Cheapest and best place in USA to live?

[surveyor]

bubble

Vegas is a nice place, but I thought you were avoiding “bubble” areas like San Diego. If you were to live in Vegas, you probably won’t be buying real estate…

[Anonymous]

Sky Harbor Airport in Pheonix is great. Downtown Phoenix, which already has pro baseball, basketball, etc, is adding the “light rail” trasit system, ASU campus and high rise condo buildings. There are numerous neighborhoods in walking distance of it all where you can buy historic homes with plenty of flavor on large lots for cheap. Now is the time to get in. 5 hour drive to San Diego or 3 hours to Mexico for beaches. 250K will get you a very nice property right now.

[PerryChase]

“Now is the time to get in.”
——–
Ha.haha, that’s really funny!

Phoenix’s bubble is as big as California’s. Phoenix and Tucson will crash much worse than California when this thing unravels. They’ll have nothing left but snowbirds after Intel and the other techs decamp for China.

[hipmatt]

Dude, Vegas sucks, maybe for a young single guy, OK, but really, there is a reason that they call it SIN CITY. The place is obsesses with greed, sex, and substance abuse. Crime is worse than you think there and climbing, and housing is still in a huge bubble (although it is crashing and SHOULD) so its not cheep by any means.

If you are looking for a nice, single, quality woman, I doubt there are a whole lot in Vegas. If you just want some easy action and you have money, Vegas is for you!

[hipmatt]

I have to agree that the phoenix bubble is worse than even socal’s, and that it has less to offer. I a few years there will be BIG deals in phoenix, much less than 250k.

I would recommend Texas, Oregon, and Idaho to look at.

[Anonymous]

I was speaking of a particular area within the city of Phoenix. I agree that there are many areas/suburbs that are at risk for futher price decline. Downtown Phoenix is developing into a “real” city with entertainment, retail, dining, education and culture. With rising gas prices and baby boomers becoming empty nesters urban centers are on the rise. Phoenix is a perfect example and one that is still very affordable. You can have the best of both worlds right now. You can have a nice size lot for your dogs to run around in yet walk to the ball park for a Dbacks game. All of this in the 200K range. The price charts for Phoenix look nothing like the charts for SoCal. Investors: Put 20% down and rent out cash flow positive. No bubble there! The bubble is here in San Diego.

[JJGittes]

Washinton state — no state income tax, and between the coast and inland, you should be able to find a climate you can stand.

If you are climate sensitive, you may be stuck with coastal Calif.

[no_such_reality]

What about Vegas? Great for a young single guy with lots of clubs restaurants and stuff to do.

I had a friend move there two years ago, he’s back already.

For weekend partiers, it’s Sin City. For the locals, it’s hard not to be Strung-Out Hard Luck City. Everything has a price tag. For an eye-opener, go by the utilities during the business day on Fridays. The cars are lined up to pay cash to keep their utilities on.

More importantly, not a lot of economic diversity and the city really lives and dies on the Sin City tourist trade.

[mixxalot]

Humidity and I do not mix well. Freezing cold weather and I do not mix well. I will skip Vegas. I admit- since living here in San Diego for almost past 4 years, I’ve been spoiled by the great weather. I probably can get used to humidity with good AC and a swimming pool. I hear that northern panhandle part of Florida- Jacksonville, Clearwater, Gainsville are great towns if you can deal with giant bugs and humid weather and storms.

At this point, I have some time to think about it. I like a good cosmopolitan city with excellent nightlife, restaurants and shopping. I did like Portland and coastal Oregon a lot when I worked up there years ago.

I have heard a lot of really really bad things about the cops in Texas as being dirty and corrupt. So thats not good. I do hear good things about Austin though.

Thanks for the tips on Vegas- will skip it as place to buy- okay to visit I guess.

Looking in San Diego- I predict that areas like La Mesa will become much more affordable. I actually like La Mesa area a lot near SDSU college.

I might wait out this bubble and buy there near Mt. Helix. I have a friend who cannot sell her place for what she wants. May score a deal if she cannot sell it.

Thanks for the great tips! Might still just build home on my parents land in Oroville in save ton of cash for the crash.

Does anyone know how to appraise a 2 acre plot of land with a new home built on it? Do agents use comps for the local area to appraise property that has a home built on it?

[mixxalot]

I like what I see from Virginia Beach, VA and there is a lot of work for government tech market!! That and much cheaper than San Diego!!

Will make a trip hopefully soon to Virginia, Florida and Raleigh, NC.

Right now these are my top 3 picks for future home purchase and residence as long as work goes well as a traveling computer consultant!

Also check out Tennessee and no, I dont care much for Atlanta. Myrtle Beach sounds nice though.

[Cow_tipping]

Jax is Humid, summer winter all the time.
Central NC is humid in the summer but not all other times. The opposite of CA actually. But I doubt that any where is as dry as Vegas and PHX, but the places everyone here has mentioned are humid at some point in the year or other. Except of course AZ and NV.
Cool.
Cow_tipping.

[sdrealtor]

Jax is the biggest pit I have ever been to and the worst excuse for a big city. I was there for the Super Bowl a couple years ago and was appalled. No nightlife at all. We had to stay an hour away to get a hotel room, which was a hole in the wall for $300/nigth. About 3 decent restaurant in town. It was an absolute joke.

[vegasrenter]

Vegas is an mostly an armpit with a couple really nice, large master-planned communities. I’m a civil engineer for a public agency and the pay rates here for that are extremely high – so much so that it’s hard to move away. Lots of money available for professionals with strong people skills. Restaurants and entertainment are excellent. Not much in the way of museums or culture. Very high drug/booze/divorce/suicide rates. Weather is great most of the year but is a furnace for 3 months. It NEVER rains, ever! Not much nature/fishing close to town but many beautiful places in Utah starting at 4-hours drive. Housing is bland and overpriced on tiny lots. Older custom homes on large lots are very expensive, starting at $450K in bad areas. RE Prices here are not dropping very fast at all. The drive to LA on weekends is very easy, but horrible for LA visitors going the opposite direction to LV for the weekend.

[Anonymous]

mixxalot,

Agents first find out what the average per sqft is to build a home in the area. They use those nubmers with the comps of the homes in the area. If the home you build matches the comps then it works out. I do know building material has been going up due to energy cost. Oil is going up again which will push the cost of building higher.

If like Mt. Helix you might like Windsor Hills,Eastridge and Serramar. You can get a house with views of the ocean,Point Loma and Downtown. They are all in the 91941 area.

[PerryChase]

“I do know building material has been going up due to energy cost.”
——————-
How do you know?

In my view, construction cost will drop 20%-30% from the peak. Contractors are finishing up houses under construction now, but they’ll go begging for work in the next few years.

——————-
From the February 19, 2007 Issue of ENR
Housing Puts Pressure on Lumber Prices

Last year, the single-family housing market fell 12% in dollar volume, according to McGraw-Hill Construction. That drop in demand is dragging down lumber prices. In February, ENR’s 20-city average price for the most commonly used species of 2 X 4 lumber fell 5% from the previous month. This follows more than a year of price declines, which leaves ENR’s price 16% below February 2005’s level. Prices for plywood fell earlier during the housing cycle and are now 4% below a year ago.

http://piggington.com/node/2371

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