House vent | Imamother

amother

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 10:58 am

Vent
We have three kids in a small basement rental. We made it through all these years (6!!) by knowing that we were saving money to buy a nice house in Lakewood, Jackson or Toms River soon. Now that we finally saved up money, we can barely afford a nice house in the boondocks, and even those don’t exist in our budget
We feel so frustrated, Like all our hard work was for nothing and we have nowhere to buy a house that we would like
Our neighbors all have 4+ kids in basements so we know that physically it’s possible to stay but we also don’t want to be in a basement forever

amother

Iris

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 11:02 am

There are many cheap areas that have good houses. Post the range you are looking at and I'm sure people can point you in the right direction.

amother

Molasses

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 11:25 am

amother [ Iris ] wrote:

There are many cheap areas that have good houses. Post the range you are looking at and I'm sure people can point you in the right direction.

Umm where? There are no houses under 400k in the vicinity. Even if they are listed for that, there is a huge bidding war and they end up selling for way more.

amother

Tiffanyblue

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 11:41 am

amother [ Molasses ] wrote:

Umm where? There are no houses under 400k in the vicinity. Even if they are listed for that, there is a huge bidding war and they end up selling for way more.

400k??? Thats cheap!!!
In jackson theyre already up to 5!!
In my area (ridge) its up to 9

Bluepink

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 11:46 am

Please don’t buy now. I know it’s hard, I lived in a one bedroom apartment for five years and then bought in a nearby town. But I really think the current market is way overpriced. There are plenty of houses here not owned by Jews, many by the original owners of the house who may be ready to retire soon. To scrape together money and enter a bidding war for an ugly house that you can’t afford to fix up doesn’t make sense. There are many areas in Jackson, TR, Manchester, Brick, Howell etc that have not yet been built up. Someone will build a development one day, people will be less afraid of covid and more open to selling and moving cross country, etc. I know I can’t really talk cuz I do own a house, but if I were looking now, I would continue to save and not buy now

amother

Molasses

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 11:46 am

amother [ Tiffanyblue ] wrote:

400k??? Thats cheap!!!
In jackson theyre already up to 5!!
In my area (ridge) its up to 9

Yeah I was referring to Jackson or toms river. No hope of Lakewood having those prices

Crookshanks

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 12:03 pm

Honestly there's nothing to do. Prices are crazy now. Rent is also insane. People are paying 12-1600 for little basement apartments. I hope things go down a little soon but I'm not very sure they will.

amother

Sapphire

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 12:08 pm

Can you buy a home and live in the basement while renting out the house? Start paying a mortgage and eventually you'll be able to take over the home and rent out the basement. The prices will keep rising so see if there's a way to start now.

DVOM

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 12:19 pm

I really feel for you. We lived in a basement for 10 years, put away every penny, watched the market, and bought 4 years ago on the Lakewood/Jackson border (we have a Lakewood address, which makes any renovations we want to do much simpler) for 300k for a 2000 square foot fixer upper with an unfinished basement and unfinished attached garage.

We have a friend who is a real estate agent who keeps on telling us that if we want to move we could sell our house now for double. That sounded like an exaggeration, but similar houses in our neighborhood have sold this year for between 550 and 650k, so not as far fetched as we thought.

Wait it out, OP. New neighborhoods will keep on opening up. A friend of mine was the first person to buy in a development in Manchester last year in the mid 200ks. She now has 4 frum neighbors and more on the way. Those houses are selling in the mid 400k range now though.

DVOM

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 12:21 pm

Crookshanks wrote:

Wow.

When we moved to Lakewood as newlyweds, out spacious 2 bedroom basement was 425$ a month.

Wow wow wow.

amother

DarkCyan

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 1:04 pm

Did you look at Manchester? There’s a small crowd there already and I hear people are now buying a few blocks away from the existing chevra. I know people who bought there. It’s the same type Jackson was when I was at your stage 5 years ago.

amother

DarkCyan

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 1:05 pm

DVOM wrote:

Wow.

When we moved to Lakewood as newlyweds, out spacious 2 bedroom basement was 425$ a month.

Wow wow wow.

I married a decade ago and rents were already $1k.

amother

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 2:35 pm

We were hoping to go to Hampshire hills. The only house on the market is asking 899, nowhere’s near our budget…we’re flexible with where we go now but it’s disappointing. Our friends all bought there for 450-500

amother

Lightcyan

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 2:48 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Yes, we live in Hampshire Hills (bought in the 500s) and let me tell you, no one here is happy that the prices have almost doubled! We would all like neighbors like us and not necessarily someone who wouldnt blink at a million dollar house...
I hope something happens soon, I know so many people in your position!

amother

Pansy

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 3:25 pm

amother [ Lightcyan ] wrote:

So true. The area we bought in just a couple of years ago is very simple friendly people. Houses went for approx 4-500k.
But because there's a shortage, the 1 house for sale in the area is asking well over a million! It's insane.
That house isn't worth more than any of our houses.
But who will buy it at the current market price? Some rich guy who's looking for a tax write off...

Corona has turned it into a sellers market.

naturalmom5

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 3:25 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Have you been reading the articles about this in the Voice tge past 4 weeks

WV abd NH are starting to look mighty nice

amother

Mulberry

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 3:34 pm

It's really bad all over the country right now. We're not in Lakewood, we just bought a house and had to offer 30k over the asking price to do it, and we're lucky to have managed that, I've heard of house in my area going 50-80k above asking when all is said and done. For various reasons, we needed to buy now, but if you can wait a year or two, definitely do that. It's not worth joining the crazy train if you don't absolutely have to. I'm so sorry. It's a frustrating situation right now. But it's not just you, it's everyone. The situation is all over the US right now unfortunately.

amother

Teal

Sun, Jun 20 2021, 4:07 pm

Hampshire hills was that cheap because it was a new Neighborhood. Of course years after its established you won’t find the same prices. If you want to spend 300k (which is tons less than virtually any other established community), you will probably need to go to a very new Neighborhood.
I am sorry but that’s a very low price to expect to get a decent sized house in a Jewish Neighborhood.

We don’t own , by the way, but you do have to be realistic. There’s a lot of grey between the 900k townhouses in Lakewood and the 300,000 ranches in Manchester.