Cape Karen
I was watching HGTV today and they were showing a townhouse for sale in Minneapolis, MN. A beautiful condo, owned by Josh and Jason. It was a 2 bedroom 1 1/2 bath, modern style home. It had a beautiful finished basement, complete with a full kitchen, fireplace and bar, and the 3-story townhouse had lots of open space and square footage. The gorgeous complex, called "Hidden Lakes," was easily accessible to everything in the city, yet built to feel as if it were located out in the country. Perfect!
$725,000.00 perfect!
After seeing that, I realized that my 3 bedroom, 2 bath mobile home is, for sure, the very last home I will ever own ~ barring a winning lottery ticket. No, it doesn't have a basement, but it does have a big fireplace and a nice kitchen. No, it isn't in downtown Minneapolis and just a short drive to The Mall of America, but it is within a five minute drive to many malls, and close to the most visited National Park in the country. But, most important of all, it's affordable.
Watching such property shows - and there are many now - solidifies for me that no matter how humble it might be, I'm just fortunate to own any kind of home in this day and age. The cost of residential property has gone nuts! I don't know how anyone of moderate means can do it anymore? For example, the house that we had built on Cape Cod in 1964, for $18,400.00, and sold in 1993 for $97,000.00; now has a resale value of around $390,000.00. I say, "Eeeeek!" Especially where the house is 42 years old!
That will be a great profit for the owners, and home ownership is still the best investment around, but what young couple, starting out today, can take on a mortgage of $390,000.00 or more? The average earnings on Cape Cod haven't even begun to keep up with that kind of increase in property value. Every week there are articles, and many letters to the editor, about why so many of the Cape's young people are being forced to move away from what they've always called "home." They can't afford to rent or own on the Cape any longer.
Lots of rich retirees are moving in from other states, and more and more locals are being forced to move away. That's so sad to me ~ especially because I am one of them! I can understand why they're moving - because taking on that kind of debt, even to own an old, 3 bedroom, 1 bath ranch, ten minutes from the ocean, is just patently ridiculous. Oh, for sure, it will sell ~ but probably to a retiring couple from New York City. The older, oceanfront properties on the Cape are now selling anywhere from $2 to $4 million, and new construction, anywhere near the ocean, (oceanfront property is loooong gone) well, unless you're "The Donald," just forget it.
So, going back to the 2 bedroom townhouse in beautiful, downtown Minneapolis, MN - if you can come up with a downpayment of about $200,000.00, handle a big mortgage, plus a $395.00 monthly condo fee, and you don't mind close neighbors, cold winters and hot summers ~ it's all yours!