The Vent and Rant Thread

[ProfCrash]

Congrats on the house! It looks wonderful and I love the price

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Congratulations.
It looks so shiny

Coincidentally that is exactly what I paid for my condo in 1995. By paying an extra $1000 or so a year I managed to pay it off in 8 years.

Helen

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Congrats on the house! It looks wonderful and I love the price

Thanks, guys. Gentilly Terrace, man. It has been a nice, solid middle-class neighborhood for almost a century. My grandmother's cousins lived there. Not a scrap of trash on the streets or any graffiti. It is very suburban-feeling for being in New Orleans and, because it is sort-of hidden and not in proximity to the French Quarter, the big parks, or in the garden district, it still has deals. That also means no one has any reason to be wandering those streets who doesn't live there. There are no businesses or anything and it all dead-ends before the Interstate, it is purely residential.

Ooooh! Ooooh! Lest I forget an important plus of that neighborhood, it is on the remains of an old river bluff and, thus, higher than most of the rest of the city. My flood ins. will be less that $400 a year!

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Both my father and my sister have the very annoying habit of putting empty packages back on the shelf.

When this happens to the peanut butter it's annoying. But when they do it with the Imodium it's a lot more than just annoying!

How really annoying! a habit I do not understand. And, of course, at a time like this, very unfortunate.

[Katsunami]

I should have moved or something.

Your houses are almost for free, compared to the ones in the Netherlands.

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I should have moved or something.

Your houses are almost for free, compared to the ones in the Netherlands.

Ha! I'm sure. Remember, though, that people make a lot less here and there is no universal healthcare. Cities like Boston, New York, San Francisco, etc. would have much higher-cost housing than New Orleans as well.

[Katsunami]

I know; still, a house like the one you posted could easily cost $350.000 here, in one of the larger Dutch cities.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Congratulations.
It looks so shiny

Coincidentally that is exactly what I paid for my condo in 1995. By paying an extra $1000 or so a year I managed to pay it off in 8 years.

Helen

LOL...

I was about to post, I paid slightly more than that for a small house exactly that size (what are called "patio homes" in Scottsdale, AZ) in 1987. We, too, had ours paid off when we sold it some 18 years later. I think it looks darling, and if you two can manage it, I wouldn't pass that up. Housing in NOLA and in Detroit is incredibly cheap right now, and I don't see how you could go wrong with a sweetie like that one. Of course, I haven't seen the inspection reports, or anything along those lines..but if it has no secret problems...I'd snap that up. The house I'm living in now is not even in the same universe, pricing-wise, (of course, it's twice the size plus some) with that house, and I long mightily for "the good ol' days" of small mortgage payments like that!

Best of luck to you!

@Katsunami:

Most US housing really isn't anywhere near that price. That's an astounding deal. But we do have some areas in the country that are even more depressed, house-pricing-wise, than others, and NOLA happens to be one of them. (I have many friends, clients, and some contractors who live there, so have some knowledge thereof.)

Hitch

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I know; still, a house like the one you posted could easily cost $350.000 here, in one of the larger Dutch cities.

Originally Posted by Hitch

LOL...

I was about to post, I paid slightly more than that for a small house exactly that size (what are called "patio homes" in Scottsdale, AZ) in 1987. We, too, had ours paid off when we sold it some 18 years later. I think it looks darling, and if you two can manage it, I wouldn't pass that up. Housing in NOLA and in Detroit is incredibly cheap right now, and I don't see how you could go wrong with a sweetie like that one. Of course, I haven't seen the inspection reports, or anything along those lines..but if it has no secret problems...I'd snap that up. The house I'm living in now is not even in the same universe, pricing-wise, (of course, it's twice the size plus some) with that house, and I long mightily for "the good ol' days" of small mortgage payments like that!

Best of luck to you!

@Katsunami:

Most US housing really isn't anywhere near that price. That's an astounding deal. But we do have some areas in the country that are even more depressed, house-pricing-wise, than others, and NOLA happens to be one of them. (I have many friends, clients, and some contractors who live there, so have some knowledge thereof.)

Hitch

That is right and it depends on where you are in New Orleans, too. The FQ, the Garden District, the better parts of the Marigny, etc. are much higher. For example, my cousin is trying to sell my aunt's condo in the French Quarter, which is just over 800 sq ft but a 2-2. It appraised for 320k. She is asking 310k now, I think. Too rich for my librarian blood.

http://www.latter-blum.com/property/...a-70112_387806

[Katsunami]

An $320K condo? Gold walls, or what?

Ieeps!

*crawls back under his rock*

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

An $320K condo? Gold walls, or what?

Ieeps!

*crawls back under his rock*

Ha! No, just in the French Quarter and a good part of the FQ at that.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

Ha! I'm sure. Remember, though, that people make a lot less here and there is no universal healthcare. Cities like Boston, New York, San Francisco, etc. would have much higher-cost housing than New Orleans as well.

Originally Posted by Katsunami

An $320K condo? Gold walls, or what?

Ieeps!

*crawls back under his rock*

The housing market has dropped quite a bit where I live, but 320k is still typical for an older (55+years) 2 BR condo and new ones in the same area are typically 500,000
Downtown Vancouver, much higher, and West Vancouver, well a wee studio is over 1/2 a million.

http://beta.realtor.ca/propertyDetai...rtyId=13559662

And while we do have medicare it is not paid for by property taxes, wages are about the same as New Orleans and overall cost of living is far higher excluding housing, which is perhaps the second least affordable in the world.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...orld-1.2505524

I was fortunate to buy when I did. Pretty sure covingtoncat73 will be saying the same thing one of these days.

Helen

[ProfCrash]

That is cheap for a condo in DC

[dreams]

Congratulations on your new home, covingtoncat73.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

Oh, things are looking a bit better with the home-search. I found the neighborhood I want, at least! There is actually a cute, little neighborhood. Totally residential, no trash on the streets at all, no graffiti, some trees, etc. etc. It still has a few deals because, being kind of hidden and completely residential, you still have to drive to go to anything, even though it is the city. Just not far. This is the one I really like. It has a tenant on at least one side and I haven't been able to get in to see it yet but it looks good on the outside. I wasn't considering a double that small but, at that price and in that neighborhood, Mom and I could each have a side. I hope it is that cheap just because it is a tiny double with that kind of open, "shotgun" floor plan a lot of people don't like due to lack of privacy. Not a big problem with just one woman and one cat per side. LOL.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/40...07367381_zpid/

It does sound nice that you and your mom could both have a side, and the neighborhood sounds great. One of my aunts and her daughter had an arrangement like that. Is it in a flood zone? (Showing my ignorance here: Is all of New Orleans in a flood zone?)

[ProfCrash]

New Orleans is below sea level. The entire city is a flood zone