A question for homeowners: Did you place a higher priority on the house itself, or the location?
My wife and I bought a small ranch house in our dream neighborhood, and I’m glad we did, even though we could have paid substantially less for a newer, larger house in a less desirable location (in our case, desirable = beautiful 50-year-old neighborhood 15 minutes from downtown, and undesirable = cookie-cutter McDevelopment out in East Jesus Farmland).
Did you spend the big bucks on a better house or a better location? What made the home or the location more desirable, in your case?
But seriously, I went with finding the right house route. I wanted a real historical colonal 200+ years old in rather poor condition, with at least two acres of land. I couldn’t be all that picky given those criteria but the location turned out to be just great as well. We didn’t even know how great when we signed the papers so that was a big bonus.
I went for location. My house is miniscule (it was origianlly 400 SF and with a couple of additions is now aroudn 650 SF) but it’s ONE block to the lake, under one mile to downtown Austin, in an up and coming old neighborhood with amazing trees, and about 4 miles to work. Plus, I have roosters next door! In an urban neighborhood. That’s so cool…
I could’ve gotten a house three times the size of mine and much newer for the same money but it wouldn’t be ONE block to the lake…
My wife and I went for the best of both worlds. When we didn’t find it or couldn’t afford it we did the only thing we could do…waited. Then out of the clear blue sky came a tip from a friend, and we ended up as close to the coast as we wanted - with-in one mile - and a beautiful parcel with a nice acreage, manageable. The house is not exactly what we hoped for, it’s not a modern log home with exposed timber, but it’s a nice non-typical home. We live in Coastal Connecticut, and it’s worth the extra cash in our opinions. We’re patient people, so we were not too concerned with waiting for the right situation to happen.
Location is VERY important; but also please consider the age of the house. We wound up buying an 84-year old house, and it needed a LOT of work (fortunately, we did most of it ourselves). But bear in mid; old houses (constructed before about 1970) have a lot of flaws which have a negative effect upon resale value:
-small bathrooms and closets
-outdated kitchens
-smaller windows
-inadequate elecric service
Upgrading all of this stuff can cost a lot of money. And, because i don’t like old house styles (I HATE victorians), I would say that I wish we had bought newer. I’ve also learned that older houses cost a lot more to maintain-if your 125-year old Victorian has cracked plaster walls, repairing them (with plaster0 will cost you-unlike a modern sheetrock wall, which is trivial to repair. Of course, if you LIKE older styles, that’s OK
I love the neighborhood I grew up in. Small, familiar, safe and right next to the freeway that will take me to any location in NE Ohio in 20 minutes. And now it has tons of convenient shopping.
So I was lucky enough to be able to hang out at my folks’ house until a really cheap house went on sale in our neighborhood and I jumped on it. I didn’t look at any other houses.
This house sucks but it’s good enough for me and I love the neighborhood. I do not envy people who had to/wanted to buy their house based on both location and the building. I can see both being important and hard to find.
I think location was most important, but after deciding where we wanted to live, there weren’t many houses that we would buy.
For a variety of stupid reasons we no longer hold we decided upon one suburb. Since I take the train into work and preferred to walk to the train station instead of driving, so we basically had a circle within a mile of the train. That also meant that the kids’ grade school, high school, library, pool, and downtown were also within walking distance. But we weren’t bowled over by anything for sale within that circle. One day my wife called me at work and said “I’m standing in the house we want to buy.” And she was right.
We no longer care for this town and will be moving in 2-3 years when my youngest gets out of HS. At that time our choice will be dictated on both the lot - 1/2 to 5 acres, on quiet street, with access to commuter train. At the same time we have a strong preference for arts and craft bungalows/cottages, so the right house could sway us to compromise on our location. Of course this all depends on our staying in our current region, which is not set in stone.
In short, I find it hard to separate house from location. I would not want to live in the most fabulous house if I did not like the neighborhood, if it meant a hellish commute, etc. OTOH, no matter how convenient and beautiful the neighborhood, you want a house in whch you are comfortable when you are at home.
Location and view. I’m in a tiny condo (758 sq ft) with not enough room for all my stuff but it was where my folks lived and I knew it would be an excellent property to keep. It’s a block away from the large and beautiful park where concerts are held in summer, a ten-minute walk to the ocean, ten minutes from downtown where all the local festivals are held, and so close to so many government offices that I can walk to work.
I have a spectacular view - on Canada Day I can watch the fireworks from my balcony and I can see Mount Baker (when it’s not hiding in cloud) from my seat at my desk. I can see the Cascades from one of my windows on a clear day.
The building itself is well-appointed with an indoor pool and fitness room, guest rooms, a reception suite, and more. And, in theory, it’s on one of the bits of turf that should be less vulnerable should the Big One hit.
So I’ve traded space for amenities, convenience, and view. Bonus is that I bought before the market went into overdrive.
If I won a lottery, I’d buy two suites and combine them (if I could) and that would be perfection - I’d have space, too. I do love old houses (Victorians in particular) and there’s plenty here so I might yet decamp to one for a while and move back here later in my life when I’d be happier to downsize.
The house. We knew almost nothing about the neighborhoods here when we bought. The house was the best-built, had the right number of rooms for our needs, and was in the right price range. Now that we’re here, I like the neighborhood much better than the other two homes we had seriously considered (and which cost more).
Location
The last time we bought, we looked at a number of under 10yr old houses. Nice houses, but newer developments, on what used to be farm land. We couldn’t stand the idea of row upon row of houses, with no trees thicker then your wrist.
We’re starting to think about moving again, and I’m already making mental maps of what areas of town to look in.
The nicest home in the world wouldn’t be worth $5 if I had to drive more than 20 minutes to my office. Or had to put up with the bullshit in my prior neighborhood.
But the house is nice and I really like it as well.
We got both, but we were damn lucky to fall into a deal with the family farm. I didn’t realize 35 years ago just how well I was marrying!
My wife house-hunted for two years (not kidding, two full years!) for exactly the right floor plan. We knew we’d have to add on a family room, as none of the plans we looked at had anything close to what we’ve always dreamed of – we’ll be adding that in the next year or so.
Renter, and I’ll say 75% location, 25% house. I like that my house has hardwood floors, but I really like that it’s in a nice old neighborhood close to several parks and less than a mile from my office.
Basically location, even though we built the house. Let me explain.
The land was offered to my husband from the development company he worked for as a bonus based on guaranteeing another five years with the company. The house was built by the company (to our specs) at cost.
The location isn’t the best in the area, but is probably pretty close to where we’d want to be anyway - close to good schools, close to our jobs, and a decent area.
Our house is exactly what we wanted at the time, and sufficient for many years to come, maybe for the duration.
