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Housing around the world

Miss Chicken

Miss Chicken

Little three legged cat with attitude
Admiral
I have just been reading this

The Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey puts Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide in the top 3 per cent of the world's most unaffordable housing markets
Click to expand...

So I thought I would ask people to tell me how affordable is housing in your country, state, region.

To make it easy to compare - what can you get in your region for between $US500,000-$US600,000?

In Hobart you can get a house like this

It has
  • Bedrooms:4
  • Bathrooms:2
  • Building Size:196.03 m² (21 squares) approx
  • Land Size:696 m² (approx)
  • Carport Spaces:2
or this
 
I am in western Illinois in the USA, right along the Mississippi River. I did a search on several websites for this area for homes between $500,000 - $600,000, and only one house popped up in all those searches. The cost of living around here just isn't that high.

According to these websites, the average cost for a single-family home is about $180,000, but I could easily find a decent starter house for $70-80,000 if I wanted to.

My roommate and I are going to be moving into a new house next week, actually. We will be renting a 5-bedroom house for $725/month. To put that in perspective, my brother is renting a crappy 2-bedroom apartment in Chicago (only 2 hours away) for $1,100/month.
 
For that price in Ottawa, you could get a McMansion in the suburbs, or a really nice older house in the city core.
 
In my area...$500,000 can get you around 3,500 Sqft 4-5 BR 3 1/2 BTH. $200,000 Can get you around 1600 Sqft 3-4 BR 2 1/2 BTH. Anything under $100,000 won't get you anything nice...around 1200 Sqft 2-3 BR 1 1/2 BTH...if you are lucky...usually needs work.

I found a nice house for $95,000...Almost 1500 Sqft 3 BR 2 1/2 BTH even though the pics look nice and it is in a nice area...there has to be something wrong with it for that price...or it is about to be foreclosed on.
 
For the $550,000 range, in my neighborhood (southwest of Houston, in the Missouri City/Sugarland area) you can get this:
spimg318564.jpg


A 5 bedroom, 3 and a half bath, 2 car garage home with 3859 sq feet of living space. It has a "theater" room and a private balcony off the master suite.
spimg318569.jpg

spimg318572.jpg

spimg318565.jpg
 
Miss Chicken said:
To make it easy to compare - what can you get in your region for between $US500,000-$US600,000?

In Hobart you can get a house like this

It has
  • Bedrooms:4
  • Bathrooms:2
  • Building Size:196.03 m² (21 squares) approx
  • Land Size:696 m² (approx)
  • Carport Spaces:2
or this
Click to expand...

Yeah, you'd be able to get something like those for that price here in Winnipeg and it would be next to a river, out in Charleswood near Assiniboine Forest, or in one of the new suburbs. Or outside the Perimeter on a huge lot.

If you wanted to be closer to downtown (lord knows why), you'd be limited to a condo on Wellington or Waterfront.

My parents just bought a house in the city, your basic 1100 sq ft bungalow for about 250k. And that's in one of the cheapest markets in the country. The same house in Vancouver or Toronto would probably be twice the price. The real kicker? They got less than 100k for the same size house in rural MB.
 
$500,000 would get you something in the 2,000 - 3,000 square foot range.

Here's a pretty typical example:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8705-Powder-Horn-Rd-Springfield-VA-22152/51935992_zpid/

That's a 5-bed, 3-bath, 2,414 square foot house.


It's changed a lot. When I bought my 1,400 square foot townhouse 5 years ago we were lucky* to get it for slightly over $400,000.

* ("Lucky" being an interesting word. One across the street just sold for $280,000.)
 
It looks like a house the size you mentioned would be around $300,000-$400,000 in my area. Just about three years ago the same house would have gone for somewhere in the high $500,000 to low $600,000 range. Craziness!

In terms of renting, the prices are all over the place depending on which neighboorhood you happen to be in. We were paying around $1200 for a two bedroom apartment, and we moved only about 15 minutes away and we are only paying $850 now for the same thing, with the area being just as nice. It's all about convenience and how far you are willing to drive to get to work/school.
 
auntiehill said:
A 5 bedroom, 3 and a half bath, 2 car garage home with 3859 sq feet of living space. It has a "theater" room and a private balcony off the master suite
Click to expand...

Want!

I'm in Chicago and since there's such a difference in pricing depending on the neighborhood, I just did a search in my neighborhood. It's a pretty nice area but comes with a fairly steep price tag.

The search I did came up with basically returned 2 bedroom 2 bathroom units. Usually 1300-1500 sq ft, some more some less.
 
Took a more detailed look in Ottawa, and in the suburb I checked, you can get 4 beds and 3\4 baths for between $500 and $600 K pretty easily. Most, as I suspected, are a bit McMansiony:

576ebe14.jpg


Downtown I was somewhat surprised to discover that there are some fairly comperable houses available. None quite as big, obviously, but still quite reasonable, such as this 3 bed, 2 bath house from 1910 in my neighborhood:

18e3a623.jpg
 
Wait a second though, what you can buy for x amount of dollars only makes sense when tied in to how hard it is to earn x dollars. Maybe wages are lower in the US?
 
Nick The Munificent said:
Wait a second though, what you can buy for x amount of dollars only makes sense when tied in to how hard it is to earn x dollars. Maybe wages are lower in the US?
Click to expand...

They're lower in some parts of the US. They're also higher in other parts. The US is really big, and each state within the US has its own wage laws.
 
Nick The Munificent said:
Wait a second though, what you can buy for x amount of dollars only makes sense when tied in to how hard it is to earn x dollars. Maybe wages are lower in the US?
Click to expand...

Indeed it does, which is why the report takes median income into account in assessing the affordability of each market.

It's an interesting definition of 'world' they're working with though. Apparently the world consists of:

United States
United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
Hong Kong
Ireland
New Zealand

Go nuts.
 
That translates to 350k GBP or thereabouts.

In England, that would buy something like a traditional 3 (maybe 4) bedroom detached house along the nicest road in a village: well kept and tidy, very low traffic, very low crime, quiet, a polite and peaceful neighbourhood, with surrounding countryside.
 
For €400,000 euro (around US$550,000), in a large Italian city you can buy a two bedrooms 1,500 square foot apartment in a semi-central location, or a small three bedrooms independent house with a small garden-yard outside of town.
 
Miss Chicken said:
To make it easy to compare - what can you get in your region for between $US500,000-$US600,000?
Click to expand...

That would buy an unremarkable 3-bed semi-detached house of about 1000 sqft (90+ sqm) with a small garden, on the outskirts of the city.

Or a decent 2-bed apartment of about 600 sqft (50+ sqm) in a central part of the city.
 
$500,000 will get you 5-6 bedrooms in Scottsdale in current market conditions here. Scottsdale is almost the most expensive section of town (most expensive is Paradise Valley which is next to Scottsdale).
 
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