Lkit, I came from 50 miles Southeast of Cleveland, Warren Ohio. Bought a house for 132K, in 99, re-fi’d once to pay for some flood damage, sold for 150K in Nov. 2005. Of course I lost money because I had to put in a new Septic, and pay 7%, so I had to bring 12000 to close to make sure Septic was installed. I eventually got about 3K back.
Left 3 acres, 2400 SQ. Feet, plus another 1200 Sq. Feet basement, pool basketball court, etc. Now I have about 1030, so with 2 kids we use the garage since the driveway is plenty big.
About to do another one year lease here in Cardiff, and the landlord is not raising rent, since we are good tenants.