Thanks djrobsd! The type of vibrant urban neighborhood (not to sound too much like a RE promotion)you describe is what I think would best suit us. Maybe I could afford to live there as a now renter – certainly not as a buyer.
Here is one of the single family houses that I found on CL:
It is described as a custom executive home! I assume this would be worth around a mil (today’s market) from what you say and from what I’ve gathered on my own. The owner has to be taking a bath renting it at that price. Just suppose that he paid a million and that he paid cash. As an alternative investment he could be getting $60K (at 5%) per year in CDs or something but he is only asking 38,000 per year (12 x 3200). If the rental price reflects the utilitarian value of living in a swell house in a cool, safe, close to everything neighborhood, then the purported value of house like this is out of whack with reality – or at least that is what I think I have learned since I got here a couple of weeks ago. If the owner has a huge mortgage on this property then he is taking even a bigger bath plus having his 150K downpayment tied up. Is it pride that drives people to rent something at a loss rather than sell it at a loss?
Beatus ille qui procul negotiis … paterna rura bobus exercet suis, solutus omni fenore….. Horace
[In case anyone is wondering what my signature means, it can be translated roughly as : Fortunate is he who free from worrisome business and free from debt works his land with his own oxen! I work in a major environmental organization in DC. Unfortunately, they don’t give me enough work to keep me busy (I am a peon). So to keep myself busy I taught myself latin in my ample spare time.]
