Here in “small city” Indiana it will buy quite a nice house, newish, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2000-3000 square feet, sitting on maybe 1/2 acre of land, with neighbors who know how to behave themselves.
Here in Cumberland, MD, that much money will get you a nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,780 sq. ft. home on 2.76 acres. However, there are very few jobs here that would support the kind of mortgage payments that kind of property would require. The only people around here who make six figures are doctors and lawyers. Everyone else has to work out of town to find a job that will actually support a family.
Went on realtor.com. Entered my Zip Code and a minimum of $225 and a max of $275 so we’d get some range.
Here’s the most likely candidate.
3300+ sq ft
3 bed 2.5 bath
At that I think there are better deals here. I got my 4000 sq ft 100 year old Victorian for $80,000 because it’s not ‘up the hill’ (the supposed ‘right neighborhood’).
Suburban Philly (Chester County), that’ll get you where I’m living now, a 3 BR 2 bath townhouse with basement. As evidence of the growth in my area, that is more than double what we paid for it 6 years ago. Yeah, equity!
$250K U.S. is about $290K Canadian. For that you can buy your standard, typical, middle class home just about anywhere in the Ottawa area.
My house is probably worth somewhere in this range now. I have a 3 bedroom, 2 bath bungalow on 2.5 acres of land, 20 minutes outside the city.
It’ll get you a small studio in DC.
I’ve honestly never seen anything for sale for less than $350k. Maybe a one bedroom condo in a bad part of town…
Similar to other places in the Midwest, Kansas City will get you a house like this for just a wee bit more than $250K. Depending on the suburb, you could actually find similar houses (older and newer) for closer to $250K.
It will also get you a rowhouse in a not so good part of town. It might not be all that close to Metro and it will most likely need some work.
Sometimes I think I should move…but anyway, $250k will give you a down payment. Average home price here in the san fernando valley is about $600,000. The only way to get anything close to that price is to move 1-2 hours away from the city (and even that’s not certain) or buy a foreclosure.
Ditto.
We bought our place last summer for 260K and we have 5 acres out in the country, a 3BR 2 BA house, a barn, and a stable. The house was built in 1846 and all of the original hewn log walls are exposed on the interior.
Pictures here
It’d buy you quite a nice house here (South Africa.) A quick search shows that approximate 1.5 million Rand would get you a home with
A living room, dining room and family room
A kitchen, breakfast nook, scullery (maid’s kitchen), and Laundry room,
7 Bedrooms
5 Bathrooms (4 of which are En Suite)
2 carports
An Established Garden
A Pool
1 maid’s quarters (maid included - which cracks me up)
1 maid’s bathroom
1 outside toilet
AND 1 Flatlet, which has 2 flats, with full bathrooms in each.
An electronic gate, a security gate, electronic alarm, and completely walled in.
$250,000 would get me a nice acreage in the country, with a four-bedroom, two-bath farmhouse and outbuildings. I tried to find something that price in the town where I live, but the highest priced one I could find was this one for $127,000. We paid $61,000 for our three+ bedroom, two bath, completely remodeled house four years ago.
In a neighboring town, where most of the people who live here work, the homes go higher. You can get this one which is pretty nice. You could also get a moderately nice lake home, though the really, really nice ones go more in the $300,000-400,000 range.
In my town, it will get you a townhouse. This is NOT a nice neighborhood, btw.
Santa Clara, CA. 1 bedroom 1 bathroom 1440 sq feet. http://www.mlslistings.com/common/properties/propertyDetail.asp?open=0&page=1&mls_number=569475&type=property&name=
In Columbus, OH, where I’ll be in May, it’ll buy a very nice 3 or 4 bedroom house on the outside of town.
I only found one in my ZIP code (postal code, for those outside the U.S.) at $250K. It’s newer than my home, but smaller. It doesn’t look all that attractive from the outside. I believe I know approximately where it’s located, and it’s a so-so neighborhood - suburban, very blue collar, lots of rentals, lots of immigrants & starting to have gang infiltration, but not yet prominently.
Personally, if I was looking, I’d look in a different area, even if I was getting less for my money.
Wow, Fairfax must be pretty cheap compared to Reston. $250k is a lowball offer on a 1BR, 1BA 1,000 sq. ft. condo here.
A decent down payment or a tiny condo in a scary part of town.
Houses in my neighborhood in the far suburbs (35 miles from SF) are selling for $550,000 - 600,000. In San Francisco itself, that price range will get you a nice condo in a neighborhood that won’t make you want to carry a gun. Plan on spending $700,000+ if you want a freestanding house in SF.
Otherwise, in SF, $165,000 can buy a 24x60 foot bare lot in the shadows of downtown, zoned C2 commercial, so you can’t even put a house on it. For $150,000 you can get a 25x100 foot lot that has no road access, no utility connections, a lovely view of train tracks and smokestacks and is in a really tough part of town. If you’ve got a single-wide trailer and don’t mind hiking up and down the hill, it might not be bad.