It looks like more people are renting in my neighborhood now--I know, what a big surprise, considering the housing market downturn. I was chatting with a couple in the apartment elevator last night who are going to be moving in at the end of the month (they were visiting a friend of theirs yesterday). I asked them if they minded me asking how much rent they're going to be paying for their 1BR unit, and was quite surprised to hear "$830," since I'm only paying $775.
They added that they lucked into getting this unit, because otherwise the wait was going to be at least a month for another open apartment. When I moved in back in May 2006, they had lots of open units available, which probably accounted for my getting the big break on deposit (only $200 for me and they didn't charge me the $300 for the cat deposit) and a $10 discount on my monthly rent. My complex is the cheapest in the area by at least $100, which adds to the popularity.
I am full of hate for these past 2 weeks and the upcoming month.
I checked Zillow.com the other day and found that my house had lost about $50K of its "estimated" value over the past half-year. That still makes the going market price something like twice what I paid for it, so I won't cry too hard.
Our house is currently worth about $80k more than we paid, which is comforting.
Scrappy, that's damn good -- considering what your region's been going through, and all. While the Boston area has taken an obvious hit, it's nothing like in other sections of the country.
I got home 15 minutes ago. I dear, strongly, emphatically do not want to go to work tomorrow. But there isn't much choice in the matter.
I Zestimated the house we rent (it's part of a two-house property) and discovered that it is worth $100,000
less
than our landlady paid for it in 2006...and that was before she dumped $150K+ into renovation. Ouch.
Please gods, don't let her lose the house. We are never going to be able to find another place that will allow our menagerie in LA.
::sigh::
I swear, I've spent more time rescheduling things than doing things recently. But I have gotten some bites off my resume, so that's something.
The house we live in was purchased in 2000 for $721,000 (list $579,000!) Zillow says its over a million now, but there's no way the owner could get that without
a lot
of work. Of course, they also say it is a 3 bed/2 ba, which is quite a stretch.
I don't think, given the work it would take to bring it up to the level of what I've seen for sale in the neighborhood, it would go for much more than $800,000.
