🚀 go-pugleaf

the point I was making was that when one 
drives around the nation you can find lots 
of towns like San Angelo with lots of houses 
under $120,000. In San Angelo you can buy a 
fairly large and charming house by the 
University and some of the historic areas 
for under $100,000. Of course that brings 
the question back to cost in other areas. If 
300,000,000 live in this country we all know 
that all of them can't live in La Jolla, San 
Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Miami, 
Boston, NY city, Portland, Seattle etc and 
so the question of cost is so diverse and 
relative.

If a home costs $19 a sq ft does that 
necessarily make it a good buy? If a house 
costs $400 a sq foot does that mean it is 
overvalued because as a cost for an average 
home in the WHOLE USA it is double the cost? 
Then the question of age. Even in San Angelo 
if you want new you are going pay closer to 
$100 a sqft for a nice house where the older 
ones go as low as $13 a sq ft with most 
being around $50 a sq ft. Is a 3000 sq ft 
turn of the Century house in the ghetto in 
Buffalo a bargain at $20 a sq ft vs an 800 
sq ft condo in Austin at $200 a sq ft?

It seems that too often this blog turns the 
whole world into a homgeneous blob where all 
houses cost four or five times income or 
people pay California prices or that a 
$300,000 house in SD is the same as a 
$300,000 housein Shrevport LA. Even in 
cities like Phoenix there are markets within 
markets and prices that range from cheap to 
expensive.

And this site treats all buyers and 
consumers the same when there are vast 
differences in incomes, down payments, 
lenght of time when people bought, debt 
loads, family size, etc. As I use to tell co-
workers at the hospital, it doesn't matter 
if you make $100,000 if you spend $110,000 
you are in debt and over-extended where a 
person making $20,000 who spends $18,000 has 
a positive cash flow, sort of like some 
mortgages.

Still, for all those people who bemoan that 
they can't buy a house on two incomes say in 
La Jolla when they are 30 years old, move. 
If owning a house is that important to you 
then there are plenty of areas in the 
country that are very affordable.