I am sure there are also small houses/flats but still, here in Europe it´s almost impossible for a young couple to buy a house nowadays with 3 bedrooms (and really small bedrooms)..my husband and I are in our early thirties and all we can aspire is a small 3 bedroom flat. (like 80-90 square metres) we´ll have a mortgage of 30 years and it´ll be like 50 % of our incomes which is way too much of course...so what I am asking is how are things in the USA??
2007-06-01 21:51:58 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Business & Finance ➔ Renting & Real Estate
ideally,houses are only as large as the owners can afford!!!
2007-06-01 21:59:40 · answer #1 · answered by LONG-JOHN 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think that house building is not as highly regulated here as in Europe. Your homes are probably better contructed.
In my history classes they said that "balloon frame" houses were developed here in the US so that we could cheaply house our population. That is a wood frame home that may be covered with a veneer of brick or other covering and we still mostly use that today even on very fine, expensive homes.
I think 80-90 sq meters is about 900 to 1000 sq feet.
My first home I bought new in 1978 (we were about 29 years old) was about 1250 sq feet, 3 bedroom and cost about 1/4 of our monthly income. It had few windows and was well insulated so our electric bills did not add a lot to our payment. We had no children.
We sold it 3 years later and bought an older 4 bedroom home that had been built in 1969 and was 1900 sq ft. It was not well insulated but had a lot of trees so our bills were not high. We had one child. She grew up and moved away. For most of the time in this house we paid about a fourth of our monthly income.
We recently sold it after 24 years an moved to a 2500 sq foot home that had been built in 1969 and is not well insulated, but we are adding insullation to help with that. It is just the two of us. It is about a fourth of our income.
We have always taken out a thirty year loan. On this house we put twenty per cent down, but on our first house back in 1978 we did a zero down loan.
2007-06-02 11:21:18 · answer #2 · answered by glenn 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It depends on where you live in the US. House prices range widely. Boston, LA, Chicago fetch much higher prices than Kentucky or Indiana, for example. Many people in the Boston area bought their homes in 1997 for $250,000 and today they are worth double that or over $500,000. I am a first time home buyer and feel I am getting screwed for not being born 7 years earlier. :-) I have saved enough money to buy a home outright, with no mortgage, if I moved to Kansas or West Virginia for just an example, but who the heck wants to move there? Jobs are much tougher to come by, etc. For me, 2300 square feet is a comfortable size home with 3-4 bedrooms and a two car attached garage. Anything below 2,000 square feet tends to feel small to us, but that may be different for others. Many builders, at least in the areas I mention above where homes are more expensive (try finding a decent home under 700,000 in the LA or San Diego area in CA) build McMansions (homes above 2600 square feet to me) because the land is so expensive and they need to make a profit. I've seen people buy these homes and take 10 years to fill them up with furniture. Trophy homes. Try looking at www.zillow.com for any area of the US you are interested in and compare with other areas. They show the approximate value/worth of the home and a great aerial view if you click on the house picture. It's neat.
Oh, and about how much of our income we would pay if we bought a 500,000 house near Boston? About 1900.00/month or 1/3 of our take home pay a month (after our very large downpayment). I agree, 50 percent would be insane.
Good luck.
2007-06-02 10:27:24 · answer #3 · answered by cherry-o 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Housing in the states is totally different. Come see for yourself. If you are able to relocate here, you will never again return to a cramped lifestyle.
It is amazing to see homes occupied by 2 adults located on an acre of land, and 4000 square feet of living space. After visiting in Europe, it seems almost decadent to me.
There a many affordable homes in our state - Michigan. There are many who want to move out of the area and are willing to sell at favorable prices. It is a beautiful state and a great place to live.
You are welcome to take a look.
2007-06-02 05:08:41 · answer #4 · answered by luckyzimmy 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
My 5 bedroomed 3.5 bath detached home is about 3,000 sq ft, or about 275 sq metres. Paid $117k 7 years ago and worth about $170k today. Fixed rate mortgage at 5.0% with payments around 12% of gross income. I do live in one of the lowest cost areas of the US, however, so my numbers are not representative of the US as a whole.
2007-06-02 05:05:24 · answer #5 · answered by Bostonian In MO 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
In certain cities, real estate costs are even higher than in Europe. However, for the majority of the U.S., houses are large and relatively cheap per square meter.
Yes, we do have it good in the States.
2007-06-02 05:02:29 · answer #6 · answered by HL 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The trend in the US has been to larger and larger homes, though there are some signs that this trend may be reversing. As our population ages we will likely see more people downsizing to smaller homes.
2007-06-02 08:45:05 · answer #7 · answered by Michael Iarrobino 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Come to houston, tx in the states. You can find really affordable houses in great communities and school districts in the suburban areas. go here............ http://www.chron.com/class/realestate/
2007-06-02 05:21:18 · answer #8 · answered by lrb11126 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋