Looking To Live In All The Wrong Places
The time had to come eventually.
For the first time ever, I'm ever so tentatively trying to find an affordable place to buy in the overpriced, overpopulated wasteland known as New Jersey.
If you couldn't tell already, I'm quite conflicted about this move. This is because when I finally moved out of my parents home I hoped it would be under one of two conditions:
1. I'd be getting married and/or moving in with the love of my life.
2. I'd be moving in with a good friend or two and we'd live the glorious (or even not glorious) single life together, a la WB dramedy style.
But then reality hit.
1. If I wait till I get married, I could be waiting well....
2. I don't have a local, single friend much less friends, plural. Or even many glorious friends come to think of it.
So while part of me knows at 28 it is time, part of me is admittedly reluctant, too. This time last year, after finally securing a decent paying job, I thought I'd rent. Then I saw what you could get for under $1000 in my area of NJ.
Nothing. You could get nothing. Without a roommate that is. Or living near a crack den. Or perhaps selling your limbs on ebay. So buying, I decided, was the way to go.
This is also when I went to Plan B. I'll wait a year, save up more money (which incidentally, I'm very good at doing) and reevaluate the situation. One more year and I'd have more job security and I'd be clearer about where my life was headed. And another year isn't going to kill me, right?
So here it is a year later, and I realize for the most part things are the same as they ever were. Job seems secure, for now, but I didn't meet any other friends to room with and I do the one step forward, two steps back dance with my ex again and again.
Despite the sick feeling I get in the pit of my stomach when I think about handling a mortgage for the first time on my own, and when I consider just going blind at getting a roommate, I still know all of it is a very distinct possiblity. Of course all the older folks I meet, including my parents, think I'm crazy for looking, period. They see I want my space, but they don't understand why I'd want to move out when I could live at my parents house indefinitely, rent free.
The answer to this is quite simple. It's my parents house.
But moving out is easier said than done. Anyone who has ever purchased a home before knows what I'm talking about. For one thing, there's the ever important factor of location, location, location. While I honestly do enjoy my job, I truly wish it was about 50 miles more south. I'd even settle for 25. I say this because the farther south you go in NJ, the cheaper the prices are. Also if you go about 50 miles south, there are far more options living wise. This is why when I got this job it was very bittersweet. I'm lucky to have a job in education at all where some of my friends still do not, but having a job where I do means I'm locked into living in the area.
Then there's the not so little matter of cost. I don't know what it's like by you, but let me try to give you a taste of good ol' central Jersey. To purchase a two story, two bedroom, two bath condo/townhome in a safe neighborhood runs you at least $250,000, if not in most cases even more. If I did live about 50 miles south I could get the same for about $150,000, if not even less. Oh, and did I mention I could get a full fledged house for that money in other states? Feeling my pain yet?
Now on two twenty-something incomes, $275,000 is tight, but doable. But again let me reintroduce you to "go it alone girl", accessories not included. If I had gone the route of education right after graduating with my undergrad degree I'd have a few years in and I would not be in this predicament now as prices as have skyrocketed in the last few years or so. Once again, I revisit the roommate thing, which I'm open to. But even if I do factor in a roommate, I'm still probably looking at $230,000 MAXIMUM.
The other day I went to look at my first property. It was a 2 bedroom "townhouse" about 15 minutes north of here. It was listed at $98,000. I had to go, even though I knew it was going to be a shit hole, just to satisfy my curiosity, and to realize there was no place to go but up. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. An apartment trying to be pawned off as a townhouse in an extremely seedy locale, but not as bad nonetheless.
Meanwhile all the other properties I pull up are beautiful in a "you will never have us in a million years, jock in a teen comedy" type of way. Or worse yet, they seem perfect and then you read the fine print and realize it's a 55 and over community. Damn seniors are taking over everything! So it's not like I can't find properties to move to, I just can't find a way to make them movable.
I knew that if I wanted to know what someone like me could conceivably afford, I had to stop pouting, or at least temporarily put aside the pouting, and enlist the help of a realtor. A realtor will tell me what is possible for a girl like me. Or she'll laugh hysterically in my face as she quickly escorts me out the door. Either way, I'll be one step closer to the life I never dreamed of, but always secretly supsected I'd have.
So I attended a few open houses this past weekend. Some of them were my choosing, some were those chosen by my parents. It's easy to know the difference. Me and my choices? We're living in reality. Perhaps one day my parents would like to join us there.
I chose properties that were within my range with some of the things I want being open for discussion. They chose two properties to just "check out". One right here in town listed at $255, the other a town over listed at $350,000. Think they're smoking crack yet? I thought so.
Anyone who has ever been in the presence of a real estate agent for more than 10 minutes knows these folks do not mess around. So I gave my contact information, and within 24 hours three different ages were chomping at the bit to work with me. I really had no preference, this one girl just happened to get there first. Before I could say the words "eat in kitchen" she had us booked to go looking at houses.
Before I went looking I was recommended to do the all imporant, pre approval loan process. Of course I passed with flying colors. I say this sarcastically because if I couldn't get approved, it would make the unattainable even more unattainable. But because I am this close to being able to do this and because I've been a saver forever, I'm actually the ideal sucker candidate.
I decided to go look at the properties, figuring I had nothing to lose. Besides, she had one development on her list that I had seen a for owner open house this weekend that I really liked. I ended really liking a different property, slightly lower in price and after working the numbers, definitely doable.
Then I made the mistake of bringing the rents to see it.
You have to know my parents (or have parents like mine) to understand. They are great parents. And they mean well, really they do. But they have no qualms about me staying at home forever and/or until I'm married, which ever comes first. Right now, forever is winning by a hair. And they also are damn good at laying down a guilt trip, so good in fact that I don't even think they realize they're doing it sometimes.
I am trying to realistically explain to them that as a first time house buyer that I am going to have to make some compromises. Also unfortunately there are not a whole lot of options in my neck of the woods. Not to mention the fact that I don't have to stay there forever. And the all important, undeniable truth: The longer I wait, the more I save. But, the longer I wait, the more prices will go up.
Before I knew it, indecisiveness and that discouraged feeling had moved in again. Hey, I guess that means I got my roommate after all.
For the first time ever, I'm ever so tentatively trying to find an affordable place to buy in the overpriced, overpopulated wasteland known as New Jersey.
If you couldn't tell already, I'm quite conflicted about this move. This is because when I finally moved out of my parents home I hoped it would be under one of two conditions:
1. I'd be getting married and/or moving in with the love of my life.
2. I'd be moving in with a good friend or two and we'd live the glorious (or even not glorious) single life together, a la WB dramedy style.
But then reality hit.
1. If I wait till I get married, I could be waiting well....
2. I don't have a local, single friend much less friends, plural. Or even many glorious friends come to think of it.
So while part of me knows at 28 it is time, part of me is admittedly reluctant, too. This time last year, after finally securing a decent paying job, I thought I'd rent. Then I saw what you could get for under $1000 in my area of NJ.
Nothing. You could get nothing. Without a roommate that is. Or living near a crack den. Or perhaps selling your limbs on ebay. So buying, I decided, was the way to go.
This is also when I went to Plan B. I'll wait a year, save up more money (which incidentally, I'm very good at doing) and reevaluate the situation. One more year and I'd have more job security and I'd be clearer about where my life was headed. And another year isn't going to kill me, right?
So here it is a year later, and I realize for the most part things are the same as they ever were. Job seems secure, for now, but I didn't meet any other friends to room with and I do the one step forward, two steps back dance with my ex again and again.
Despite the sick feeling I get in the pit of my stomach when I think about handling a mortgage for the first time on my own, and when I consider just going blind at getting a roommate, I still know all of it is a very distinct possiblity. Of course all the older folks I meet, including my parents, think I'm crazy for looking, period. They see I want my space, but they don't understand why I'd want to move out when I could live at my parents house indefinitely, rent free.
The answer to this is quite simple. It's my parents house.
But moving out is easier said than done. Anyone who has ever purchased a home before knows what I'm talking about. For one thing, there's the ever important factor of location, location, location. While I honestly do enjoy my job, I truly wish it was about 50 miles more south. I'd even settle for 25. I say this because the farther south you go in NJ, the cheaper the prices are. Also if you go about 50 miles south, there are far more options living wise. This is why when I got this job it was very bittersweet. I'm lucky to have a job in education at all where some of my friends still do not, but having a job where I do means I'm locked into living in the area.
Then there's the not so little matter of cost. I don't know what it's like by you, but let me try to give you a taste of good ol' central Jersey. To purchase a two story, two bedroom, two bath condo/townhome in a safe neighborhood runs you at least $250,000, if not in most cases even more. If I did live about 50 miles south I could get the same for about $150,000, if not even less. Oh, and did I mention I could get a full fledged house for that money in other states? Feeling my pain yet?
Now on two twenty-something incomes, $275,000 is tight, but doable. But again let me reintroduce you to "go it alone girl", accessories not included. If I had gone the route of education right after graduating with my undergrad degree I'd have a few years in and I would not be in this predicament now as prices as have skyrocketed in the last few years or so. Once again, I revisit the roommate thing, which I'm open to. But even if I do factor in a roommate, I'm still probably looking at $230,000 MAXIMUM.
The other day I went to look at my first property. It was a 2 bedroom "townhouse" about 15 minutes north of here. It was listed at $98,000. I had to go, even though I knew it was going to be a shit hole, just to satisfy my curiosity, and to realize there was no place to go but up. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. An apartment trying to be pawned off as a townhouse in an extremely seedy locale, but not as bad nonetheless.
Meanwhile all the other properties I pull up are beautiful in a "you will never have us in a million years, jock in a teen comedy" type of way. Or worse yet, they seem perfect and then you read the fine print and realize it's a 55 and over community. Damn seniors are taking over everything! So it's not like I can't find properties to move to, I just can't find a way to make them movable.
I knew that if I wanted to know what someone like me could conceivably afford, I had to stop pouting, or at least temporarily put aside the pouting, and enlist the help of a realtor. A realtor will tell me what is possible for a girl like me. Or she'll laugh hysterically in my face as she quickly escorts me out the door. Either way, I'll be one step closer to the life I never dreamed of, but always secretly supsected I'd have.
So I attended a few open houses this past weekend. Some of them were my choosing, some were those chosen by my parents. It's easy to know the difference. Me and my choices? We're living in reality. Perhaps one day my parents would like to join us there.
I chose properties that were within my range with some of the things I want being open for discussion. They chose two properties to just "check out". One right here in town listed at $255, the other a town over listed at $350,000. Think they're smoking crack yet? I thought so.
Anyone who has ever been in the presence of a real estate agent for more than 10 minutes knows these folks do not mess around. So I gave my contact information, and within 24 hours three different ages were chomping at the bit to work with me. I really had no preference, this one girl just happened to get there first. Before I could say the words "eat in kitchen" she had us booked to go looking at houses.
Before I went looking I was recommended to do the all imporant, pre approval loan process. Of course I passed with flying colors. I say this sarcastically because if I couldn't get approved, it would make the unattainable even more unattainable. But because I am this close to being able to do this and because I've been a saver forever, I'm actually the ideal
I decided to go look at the properties, figuring I had nothing to lose. Besides, she had one development on her list that I had seen a for owner open house this weekend that I really liked. I ended really liking a different property, slightly lower in price and after working the numbers, definitely doable.
Then I made the mistake of bringing the rents to see it.
You have to know my parents (or have parents like mine) to understand. They are great parents. And they mean well, really they do. But they have no qualms about me staying at home forever and/or until I'm married, which ever comes first. Right now, forever is winning by a hair. And they also are damn good at laying down a guilt trip, so good in fact that I don't even think they realize they're doing it sometimes.
I am trying to realistically explain to them that as a first time house buyer that I am going to have to make some compromises. Also unfortunately there are not a whole lot of options in my neck of the woods. Not to mention the fact that I don't have to stay there forever. And the all important, undeniable truth: The longer I wait, the more I save. But, the longer I wait, the more prices will go up.
Before I knew it, indecisiveness and that discouraged feeling had moved in again. Hey, I guess that means I got my roommate after all.
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