View Full Version : Housing costs
If I'm able to make it to Wichita for the OTC BBQ this year, maybe perhaps I should look at buying a house in the area.
This place (http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?frm=byxmls&xlid=1053986458&fh=on&lnksrc=feathome&poe=realtor) for $62,500... I don't know much about the neighborhood but the house looks really nice for that money... three-bedroom, one-bath, 9,000-square-foot lot, hardwood floors in the living room and bedroom... estimated mortgage payment is about half what my rent for a tiny-ass one-bedroom apartment costs.
Welcome to not California ;)
I've been looking through houses on the realtor.com site... I set an upper ceiling at $150K and I've got 160 pages of results to search through. The amount of places I can get for less than $200 a month with a 20 percent down payment is staggering.
I've been looking through houses on the realtor.com site... I set an upper ceiling at $150K and I've got 160 pages of results to search through. The amount of places I can get for less than $200 a month with a 20 percent down payment is staggering.
Yeah but how much would you make working in that area? It's all relative.
Professur
1/20/06, 10:18am
I don't think he wants to be living with his relatives. That's why he's looking for a cheap house.
I don't think he wants to be living with his relatives. That's why he's looking for a cheap house.
:tomato:
I don't think he wants to be living with his relatives. That's why he's looking for a cheap house.
You suck.
ekahs retsam
1/20/06, 03:36pm
Housing in Wichita is some of the cheapest in the nation. But jobs are hard to come by and while crime is low i can count the things to do in Wichita on one hand.
That house is in a lower income area but by no means a bad area of town.
Professur
1/20/06, 03:54pm
You suck.
You first.
Are there any newspaper jobs in the area? I have experience doing that now... I've also got $25K set aside which, in that area, would also be a real down payment. Over here, it's about a monthly payment.
Professur
1/20/06, 05:43pm
I bought my house for less than that.
Are there any newspaper jobs in the area? I have experience doing that now... I've also got $25K set aside which, in that area, would also be a real down payment. Over here, it's about a monthly payment.
The major local is the Eagle. There are a few other area papers, but they are much smaller and some aren't daily.
For comparison, median income is about $40k per household; Per capita is $20k.
So I checked houses in Kansas City... it looks as though I'd have to spend about $70K to get a house I'd actually be willing to move into. The under-$15K houses were, umm, interesting... one of them had fire damage, and I couldn't tell whether that was blood or red paint splattered across the wall in another.
ekahs retsam
1/23/06, 02:33pm
KC and Wichita are VERY different places.
Housing in KC is more expensive and cost of living is higher. KC is a city that sits between two states (half in Kansas half in Missouri). Wichita is actually larger than KC KS but when you combine KC KS with KC MS it becomes one of the largest cities in the country. The vast majority of KC is on the MS side and it can be very confusing for people who are new to the area because certain state laws apply to one side that don’t apply to the other.
Also KC and Wichita housing markets are vastly different. KC is one of the fastest growing cities in the Midwest and is expanding at an amazing rate. While Wichita is growing at a more moderate speed which creates less demand for new housing. That is not to say Wichita is not growing. Everyday it seems I see new housing areas pop up like weeds.
Wichita’s main industries are aircraft and medical while KC is mostly telecommunications and industrial manufacturing. Both cities rely heavily on agriculture which affects almost everything and weighs heavily in the political landscape. Around 60% of all jobs in the Wichita area are reliant on the aircraft industry. If a major player in the aircraft field announces layoffs it can result in job loss in other sectors simply do to sheer amount of income generated by aircraft manufacturing.
http://www.nationjob.com/wichita/
I have a bachelor's in Journalism so I'd be looking for a newspaper job. Christina's got this hard-headed opinion that walking on the streets of any part of Wichita will get you shot and nothing I told her would alleviate that (she was there once and didn't feel safe, she said).
ekahs retsam
1/23/06, 03:14pm
I have a bachelor's in Journalism so I'd be looking for a newspaper job. Christina's got this hard-headed opinion that walking on the streets of any part of Wichita will get you shot and nothing I told her would alleviate that (she was there once and didn't feel safe, she said).
Well if you come this summer you could check it out for yourself. Honestly the crime rate is VERY very low. I personally don't know anyone who was ever robbed, shot, or killed in this city and I’ve lived here for 24 years. Sure we have the occasional murder or whatever but I think the only crime that has ever happened to me was I forgot to lock my car once and someone stole my car stereo.
http://www.cityrating.com/citycrime.asp?city=Wichita&state=KS
walking on the streets of any part of Wichita will get you shot
she lives in Fresno & is frightened of Witchita :rofl:
she lives in Fresno & is frightened of Witchita :rofl:
Seriously...Fresno seems to be somehow involved in many famous murder cases (I read stories about serial killers sometimes cause I find it interesting).
She's not from Fresno. Actually, she refuses to live there, too. Fresno wasn't so bad from my own experience, but then again, I didn't live around Edison High School, or on Kings Canyon Boulevard, or by Princeton and Weber avenues.
She's not from Fresno. Actually, she refuses to live there, too. Fresno wasn't so bad from my own experience, but then again, I didn't live around Edison High School, or on Kings Canyon Boulevard, or by Princeton and Weber avenues.
She sounds like she's even harder to get along with than I am...and believe me, I can be VERY difficult to get along with.
Professur
1/23/06, 05:41pm
She sounds like she's even harder to get along with than I am...and believe me, I can be VERY difficult to get along with.
Hold the presses, Inky. There's news for ya!! NOT!!!
She's not that hard to get along with. She does have certain ideas about things that I think are crap, but just as in any decent relationship, I figure it's best to choose my battles wisely. If she insists the cat will never go outside, scooping the clumps out of the litterbox from time to time is worth the trouble it will save. It's not that hard. I tell her every joke I tell you guys, so I figure putting up with me has to earn her some sort of leeway. If she's willing to live somewhere that I can find a journalism-related job and afford to buy a house (BTW, even Fresno's out of my price range), then I'm OK with it. I figure pretty much every city is going to have its ups and downs, so I'm not going to be too concerned with one city over another. Honestly, I'd like to be able to stay around here, but I can't even afford a burned-out husk of a condo in this area.
Come to Georgia, Ink! We'd love to have ya!
Professur
1/23/06, 06:44pm
Yeah, I hear they need another crime column writer to replace that last guy who was shot driving up the highway. Now there's irony for ya.
may not have happened
Other than a little humidity, I liked the area. It would be nice to already know a few people there, as well. I might get "overruled," though.
I think she said Kansas City mostly because tornados don't seem to hit that area quite as often as a lot of the test of the plains and also because she has family that's not all that far from there. That might ease her transition, since she's never lived away from home before. I have so I could deal with being far away from everyone a little better.
Of course, nothing's set in stone yet. From what we've discussed, this would take place once she gets done with her classes at the local community college, which is another year at least. I actually like that sort of timeframe because it gives me some time to get more established at this paper to have a wider body of work to show potential employers, it gives me time to save a bit more money, and gives me time to make sure I would want to get married and move halfway across the country with her. I think that if we're not sure of it a year from now, it will never happen.
Professur
1/23/06, 06:45pm
Oh Lord, here we go again.
Well, considering that I'd met, married, split up, got back together and split up for good with Brandi in the same amount of time as I've known Christina, I think I'm doing better this time. Whenever we're together, things work really well. It's when I don't get to see her for a few weeks because of scheduling problems that things get bad... and even then, it's nowhere near the problem it was before we broke up last summer. The time apart seemed to mellow the both of us out and give us a good perspective on things.
unclehobart
1/23/06, 07:44pm
I have a bachelor's in Journalism so I'd be looking for a newspaper job. Christina's got this hard-headed opinion that walking on the streets of any part of Wichita will get you shot and nothing I told her would alleviate that (she was there once and didn't feel safe, she said).Since its so fucking flat, you can see the bad guys coming from 5 miles away.
highwayman
1/23/06, 08:11pm
Since its so fucking flat, you can see the bad guys coming from 5 miles away.
Better watch it, they hide in the sewers...
Other than a little humidity, I liked the area. It would be nice to already know a few people there, as well.
It's more expensive than Fresno.
Like anywhere (including LA but NOT, I repeat NOT the Bay area), there are affordable areas for any income group. There are also, within all but the scariest neighborhoods, great people & decent living conditions. You just have to be willing to expand your horizons. Oh, KC is well within the Tornado belt. It's just that after destroying the Kansas side, they'ver usually got to stop for a beer & some ribs on their way to Iowa.
Atlanta more expensive than Fresno? You haven't been to Fresno this decade have you?
You haven't looked at housing in Atlanta.
$200K in Atlanta (http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=20&mlsttl=&frm=bymap&pgnum=2&mls=xmls&js=on&target=&ct=Atlanta&st=GA&sbint=&sbls=&sblo=&stype=&areaid=1412&mnsqft=&fid=so&vtsort=&mnprice=200000&mxprice=200000&mnbed=0&mnbath=0&typ=1&poe=realtor&x=10&y=11&sid=0607C490BD00C&snumxlid=1050240356&lnksrc=00002)
$200K in Fresno (http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=3&mlsttl=&frm=bymap&pgnum=1&mls=xmls&js=on&target=&ct=Fresno&st=CA&sbint=&sbls=&sblo=&stype=&areaid=626&mnsqft=&fid=so&vtsort=&mnprice=200000&mxprice=200000&mnbed=0&mnbath=0&typ=1&poe=realtor&x=21&y=15&sid=0607C4C547B7C&snumxlid=1053772918&lnksrc=00002)
tis a sad day when Fresno is unaffordable
You'll find no argument with me there... but it's a residual effect of the high prices in the bay area. Equity refugees have driven up the price because even though it's unaffordable, it's still a good bit cheaper than the bay area so it looks like a bargain to people there. Apparently the price differential is still enough to make people willing to deal with the summer heat and winter cold, the worse air quality and the perceived difference in crime.
Next thing you'll know, people will be unable to move to Bakersfield because of housing prices & that will mean the end is nigh
That, I doubt... I mean, come on, it's Bakersfield! Things are so bad there you can't even do a decent home invasion robbery without getting shot at.
Although...
$200K in Bakersfield (http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=2&locallnk=yes&frm=bymap&mnbed=0&mnbath=0&mnprice=200000&mxprice=200000&js=off&pgnum=1&fid=so&stype=&mnsqft=&mls=xmls&areaid=7231&poe=realtor&ct=Bakersfield&st=CA&sbint=&vtsort=&typ=1&x=72&y=12&sid=0608FCF33090C&snumxlid=1053869378&lnksrc=00002)
KC is a great area. You're right about the tornados, it's in the belt, but certainly not the danger of Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska area. I'd suggest moving about 20-30 miles outside the city though. First of all the traffic isn't any worse if you plan your job and housing accordingly. Second the price of houses goes way down at about that range. In fact, if you can manage it, buy a hundred or two acres of land about 20 miles out. By the time you're ready to retire, you'll have developers offering you gazillions for it.
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