Maybe the same fellow who designed Snoopy's doghouse?

Wow

It is a cute house, but half a million? Housing prices are definitely insane in some areas.

It’s location. This house would be seven Figures in the Park Cities in DFW. I can’t imagine how much it would be in Cupertino.

It’s a cute house, BTW.

It's Bellingham. And that's why my kids will likely never be able to afford a house in Western WA.

Wow! It's super cute!! The price differences all around the country are so amazing to me! Even just here in Indiana, the difference between central, where we are; and southern, where my parents are, is crazy!! I'm thankful to be in our tiny town!!

Prices have exploded in that area over the past few years.

DD2 has lived in Bellingham (motto: "City of subdued excitement") since going to college there. Prices have been getting more nuts there for the last few years, so I'm glad they were able to buy years ago when they did. We saw this the last time we were there.

^^^ what in the H***?? I'll stick with my fly over state, thanks! I mean our views are different, but still beautiful!

Land is abundant.

In the US, especially CA & municipalities with similar zoning processes, buyers & builders pay dearly for highly rationed approvals, which greatly increases the cost of living, reflected in the cost of construction labor.

It will be a nice home for someone.

The price, though, is a shocker. For half a million you get a very Spartan architecture, contractor grade doors and windows, flip grade fixtures and finishes. And it's not very big. 1600 sq ft.

I don’t care where it’s located, that’s ridiculous.

I'll translate my comments into dollars. I've seen tract builders paying $150-200K+ for finished building lots then adding $50-100K for permits with impact fees, so $200-300K BEFORE adding a home to the lot. That's what the process has created.

^^^^^

Not to mention the 97 pages of Bird Friendly Guidelines I'm now required to design with for our new single-family home in Markham, Ontario. Another consultant, I guess. And then there's the Tree Protection Plan, requiring an arborist; and a Grading Plan--which I used to do myself, but which now is limited to surveyors and other designated professionals. And the $5,600 Committee of Adjustment hearing required for virtually all new builds due to the ancient existing zoning. In fact, if the "finished build" survey shows a one-inch error, back to the Committee again.

oh my!!

Location, Location, Location. As some have said in some areas of the US it would sell for more, others less. Yes, it would be crazy for my neck of the woods but not others. I would compare it to what other similar homes nearby have recently sold for to see if its overpriced and by how much.

That home pricing, unfortunately, is not out of line for the Pacific NW (where I also live), and the price, did not even make me blink. Bellingham is a nice town about 90 miles north of Seattle: if that house was in the Seattle metro area, the price would be much higher, probably upwards of $800K.

I've lived all over the U.S., and am aware that I could sell my house here and buy an equivalent one for a fraction of the price if I moved elsewhere. The market prices these things, and that means areas like the Pacific NW, which has a hot job market, natural beauty, and a number of other things, both tangible and intangible, that many people find desirable, will continue to have shocking home prices.

When I first moved here decades ago, housing prices were "normal": my first house cost about twice my annual salary. Since I got into the market way back when, it's protected me because the values of the houses I've owned have inflated along with the other houses, which means that, once you manage to get into a home here, changing houses is less of a challenge. It's only when you first show up here from another area of less expensive houses that the shock of what your money can (or can't) buy hits you. It's also particularly hard for young people who already live here and are trying to get on the first rung of the home ownership ladder: they live in small, but expensive, apartments and have trouble saving enough cash for a down payment while the housing prices continue to go up faster than their salaries do.

That's a million dollar house in parts of Hawaii.

A mortgage with 5% down would be $2364 a month. Taxes are about 1.5% of assessed value. $5000 a year or $420 a month. Median household income in the county is $50k.

In Seattle itself, the median income for a married couple with kids as of Sept. 2018 was $161,000. The shocking statistic I saw in a recent article was that the number of Seattle families with an income of at least $200,000 is now greater than the number making less than $50,000:

What's middle class in Seattle?

In my area of flyover country, this would be a $175,000 house.

DGS1 is constantly telling me what the starting salaries are for graduates of the engineering school at his university. I then tell him to forget the salary - look at the cost of living where those jobs actually are! A $90,000 starting salary doesn't go very far in Silicon Valley or Bellingham!

As of today, the cheapest single family stand alone home in my town would go for a bit more than that. It is run down, not renovated and n a busy street.

I am never surprised at prices.

I'm always upset when I watch the real estate shows that first time owners are looking at very large homes for under $200,000 with all the whistles and bells no less!

For the same price $525k +/-, this is what’s available in my neck of the woods (and why I find that listing somewhat sickening).

Holy cow, nidnay. Whats median family income in your county?

ETA - 50k for Mecklenburg County (if that is it)

nidnay-

One of the places I lived was N.Carolina, so I know what you can get there compared to what I've gotten used to here.

For contrast, I remember reading a news story about 15 years ago profiling the cheapest house that sold that year in Seattle. The price was $100K for a small rambler on a 4000 sqft lot in a terrible part of town...and there was very little left of the house as an arsonist had burned most of it down. Otherwise it would probably have gone for a couple hundred thousand.

Here is very similar for $985,000 in CA

Where my sister is selling, this would be around $225,000

Where I grew up, if such a house existed (this layout is not needed, lots aren't small) it might be $98,500.

House doesn't bother me but the lot size would...but its right by a huge wooded park and then a lake on the otherside. Not too bad considering.

Location is everything...

$2M

https://www.shorewest.com/homes/1598932_METRO-11276_N_Shorecliff_Ln-Mequon-WI-53092-3520#.W9JtQNVKh0w

$800K

Go 25 min west and you get double the land and save yourself $1.2M

https://www.shorewest.com/homes/1592790_METRO-7155_ODonahue_Pl-Erin-WI-53027-8898#.W9JuqNVKh0w

When we moved to Western Washingon we wanted to pick up our Minnesota house and bring it along with us...

Nidnay small world. We moved from Mint Hill into the house we are in now. The last listing you show was our realtor.

Location, location, location is so true. Prices are going insane in our area, the few remaining lots have more than doubled over the last 5 years since we bought our lot and building costs have escalated a lot over the last couple of years. We were lucky in our timing or would have been priced out of the neighborhood. For instance, a very similar . 37 acre ( approx, 16,000 square foot lot) down the street is now listed at $990,000 and there are only two similar unbuilt lots in the neighborhood, but the other isn't listed. Add in permits and tap fees and you are around 1.1 million before you even start. In the small southern farming town where I grew up, you could buy almost 400 acres for that!

I keep checking myself to make sure I'm not falling into the "I remember when gas was 17 cents a gallon!!!" trap. But its hard to wrap my mind around these prices even though I'm living in the middle of it!

How can people afford something like that if the median family income is 50k?! That’s crazy. Our college town suburb in NY state median family income is 69K. The house like that would be $200,000 to $220,000. For half million you could get a big home 4,000-5,000 sq ft without much yard , property tax would be around $20,000-$25,000 a year.

Location and supply and demand. It's basic economics or something related to it.

Doesn't make sense? Check out Palo Alto.

Summersrhythm.
"Low Income" for a family of four in my city is $46,000. "Average" household income in my zip is $96K, only because a lot of grad students live in the code. "Average" one zip east of me (about 5 blocks, few grad students) is $147K.

"Low Income" for a family of four in San Francisco is something like $112,000.

People in the $50K income levels don't buy houses in my city unless it's in an outlying poorer neighborhood. People in San Franciso at that income level don't buy at all. There are families with incomes well over $100K in San Francisco living in shelters, possibly temporary, but nonetheless.

I didn't blink an eye when I saw the listing. It would be difficult in many west coast urban centers to find a house with that size and condition for that price. In many places it would only be a dream.

Wow, what a surprise. Thanks Palimpsest. The families with well over $100K in the shelters should come to NY or PA, they could make a much better living here, own a nice home, 1000 times better than being in a shelter.

I have a daughter who lives in San Francisco, and she told me a couple of years ago about attending PTA meetings and hearing more than one mother complaining about how it was impossible to live in the city if your family only made $500k a year!

Well thats just crazy lol. Some ppl dont know when to keep quiet.

My husband is from that part of the country and while agree the cost is high for someone making a medium income it is not unreasonable for a two income family. Especially if you keep in mind property taxes are reasonable compared to a lot of the country, we currently live in Illinois taxes are so high here, second point Washington state does not have a state income tax, we are paying 5% here. And housing cost in our current town you will pay about 400,000 to buy an older home and tear it down. Property taxes on my street are between 10,000 and $27,000 and most of these are modest original homes. Although we live in a great town where we are two blocks from great shopping, dinning and entertainment it does not negate the winters, muggy summers, high tax’s, low topography (no mountains) and more politicians in prison than in any other state we can’t wait to move west. For the same house money we can have an in ground pool lots of sunshine and save money on our property taxes

How about this beauty, location location....

https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Single-Family/20009241/2641-Casa-Loma-Road-West-Kelowna-British-Columbia-V1Z1T6-Lakeview-Heights

That house in my Neighborhood would be priced at 1.4 million-Toronto Canada

Canadian dollars, though

Would still be over a million US dollars at the current conversion rates.

Jn3344, could you drop me a message? I wanted to ask you a quick question on your relocation to the pnw.

I’m in WI looking to do what you did.

I just checked back on this house, and it sold for $519K in Jan 2019.

my grandson (police officer), his wife (works for the county) and their 2 grade school kids are in the process of purchasing a house in Austin County (about 50 miles west of Houston TX). Very slightly rolling land, very small town (county seat though). Kids probably have a TOTAL income of around $130K. House they are buying is around 2400 sq ft, has a garage apt (900 sq ft) they can rent out, large yard (.67 ac). 3/2/2 plus original garage (quite well done) turned into family room - house is only 2 rooms deep so lots of windows (not a new house). Price: $250K

Like everything else in California, income inequality shows up to exaggerated effect. To others, our home prices look insane. But this is part of the reason why it happens - multiply what's happening at Lyft times Uber (which is coming to IPO), Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Instagram, et.al.:

+++++++

Here’s how many Bay
Area homes Lyft employees can buy with IPO cash

The ride-hailing company is the first company of several
expected to go public this year or next

Last week’s Lyft initial public offering made so many
Bay Area techies so rich that they could buy “every single home in San
Francisco listed for sale on Thursday, nearly a third of all affordable homes
in the Bay Area, or about half of the least expensive houses in San Francisco
and the East Bay."

(Note: this might be subscriber only; not sure)

Lyft Millionaires