incredible and unacceptable, due to the complexity of the geology here, and the many different types of aquifers, often very close together yet independent of each other.

Since we do at least know how much water is available from the Rogue River, and a few of its tributaries (this data is pretty easy to determine, since the streams are easily measured, being as how they are on top of the ground, rather than underneath it) we can at least make an educated guess as to how many people the surface water resources can support. So that' why we are "safer" developing in the city, where water from the city filtration plant can be made available. It is impractical to pipe city water way out to the rural areas, obviously.

How 'bout you folks? Are you, or others in your areas, looking into the future in regards to your water supplies?

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2002

Joe, water has always been plentiful in this part of the country, but I still think about it. Who knows how much longer the water will stay clean? Lots of it, yes, but drinkable? Some might say a lot of it is already undrinkable . . . . I like the general trend of ASKING you (at a restaurant) if you want water or not. Way back in the '70's there was a water shortage in California and much of the rest of that side of country. For some reason, though we had no shortage here, that was big news. The restaurants went through a period of posting signs saying that in order to conserve water, you had to ASK for water. Well, I still thought the server should ask the customer if they wanted water, but either way, the sentiment is good. But of course, the shortage ended, and it was back to the spendthrift ways.

I have city water here, and I use a reverse-osmosis filter on it for drinking water. This process creates a lot of "waste" water. I use it in the winter to flush toilets. In the summer, it often goes to outdoor plants (because it's already in buckets for easier carrying and already room temperature instead of cold).

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2002

Joy, water is plentiful in this part of the country, too. (People don't tan in Orygun, they rust). Yet we are now reaching a population level which is challenging our water resources.

So far, it is very unusual that we have to do much water conservation. We also (those of us in the rural areas, at least) don't have to do the reverse osmosis routine, unless we're among the unfortunates who live in salt well areas.

I, for one, though, would rather that our area NOT keep growing until we DO have to take draconian measures every year, water wise.

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2002

I don't know that I HAVE to use reverse-osmosis. If I am somewhere else in the area, I don't hesitate to drink the tap water. I don't think it's THAT bad. I just prefer, as a steady thing, to remove the chlorine and any other crap that the city deems "safe" levels.

I, for one, though, would rather that our area NOT keep growing until we DO have to take draconian measures every year, water wise.

I absolutely agree with that!

I read, somewhere, that the "global warming/climate change" would most likely make this area of the country MUCH drier. Already the Great Lakes are lower than historical levels (for many reasons, not just climatic changes). There are always movements afoot to remove water from the Great Lakes to be used elsewhere, but so far, the governors of the surrounding states have successfully thwarted the efforts. And a small community north of here successfully prevented Perrier from opening a plant in their area. So, water issues are with us already too. But when there's a drought or even a dry spell, many many people ignore the calls to conserve water. Those are the folks who won't wake up until draconian measures come down on them.

-- Anonymous, May 22, 2002