In our town (prosperous suburb of Boston) you can get a rather run down 1100 sq ft detached home, 3BR 1.5 BA that backs up to the interstate.
Or maybe a tear-down on a busy street, that you could raze and rebuild. So that for $850k or so you’d have a modest new home. If the septic system is good. You’d have to be careful about the set-backs. A friend of ours bought one of these, found that if he tore it down, he couldn’t rebuild on the same footprint or indeed in any other configuration. So they ended up keeping one tiny corner habitable through a three year renovation. Had to give up on having a useful basement though.
$600k would buy nearly half my neighborhood. It would easily pay for all the houses on all four sides of my block, with some left over for improvements.
Around where I live (Mass, North of Boston), $600K might buy a nice but not extravagant McMansion, probably on a 2 acre lot. But Bernie bought a vacation house, so…location, location, location. Let’s look at the local equivalent – Plum Island. Here’s a listing that’s exactly $600K.
As you can see, it’s a smallish, partially insulated summer cottage on 1/3 acre but with direct water access. Now the sellers bought this place for $150K 6 years ago, so they may be a bit delusional. But nearby, you can get a much more modern house for $620K. Pretty nice, but 1/4 acre and no garage.
I did the official Zillow check on my zip code, and the only thing that came up was some land way up in the mountains. It came with this disclaimer: “Seller does not have information regarding build ability. Buyer to check with County regarding what is permitted to build and what improvements will be necessary.” IOW, no power, no water, and maybe no road!
600k could buy one of the nicer homes on my street about half a mile down. Most of the houses in our neighborhood (Forest Meadow/Town Creek in NE Dallas) are somewhere between about 300k and 550k, and probably 35-40% of that valuation has come in the past year or so. It could also buy two cheaper houses in my neighborhood.
I think the heartburn is that Bernie is buying a *summer *home that costs more than most upper-middle class people’s very nice primary homes in many parts of the country. Seems more than a bit hypocritical to harp on Wall Street and set yourself up as a economic justice warrior when you have enough scratch to buy yourself a summer home worth more than most wealthy-ish people’s primary homes, and this is the third house you’ll own.
Bernie isn’t against people making lots of money. He does want them to pay more taxes, but that would include himself. No hypocrisy. Once again, he’s a Social Democrat, not a Marxist.
Since I’m looking to move, and not sure where I want to move to, I want to give a sincere thanks to everybody who has responded with useful info, and a sarcastic thanks to those who give price info without giving their location, not even down to the state.
In my neighborhood in Chicago, $600K will get you quite a bit. Probably about 3000-4000 square feet (if there were houses that big here–we’re looking at multiple family homes at this price range). But I live in a working to middle class part of town where the average home price is around $200K. I consider this quite affordable by Chicago standards. In one of the more desirable neighborhoods, $600K is probably median price for a 1500-2000 square foot detached home with garage and about a 3500-4000 square foot lot. (Actually, looking online, Wicker Park averages $450 a square foot, so my guess looks like it underestimates slightly. My neighborhood is about $150-$175/square foot for living space.)
I personally don’t consider $600K to be a crazy amount of money for a house–it’s a lot more than I am willing to spend, but nothing even close to what would make me bat an eye.
OTOH the guy is about to turn 75 years old and could have retired 10 years ago. Ten extra years of salary will buy quite a lot of house for most people.
Bernie’s townhouse in DC is probably work about 800-1200K depending on condition.
In my (very small) zip there is nothing available for that price except foreclosures, but in this area you could probably get a decent townhouse, 3 BR and 3+BA, maybe with a one-car garage, or an older home about 2000 SQ but>40 years old that most would consider a tear-down. They just sold the townhouses on either side of mine and you couldn’t get either for that price now (although one of them sold in the 500s to a renovator who flipped it for >700K).
I also cannot wrap my head around what people pay. I just passed a new townhouse community, just off a commercial street, starting at $900K. Who are all these people paying close to a million dollars for a townhouse?
25 miles south, near my work, you can get a 3000 SQ single family home in a decent area, but not lakefront or gated.
Bernie gets underpaid for an important job. If you don’t think so, note that in 2013 the average pay for a corporate director was $251K. Link.
And they don’t need expensive election campaigns to get the job.
He gets paid more than most, so why not have a nice summer home. And, as we’ve said, it is a cheapo house in Silicon Valley. Even the cheaper areas around it like where I live.
Wow, I can’t believe you found a house on Plum Island that cheap. When all those cottages got destroyed a few winters ago, the cheapest one was $850,000.
Our house in Houston is 4BR, 2 1/2 bath in a nice neighborhood, about 2200 sq. ft. It is currently appraised at $440k. So Bernie could have bought our house and had a nice chunk of change left over to party with.
I’m in Southeast England about 50 miles outside London. Near me is a 3 bedroom detached house of about 850 sq/ft for £475k or approximately $616k. There’s an older but larger (1200 sq/ft) 3 bed house nearby for £450k.
Lakefront is a big factor, that probably doubles the price. $600,000 would probably get you 2 or 3-story (including basement) 4-bedroom, 2 bath lakefront house on a small to medium lot here in rural Virginia.
I don’t really know why people are surprised Sanders has money, he made $174,000 from his congressional salary.