do you buy or not?

[jols]

random question here as you guys are from all over the world.

but is it important to buy your own property?

it is very important to us brits but sadly some peeps are priced out of the game now.

i bought my first flat at 18 and only have two years left on my mortgage and ive moved three times to bigger property.

i just wondered if people rent for all their lives or buy and finish payments in 20 ish years.

just being nosey

 

[Alex_B]

no personal property in my case

would like to have some though

but over here rents are usually much lower than in the UK

 

[jols]

what would you pay for say an average three bed house?

 

[JDS]

I don't know how big a flat is. I own just over an acre of my own land - about 20 years left on my mortgage.

Can't wait 'til Spring to get the garden started!

 

[jols]

a flat is an apartment us brits just call it a flat cause its all on one level

 

[mrodgers]

Do you pay property tax in England? I pay property tax and it's rolled into my mortgage. If not for the property tax and homeowner's insurance, my payment on the house alone is pretty much equal to what I would pay in renting a small apartment. I pay ~$450-500 US on my house. Granted, it is a VERY small house, but that I would only get a 2 bedroom apartment in town for that much. I have a 2 acre yard for the kids to play in and I'm on a dead end road, thus no traffic. I have no one living above or below me like in an apartment making noise. If I wanted to rent an actual house, I would be looking at probably $650-700 and I still wouldn't have a yard for the kids to play in.

For me, property tax pays for public schools. It's not really fair that some people have a billion kids and rent, thus they pay nothing for the public schools, while there are couples who don't plan on having kids and they pay for the schools with property tax on their homes. Also, the biggest problem is, the elderly who are on limited income are constantly loosing their homes because they don't have the money to pay property tax, even though they have paid their mortgages off 30 years ago. They can't pay $2000 for property taxes year after year, so their homes are taken and sold on auction for pennies on a dollar just to get the taxes paid.

Oh yeah, we don't call them flats because our apartments are usually either large apartment buildings with multiple levels and multiple units (think like a hotel) or they are old 3 story houses and each level is a living unit.

 

[jols]

we pay a council tax which can be up to 3000 pound a year for schools and such like but people who rent also pay that

an average house in england three beds is bout 200,000 pounds

 

[Sideburns]

in US and Canada I'm gonna have to say that most people buy their own house/property. However, it also depends on the city. Lots of cities are so expensive they only have apartments and studios and whatnot.
Real estate varies so much by area I don't even think I could give you an average price here...cause it changes just depending on street here...

 

[JohnMF]

i bought my first house nearly two years ago. Five times my annual wage mortgage. May have to sell within the next year

 

[nealjpage]

I'd like to buy my own place, too. It's the "American Dream" to have your own single family home on a large lot.

I'd be happy for a nice little two bedroom place with a small yard. All I really want is a darkroom!

 

[skieur]

what would you pay for say an average three bed house?

About roughly $300,000 in Canada in an urban location and less in smaller cities and towns. Taxes on that would be around $2,000 per year in a large city and less in small towns. Mortgages are probably around 7 percent. High efficiency furnaces which are common in some areas as well, keep the heating bills at a reasonable level.

Rising house prices make a house an investment. My house is currently worth about twice what I paid for it 12 years ago.

skieur

 

[JodieO]

I am on my second house right now (it's five bedrooms, three levels), we have a little over two acres of property. I board my three horses at a 200-acre stable, and we want to buy more land within a couple years - at least 10-20 acres and build a new house on it as well as a small stable...

It's important to us to have property but it's soooo expensive here in Maryland. My house is pretty inexpensive though (for the size and land) - we could put it up for sale tomorrow for about $550,000.

My husband and I are also looking for a second house to own, though, for our businesses. I pay $2,000/mo just in rent for my studio - I would rather put that toward a second mortgage (i.e., owning two houses).

 

[Battou]

I have no rent, mortgage payments, My car is paid in full, my furnicher is paid in full and my cameras are paid in full. I'm set, utility bills, property taxes and rez lease are a pain in the butt but....

 

[mrodgers]

About roughly $300,000 in Canada in an urban location and less in smaller cities and towns.

Now see this answer. He asked "what would you pay for say, an average 3 bedroom".

Now, how was skieur specifically answering? What would you pay? Or just a general answer of what someone would pay for an average house.

What I would pay is $88,000 for an average 3 bedroom, it's exactly what I did. But, the difference between what my average 3 bedroom house is, is quite different from what other's average 3 bedroom house would be. Houses vary in size so greatly, that you can't just state a 2, 3, 4 bedroom house. With todays materialistic society in general, the view of an "average" home is rising as fast as prices are. Some folk's view of an "average" home could probably fit my entire home in the living room. New houses that are being built constantly are gigantic. Depending who talks, their view of an "average" 3 bedroom home could be 1000-1200 square feet, or it could be 3500-4000 square feet.

New houses being built between my home and work are in the $300-500,000 range. They are gigantic, and I really wish I knew where they all worked, because there can't be that many engineer titles and doctors around my area. That is what you need to make a decent paycheck (or I should say, an overly extreme paycheck) around me. Else, you are just stuck at $10-20 an hour because all the pay raises go to management and nothing to the hourly workforce.

If you want to look at the average price for homes already built that are for sale, they are first, moderately sized and not overly gigantic McMansions, and they range around $80-150,000.

 

[Christina]

I'd like to buy my own place, too. It's the "American Dream" to have your own single family home on a large lot.

I'd be happy for a nice little two bedroom place with a small yard. All I really want is a darkroom!

haha, thats what i told my husband a few nights ago, but a studio instead of the darkroom.