1 million $ not enough for a house

$1M sounds about right in California too.

Unless you call Riverside California.

There are plenty of nice homes in solid school districts on Long Island and Westchester (NY metro area) for less than 1 million.

Not sure there's more than dozen $1 million+ houses in Ohio. I think the highest condo in the tallest building in Columbus is worth just over million. Crazy

What city? You have a strong definition of "decent" i'd guess

There are thousands of houses over $1M in the state. My uncle lives in a neighborhood in Columbus of about 100 houses that cost more than $1M.

TAA wrote:

Not sure there's more than dozen $1 million+ houses in Ohio. I think the highest condo in the tallest building in Columbus is worth just over million. Crazy

Ever heard of Indian Hill?

Which city? Of course you won’t find an SFH in midtown Manhattan on that budget (first of all SFH there don’t exist). If you’re looking in Queens/Georgetown maybe they’re hard to come by but I’m sure there’s options. In an actual metro downtown I’m not sure what you expect, I bought a condo for 700k recently in a neighborhood where the average sales price is about 1.2m and there are plenty in the 5m+ range. In certain cities (primarily SF and NYC) there’s just limited space and a lot of people with resources to purchase. It is kind of mind boggling how many people have 1m+ homes, a typical luxury high rise condo will have 100-500 units and you can find dozens of them within a stone’s throw in certain areas.

I have a 4,200 sq foot home and a 2,000 sq foot garage that I have 80k in. (Bought 2003).

I also have a 3 bedroom house with a 600 sq foot detached garage in southern Ohio that I will have 25k in when the inside is finished. (bought 2017)

You are living in the wrong areas if you have to pay a million dollars for a place to live.

I can be standing on the corner of Broad and High within an hour from both homes.

indian hill dummy wrote:

TAA wrote:

Not sure there's more than dozen $1 million+ houses in Ohio. I think the highest condo in the tallest building in Columbus is worth just over million. Crazy

Ever heard of Indian Hill?

Literally. Indian Hill was (maybe is) the #1 donating town to the Republican party. Many many multi million dollar homes in that area. Friend from college lived in a 3M+ home there.

life sucks, get covid wrote:

I live in an east coast city. Realizing that a $1M budget with a 300k down payment just isn’t enough for a decent SFH in a decent neighborhood.

Not looking for anything crazy, just some space and a yard in a place that isn’t crime-plagued. But a million dollars is not enough for that.

As the crow flies, I live less than 20 miles from downtown SF, the most expensive city in America.

You can buy a SFH in a nice neighborhood here for a bit under a million. You'll have one of the smaller houses on the block, probably a 1600sf 3/2, with a moderate yard.

If you cannot afford a decent house where you are, your definition of decent is everbody else's definition of high end. Or you're trying to buy in a downtown area rather than an inner ring of suburbs.

Boston. The suburbs are even more expensive. Trying to have a commute under an hour (remote not an option for me).

life sucks, get covid wrote:

Boston. The suburbs are even more expensive. Trying to have a commute under an hour (remote not an option for me).

Yeah Boston Suburbs are expensive. DC is pretty similar. Anything in northern VA is in a similar situation.

I bought a condo last year hoping to build equity and have the price increase 50-75k minimum before selling in a couple years.

It’s already estimated to have increased 60k based on Redfin but I don’t give much credence to that.

That being said you should be able to find something between Mansfield and Dedham. Pick a town with the MBTA running through it.

Mansfield / Sharon / Walpole / Norwood would be my top 4 if you want something south of Boston and within an hour. All 4 of them had good schools when I was growing up and all 4 are within 50 mins of backbay/south station.

$1M will buy you a very nice house everywhere else. I'll even say $700k in 80% of the United States gets you a great house. Even $400k in about 50% of the country gets you a nice house.

Move away from the expensive places.

A brand new 4+ bedroom house in the midwest will be around $300k in a cheaper spot, $400k closer to a larger population area. Even in the southeast U.S. you're looking at $400k-$500k for a really nice place. Colorado is beginning to be a bit more expensive, but Colorado Springs $500k gets you a really nice place, and near Denver $700k-$800k gets you a nice place. Take a couple hundred thousand off these prices and you can still find a livable house in these places.

There are plenty of SFH around Boston for under a million. Maybe not in Cambridge, but look at Watertown/Newton/Brighton/Waltham. And none of these neighborhoods are going to be bad.

If you want a huge house, though, you'll have to suck it up and do the nightmare 90 minute commute every morning. I'd rather have a small yard than do that, but YMMV.

Sorry, but you will have to live with merely the upper middle class people or find a way to make more money.

Are you sure that that's how much homes are in the tri-state area?

I'm in PA at my parents now, and there's a bus that's 2 hours into NYC.

You can get a bare minimum nice home for 250k, and the more luxurious ones in nice school districts are like 400k -450k tops.

If commuting to the seaport / fidi area look at Hingham and Hull. From either you can take the ferry 360 days per year (genuinely more reliable than the subways even in the winter). Hingham might actually be hard to find <$1M, but you can find something in Hull where there’s honestly a better community feel and great schools. Hull High was one of the first high schools in the US to have computers and it’s small graduating class sizes get a great $/ student ratio. You’d also have a super low electric bill because if the wind turbines. If those don’t tickle your fancy Marshfield would be the best bang for your buck out of any towns further down the coast.

Ho Hum wrote:

There are plenty of SFH around Boston for under a million. Maybe not in Cambridge, but look at Watertown/Newton/Brighton/Waltham. And none of these neighborhoods are going to be bad.

If you want a huge house, though, you'll have to suck it up and do the nightmare 90 minute commute every morning. I'd rather have a small yard than do that, but YMMV.

Newton might be tough for $1M but those others are sure options. Schools are ok, not great. For the great schools, Newton/Wellesley/Weston you are going to have to pay more.

TAA wrote:

Not sure there's more than dozen $1 million+ houses in Ohio.

I just searched for $1,000,000 homes in Columbus and came up with eight. That's eight homes in Columbus, and suburbs, over $1,000,000 that are for sale right now.