Best Place To Buy Property?

[mike64]

Re: Best Place To Buy Property?

If you don't mind cold winters, you can find some great deals on homes in SE Michigan. I live in West Bloomfield, which is, or used to be a very affluent northern suburb of Metro Detroit. It's a beautiful area with literally dozens of lakes. And if you prefer big water, Lake St. Clair and the great lakes are not far. Sadly in the last couple years there have been "for sale" signs everywhere, as people directly or indirectly associated with the auto industry got laid off by the tens of thousands.

We moved to WB a few years ago, mainly for the great school system for our kids, and the only reason we could afford it was because the market was depressed even then. Now, my wife checks the real estate listings in the paper and always points out these unbelievable prices for foreclosed homes. I've seen lakefront homes going for 100k (probably fixer uppers).

 

[thedukeryan]

Re: Best Place To Buy Property?

Where I am (lee county, fl) I watched a house, 4 br 3 ba in leehigh, go for 45,900 this morning, it sold in less than 5 minutes at auction. http://www.leepa.org/Scripts/PropertyQuery/PropertyQuery.aspx?STRAP=23442608000290010 Now is this the greatest neighborhood, no, but would I live there, yes, any day of the week. So, yes there are deals down here, but that's a newer home, which any other day I would say is good but with our Sheetrock issues I'm not so sure now. Good luck and i really must advise you to head south, I have yet to quit boating this year, and am not planning on it.

This is part of the reason that I am looking in this area. Here that house would likely go for 4-5 times that much. With that said the sheetrock issues could be a problem. At that price my guess would be that it has "Chinese sheetrock" but who knows. I have been reading up on the Chinese sheet rock and it sounds like the homes are livable but far from ideal. I have also heard of water/sewage issues. Are most of these well/septic tank systems? That would not bother me as long as they are functional. How are property taxes etc. A house in this range would allow me to pay cash for it and get me away from my $900/month mortgage. Plus I really enjoy the warm weather and the idea of being near the ocean etc...

 

[jonesg]

Re: Best Place To Buy Property?

6 more yrs and we're outta here,
we're retiring to the Philippines,
house with a business (general store w/ lottery) costs $60K USD.
House boy and maid costs peanuts.

You can live like a king on your American SS check in many countries.
Or stick around and get used to cat food.

When I visited the FSU I saw condo's in Ukraine $30K.!

 

[thedukeryan]

Re: Best Place To Buy Property?

I had a friend who traveled to many different countries. He said the catch was that the cost of living to their standards was very low but the cost of living to our standards could often be much higher. For example he said here in the US new cars are everywhere, flat screen tv's at every Walmart, new computers etc... As mentioned the cost in many of these countries is cheap to their standards but not so cheap if you decide you want a new truck, flat screen etc. Maybe the Philippines are different but how are the prices & availability of electronics, vehicles and other commodities?