michigan crises

[Chuck Nessa]

I feel lucky. Almost 4 years ago our mortgage had about 3 years left but we had credit card debt, an outstanding business loan and needed a new roof. We rolled it all together in a 15 year deal at 4.5.

[Dan Gould]

I feel lucky. Almost 4 years ago our mortgage had about 3 years left but we had credit card debt, an outstanding business loan and needed a new roof. We rolled it all together in a 15 year deal at 4.5.

You acted at the right time, Chuck. Now go listen to the Baby Face singles.

[Chuck Nessa]

[sidewinder]

Thank god home prices (or at least some of them) are a little more decent here in Kansas City.

A little less than 4 years ago my wife and I paid about $145K for our 3 bedroom, 1½ bath house

A friend of mine recently had to buy a 4-bedroom house a couple years ago (he has three kids), and despite his cheapskate tendencies (he's an even bigger spendthrift than I am!) -- he had to pay close to $240K for a house that really isn't any bigger than mine -- just to get into an at least half-way decent school district.

That's almost $100K more than we spent -- for a house hardly any better than ours.

My goodness that's cheap! We bought our (new) 4 bedroom house almost 2 years ago for 194K pounds ($372K); and we're out of Cardiff into an old mining village, now becoming a bit of a commuter town for Cardiff. In Cardiff, the same house (if you could get a comparable one) would cost at least 50% more; but when we were looking around in Cardiff, the houses all had much smaller rooms than this.

And Cardiff, of course, is a lot cheaper than most other comparable British cities.

MG

And that is incredibly cheap compared with London, where £200K gets you nothing.

[randissimo]

I happily rent a cute little berm house in rural Michigan for $550.00 a month w/ a pole barn and lots of privacy and am glad I don't have to deal with mortgage companies etc..

and no condo neighbors to complain about your practicing?

Believe it or not I can open my windows and bash like Elvin at 4 am with no problems!

you could have brotzmann, evan parker, and paul flaherty over to jam and no one but the wildlife would complain.

Sounds great!

But what's a berm house? And how many bedrooms is little? A 3 bedroomed house in this area would be about 750 pounds a month to rent - about $1450. That's what my son-in-law is expecting to pay when he and my daughter sell their house and buy one in a beautiful rural area as an investment (!).

MG

My earth berm house is a simple one bedroom rectangle constructed in the mid 1960's of concrete blocks and built into a hill on two sides, the south and east sides. From the road you just see the roof. There are altogether 5 rooms in my house, a living room, bedroom, a long room that serves as a computer room and music studio, a kitchen, bathroom, and I have an all season back porch/catch all off the kitchen. It's like a basemant on the south side. I love it. And dig it, my heating bill never went over $100. all winter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_sheltering

Edited March 31, 2007 by randissimo

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I happily rent a cute little berm house in rural Michigan for $550.00 a month w/ a pole barn and lots of privacy and am glad I don't have to deal with mortgage companies etc..

and no condo neighbors to complain about your practicing?

Believe it or not I can open my windows and bash like Elvin at 4 am with no problems!

you could have brotzmann, evan parker, and paul flaherty over to jam and no one but the wildlife would complain.

Sounds great!

But what's a berm house? And how many bedrooms is little? A 3 bedroomed house in this area would be about 750 pounds a month to rent - about $1450. That's what my son-in-law is expecting to pay when he and my daughter sell their house and buy one in a beautiful rural area as an investment (!).

MG

My earth berm house is a simple one bedroom rectangle constructed in the mid 1960's of concrete blocks and built into a hill on two sides, the south and east sides. From the road you just see the roof. There are altogether 5 rooms in my house, a living room, bedroom, a long room that serves as a computer room and music studio, a kitchen, bathroom, and I have an all season back porch/catch all off the kitchen. It's like a basemant on the south side. I love it. And dig it, my heating bill never went over $100. all winter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_sheltering

Thanks Randy - very interesting link, too.

MG