Housing costs

I visited my in-laws in Ocala, Florida and couldn't believe how much new house you got for the money compared to central North Carolina. As an example, my parents in NC live in a 1 story townhome that is probably 1500 sq feet and cost them $200k. In Ocala you get a nicer built individual house, made to resist substantial storms, almost 50% bigger for about $150k with swimming pool. Land costs cannot explain it all. I doubt the subcontractors are getting paid much more in NC.... they are mostly from south of the border. Am I missing something? My pricing is year ago pricing by the way before the recent run up by storm damage and China demands but both pricings were from around the same time. Both homes are on a slab.

Reply to
Art
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One of my co-workers is looking for a house in Florida. In some areas, the price of housing it going up at 30% a year. One house was sold for $170,000

15 months ago. It had $5,000 in improvements and just sold for $238,000. Nice profit. Supply and demand at work.
Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

That is why I noted that my prices were pre-hurricane. I'm sure everything is out of wack now price-wise, but my in-laws have been in Ocala now for a decade and their prices are incredibly lower than central NC.

Reply to
Art

Location, Location, Location.

We have a $120K house in Upstate NY. About 4 years ago, we went house shopping down in the RTP area in NC. The equivalent square footage in a development totally devoid of any trees, landscaping, sidewalks, etc was going for approximately 1.75x my house. And yet the houses in NC were of relatively poor construction - some of the builders seemed to think of caulk as a structural material, for example.

OTOH, my parents moved from a 1200 sq ft house up here that they sold for about $95K, and moved to Ocala into a perfectly nice house of the same size, and paid $80K - including a heck of a lot more community resources, and a very small monthly HOA fee.

- Rich

Reply to
Here to there

Art,

Housing prices are only loosely related to costs. Also, comparing townhomes to houses is like comparing apples to oranges. Still $150 k for

2200 sq ft with a pool seems exceptional. Are you sure of these prices?

Dave M.

Reply to
David Martel

The townhome in NC was the more expensive home at $200k whereas the cheaper, nicer single home on a nice size lot was in Ocala. All things being equal the townhome should be cheaper to build especially since it is much smaller but it costs much more. The prices I listed are a bit old but still comparable.... in other words both homes were built and sold a few years ago so things have gone up since then but Ocala still is a riduculous bargain compared to central NC. Yes Ocala prices have gone up but NC prices have gone up even more.

I agree that the 3 rules of housing costs are location, location, location. But in Ocala they cannot be building and selling houses below cost so that means that someone is making a killing in central NC. Now if this was in NY or a NY suburb where they are out of land, that would be something else. The sky is the limit for housing on Long Island. But here in NC we just got over a big surge in unemployment with no significant drop in housing costs so you would think that means that they are selling somewhere near the cost of construction. But if that were true, how can they build a house so much cheaper in Ocala, Fl?

Reply to
Art

Demand hasn't been mentioned. An object is only "worth" what someone is willing to pay for it. If nobody was willing to pony up $200K for the townhome, the price would lower.

David

Reply to
DJ

Prices here in Florida have risen 30 to 40% in the last year. And then there is homeowners insurance, if you can find a company to insure your property.Most major companies will no longer write new policies in florida. And deductible for Hurricane & wind coverage is 2% of the value of your property.

PJ

Reply to
Pat

I agree 100% that supply and demand are a big factor. But I was wondering if there could be something else that makes Florida contruction cheaper that I missed. Otherwise it means that builders in NC are getting richer faster than builders in Florida.

Reply to
Art

Yes you are missing something. You may pay less, but you'd still be in Ocala. Location...location...location.

*-------------------------------* NEVER FORGET!!!
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Reply to
jtees4

This is Turtle.

You go South to retire and head North to work. Here is Louisiana I can put you in a 2,500 Sq. Foot , brick , a slab , 1.5 Acre lot in a subdivision, 20' X 35 ' swimming pool, 2 central units for cooling, Concrete Streets and sidewalks and street lites, and in a town of 10K pop and cost under $160K. Now in a larger city like 50K pop you will have to give just short of $200K.

In 1980 i bouight my house for $40K and it's 2,250 sq. ft. brick , 1.1 acre lot and in a very nice subdivision and I've been told I can get a UnGodly price for it at $90K. Now I can't choose the people who live near me but there is 2 doctors and hate say this but there is 2 lawyers live near me.

When you leave the northern states prices drop way down. One example of this is also i pay $68.00 year on house property taxes and i'm pissed off about it for it use to be $55.00 not 5 years ago. I have heard other up north pay more than this.

TURTLE

Reply to
TURTLE

In NC on a $200k house in the city property taxes are about $1800 per year.

Reply to
Art

Nobody wants to live in Ocala. :)

Here in Naples, we've averaged 21% increases in value for the last decade. It's slowing down and the Fort Myers/Lee County area is now picking up.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Cochran

What do you mean by "central" NC? BTW, property taxes are very high in Florida which is why we didn't move there. Pat

Reply to
Patscga

Raleigh/Research Triangle Park area

Reply to
Art

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