Its the same problem in britain, my boyfriend and I are looking for our first house and its shocking how house prices have shot up.

http://www.vebra.com/home/includes/v...20&pid=9026805

That house is it not a particularly brilliant area and has only got 2 beds, its selling for £74,000, the equivalent to about $143,000 (?correct me if I'm wrong)

Its quite depressing, feels like us first time buyers will never get our foot on the property ladder. :(

Location, location, location. I live in a city with some very reasonably priced areas (which are not "bad" areas of town by any means) and some of the most absurdly over-priced zip codes as well--2 bedroom/1 baths that are 45 years old, selling for $300,000 or more.

We chose to live in one of the reasonably-priced areas, instead of the areas that everyone talks about having "character." House prices are still at perfectly good levels in many places: in the less chic and/or more rural areas. Ain't nothin' wrong with living in those places.

Same thing on this side of FL Kit. We left in 2000 for CT and when we came back last August the places (plural as my girlfriend sold her condo and I sold a house) had almost tripled in price. We bought high and I really wish we had bought even more. Plan on keeping it a couple years (get past the capital gains rules) and see what else we can get further inland perhaps. The same model of house we live in is for sale down our street and the price is already almost $90k higher than SIX MONTHS ago we we bought. How can kids these days buy a house?

Wanna see a neat trick?
 

This is like being on a guided tour with The-Most-Infomed-Real-Estate-Agent-In-The-Universe while riding around in the chartered Hubble Telescope, turned around for my benefit. I could find specific properties, see pictures inside and out, see the prices that the property has sold for in the past. /shivers/ It got to be a little creepy after a while.

I found my house, and all the houses in my neighborhood that are for sale, and ones that have recently sold. I got a whirlwind tour of the whole area. I especially liked finding property with 180deg water views, for a "reasonalble" price. Til I found out it's on a sliding hillside and has been condemded. And the estimate for stabilizing the hillside is about two and a half times the asking price of the property. I especially liked the all caps warning to NOT ENTER THE PROPERTY - IT IS A HAZARD!!

A hazard to my wallet as well. Great fun and a technical tour-de-force. Check it out.

update--My G*d. 3823 17 AV SW is $185K, for ONE bedroom and NO baths comprising 823 sq ft, in a solidly industrial section of town. Do you have to walk to the truck stop to take a leak?

I loved this listing

Hah! Can you post a link directly to that listing, richlevy?

try this
 

Click here and then choose show properties. Red marks the spot.

Ah, all the postdata is lost when you pass the URL to me. Stupid webapp.

images.redfin.com/flash/map.swf?SubNavClicked=FindHousesForSale&configxml=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.redfin.com%2Fstingray%2Fgisconfig.xml.jsp


does this help?

update--My G*d. 3823 17 AV SW is $185K, for ONE bedroom and NO baths comprising 823 sq ft, in a solidly industrial section of town. Do you have to walk to the truck stop to take a leak?

It's probably a half-bath, a toilet and maybe shower but no actual bathtub.

My guess would be a multi-purpose bucket in the corner of the living room.

another example over on our side of the coast of FL....there is an area in Royal Palm Beach called the acreage which is really reclaimed swamp. About 15 years ago when I moved to this area you could pick up fairly dry 1.25 acre lots out there for 10k...ones that needed a lot of fill for as low as 3k. Looked earlier this evening and the cheapest lot (assume it is underwater) out there is now 176k. Absolutely unbelieveable.