cycling and house buying

[limewave]

That is the one thing we did right early on in our marriage. When we were shopping for houses, we'd park in potential neighborhood and spend hours walking around and riding our bikes. Ride- and walkability was one of the top 3 factors in choosing location along with proximity to work and school district.

[Karma007]

That is the one thing we did right early on in our marriage. When we were shopping for houses, we'd park in potential neighborhood and spend hours walking around and riding our bikes. Ride- and walkability was one of the top 3 factors in choosing location along with proximity to work and school district.

We did this too. Before even working with and agent and looking for a house, we chose neighborhoods, and made lists of needs and wants. By the time we had a real estate agent, we knew exactly what we wanted. That being said, it then took us another 18 months to get it, but we couldn't be happier, especially with the location. The house you can always fix, the location and neighbors you're stuck with.

[soprano]

When my husband and I bought our house in 2009, we made some serious trade-offs in terms of the size of the house and its amenities in order to get a good location. A walkable/bikeable neighborhood and proximity to public transit were priority #1. We save for three extra years in order to make the down payment on a house in this area.

Every single day, we congratulate ourselves on making such an awesome decision. Totally worth it.

[Catrin]

I rent, but I recently moved to an apartment complex mainly due to the ability to ride to my favorite country roads by cutting through a park. I do not have easy access to local transit from this location, but right now the ability to ride to the country trumped access to transit.

[ASammy1]

We are in the process of buying a house right now and our new house is one block to a 60 mile trail. Like everyone else has said, "location, location, location!"

[Crankin]

We sort of thought about it 5 years ago, but, really not entirely. I live on a huge hill, which gets old every time you come home (10-15% grades). I figure right around the time we will be thinking of moving is when I'll use my age as an excuse to find a house on flat ground.
Most people think this is a great cycling area, as lot of people from Boston come here to ride. But, there's only 1-2 shorter after work type of loops (15-22 miles), that don't involve crossing a highway or dead ends. My old house is 9 miles west of here and it was out the door, on flat ground, to either big hills to the west or to the area I live now to the east. One of the problems is that there's too many cyclists around here on the weekends. But, it's a nice 3.8 mile ride to the town center and between 5 and 6 miles to our other town center, on the other side of the highway. But, generally, I head over to the area I used to live in to ride.

[Koronin]

One thing we have is plenty of time. I'm am NOT in a hurry to find a place. Our current lease on the townhome we are renting is up at the end of May. However, after that we can either do another lease or rent on a month to month basis. (Actually have to give a 30 days notice when we decide to move). The company we are renting through actually deals more with military than civilians so their policies are written that way to help accomidate our serivice men and women. I think my husband is in more of a hurry than I am. I know it's going to take awhile. The abo****e deal breaker for me is an HOA. (Will never rent where there is an HOA again). However, there are certain things I want and I told my husband I won't know what it is exactly that I am really looking for until I see it. Oh and we are really in the very, very early stages of house hunting.