House vs neighborhood

Mrs. Mommy

Mon, Feb 09 2015, 9:58 am

Would you rather a house in the exact location you want to be in that is pretty small - very nice with a beautiful property but small, or a house in a neighborhood you aren't as crazy about that is a lot bigger? Both houses are the same price.

DrMom

Mon, Feb 09 2015, 10:02 am

Depends why I am "not so crazy about" the 2nd hypothetical neighborhood.

Crime?
Poor fit to schools?
No friends?
Lousy weather?
Poor local government?

Also, the first house that is "small" -- how small? Can you expand in the future (build an extra room over the garage, finish the basement, etc? How cramped will your family be?

amother

Mon, Feb 09 2015, 11:13 am

to me the question would be what is your 5 year plan? 10 year plan? etc.

The house that is small, you may need to sell in 5 years, will you be able to afford a bigger one then? at that point it will be harder to move (kids have friends, schools, etc).
For example, our house has gone up $200K-300K in value. The problem is if I were to sell and buy a bigger house I wouldnt be able to afford my hire mortgage payment. Also interest rates seem to be rising.

Just to give numbers to make my point a bit easier to understand (house values are hypothetical)
current house: $300,000 mortgage, $1400 monthly
5 year increase price: Now getting $500-600K when selling but after paying off old mortgage so you have $150-300 for down payment, but will have to buy a $800k-1M house, that makes your mortgage payment and that can raise the monthly payment to $2500 but you will also have tuition to pay then.

again my numbers are hypothetical but you need to realize if your property gains value so do the more expensive homes.

Are you buying a starter house or a house to live in for 20 years?

abby1776

Mon, Feb 09 2015, 11:15 am

Do you have kids?

Will they have friends to play with?

When I didnt have kids, I didnt think about that so much and I just wanted to buy the biggest nicest house I could get. But now, with 4 kids, I really care about neighbors, are there other kids my kids age around to play with.

amother

Mon, Feb 09 2015, 11:22 am

I went for the bigger house in the wrong neighborhood, and I'm regretting it big time. I hate my life. I miss my old neighborhood and the bigger house is just a bigger headache. I would rather have less space and some friends than the nightmare I'm stuck with now.

MiracleMama

Mon, Feb 09 2015, 11:26 am

Neighborhood over house. How happy can a big beautiful house make you compared to having a good community and good neighbors where you feel you fit better?

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, Feb 09 2015, 12:23 pm

I have heard of a couple of stories where people had the same dilemma and were advised to go for the house they would be happier with, since neighbors can change.

Of course, this is all relative with varying considerations. You do want SOME friends for your kids, etc

heidi

Mon, Feb 09 2015, 12:39 pm

I chose house over neighborhood and regretted it EVERY SINGLE DAY that we lived in that snobby area. Baruch Hashem we were able to move after five extremely long years.

amother

Mon, Feb 09 2015, 12:40 pm

I purchased my house as we were starting a family. We chose neighborhood. Now that the kids are older and we drive them to freinds anyway, we are looking to buy a bigger house walking distance to a shul.

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Feb 09 2015, 12:41 pm

100% neighborhood over house. We lived in a place where we did not like the neighborhood at all. It was one of the worst hellish years of our marriage. BH we came out stronger but it was a really bad year. Now we live in a place that we love and we dont really care the size or the place we live in, but the people around us is very important for us.

STMommy

Mon, Feb 09 2015, 12:47 pm

I will be a dissenting voice and say house over neighborhood. The demographics or our neighborhood changed lot (for the better) after we bought our house....but the things we hate about our house are too cost-prohibitive to fix.

amother

Mon, Feb 09 2015, 1:06 pm

We took neighborhood over house. We bought a teensy little house and expanded it.

Real estate is location, location, location.

Chayalle

Tue, Feb 10 2015, 9:32 am

We bought a small house in a fabulous neighborhood 14 years ago. If I ever move I'm taking my neighborhood with me.

Though I do admit to missing certain features and wishing for them from time to time, nothing beats good neighbors. My kids thrive here, and DH and I have wonderful friends and company. I just focus on the fact that in other places my house would be considered luxurious, and that cheers me.

If the neighborhood has potential to become great in the next few years, I'd consider it, otherwise....go with the good neighborhood, and make do with the house.

imaima

Tue, Feb 10 2015, 9:49 am

amother wrote:

We took neighborhood over house. We bought a teensy little house and expanded it.

Real estate is location, location, location.

I agree with this.
But I also agree with thinking 5 years ahead.

Are you going to be having small kids, are you going to need an eruv, do you need to be close to kids friends or will your kids be able to go there by themselves, are you going to have more children at all, or will they be moving out to yeshivos?

amother

Tue, Feb 10 2015, 10:29 am

We have a not so great house on a great street and I have no regrets.

amother

Tue, Feb 10 2015, 12:33 pm

My first house was. Starter house and just wanted to be walking distance from family. Neighborhood changed and hated it. I moved to a really far out neighborhood and built a 6 bedroom house (was wayyyyy cheaper than other neighborhoods) and although it is small I love love love love the neighborhood. We have to build it up and love it.

amother

Tue, Feb 10 2015, 1:27 pm

I think it really depends on a number of factors. For starters, what do you mean by a bad neighborhood? Bad could be crime-ridden, or bad could just be a lower socio-economic level.

I think it's crucial there are kids around your own children can be friends with.

I myself made both choices. After living many years in a city I wasn't happy with, we made the choice to prioritize location. We moved to a very classy area, with amazing schools. The other parents were all cultured, well-educated professionals. There was a large variety of frum schools to choose from.

The problem was that we could only afford a small, very old, decrepit, rented apartment. I hated it, I'm one of those people for whom having a nice aesthetic house is extremely important. The kids were embarrassed to invite friends over because all their friends lived in much nicer places, many in private homes with swimming pools.
Also I'm an introvert so I didn't take advantage of the social scene there at all.

After a few yrs we made the decision to move to a much simpler area. The schools here are good, but not excellent. There isn't that much choice if you want a frum education. There isn't that much culture here. The families around us are good, simple folk.
We are much much happier here. First, because it's not really a 'bad' neighborhood, it's just not amazing. But it was fine for us. People are surprised when they hear where we moved from. How could you move from xzy??? But truth is we didn't fit in that well there, it's no fun being on the bottom of the social hierarchy.

Best of all, here we could afford a great home. I didn't buy a large house to show off; as I said, I'm an introvert, and barely have anything to do with the people here. But I really enjoy having a nice house. I spend a lot of time decorating it and making it beautiful and happy for my family. We are comfortable here. And my kids' friends come over all the time.
This long post was just to give you another perspective.