Struggling with buying a house

[shootingstar]

I'm sure it's a temporary thing 6 month, a year? Things do change especially with construction traffic and logging traffic. Once they finish the "clear cutting" up the canyon, they will move on.

But looks like the touristy traffic..which is ...3-4 months annually? And in 1 day, is the traffic just continuous for 8 hrs. or is it just 3-4 peak hrs. per day?

I'm fascinated by different perceptions of country living vs. city living vs. surburban living.

Maybe it's better to think of country living best for different stage in life..when one has time, energy to deal with maintenance, travel time (to get to services), etc. when having more acreage.

Appreciate Wahine's strong sense in the area where they are looking, the housing prices and mortgage rates may be more ideal this year compared to 3-5 yrs. later. (Who knows.) This is what happened to me: I only looked at 4 places before I bought. I live in an expanding city where housing prices are going up moderately.

I do wonder if I did the right thing but on the other hand, nearly once a month, I'm exclaiming happily to dearie while we're cycling homeward on home's peaceful street downtown: I'm so glad we live close to many things and services.

Every time I tell people I live downtown, people think of traffic, crowds, etc. No, my street dead-ends into a cul-de-sac and half a block away is a park greenbelt that is the spine of a major 80 km. bike-ped. path (that interconnects to 300 km. more of bike-ped paths and interconnected parks.)

I like my hobbies (cycling as one of them, even though it's just transportation to me 60% of the time) but I have to do other stuff ...shopping, banking, work, etc. efficiently by getting there.

So location, location, location is important. But in your gut, it must feel right now ..and for next 10-20 yrs. for you?

[GLC1968]

So location, location, location is important. But in your gut, it must feel right now ..and for next 10-20 yrs. for you?

So, so, so true!

And personally, I am *really* struggling with the concept of buying a house that we will stay in for 10+ years. I can't even fathom that...

[Wahine]

Thanks again everyone.

I don't really need to decide now and I do intend to keep looking. Part of the reason I wanted to start this thread was to help guide me on my search. You've all been very very helpful.

[Wahine]

But looks like the touristy traffic..which is ...3-4 months annually? And in 1 day, is the traffic just continuous for 8 hrs. or is it just 3-4 peak hrs. per day?

I'm fascinated by different perceptions of country living vs. city living vs. surburban living.

This is an interesting question. Where I currently live is considered rural residential and it's outside of town limits. I've been sitting here at my computer at 2:30 in the afternoon and the vehicles are coming by about 1 every 10 to 40 seconds. That's pretty typical for mid day and evening. In the peak hours in the morning and late afternoon that will increase to 1 vehicle every 5 seconds, often with clusters of vehicles. Between 9 pm and 5 am the traffic is light. The bugger at 5 AM is that is when the logging trucks start. The speed limit is 45 mph (75 ish kph) but most drivers are going much faster than that.

As for the increase in tourist traffic, that's mostly between June and September. The general mid day and evening traffic is less outside of those months.

[jyyanks]

I would choose LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! As others stated, you can change almost everything about a house except where it's located. A better location would help with resale and would make life easier in the long run.

Remodeling is a pain but it's a temporary pain. We did a whole house remodel (8 months where I had to live with my in-laws. Practically got divorced) and while it was a long, stressful and expensive process, it was well worth it in the end. We love our house, and we customized it for us so it has exactly what we wanted. Good Luck with your search.

[Geonz]

The logging trucks would be the deal killer for me, period... I'd want to know the fatality rate on the road...

[lph]

I wouldn't buy a fixer-upper unless I enjoyed fixing-upping. Or could pay someone to do it for me. I actually do enjoy it, I love finding out how to do new things, but it's not a hobby and I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time in the future having to fix things rather than go for a swim or go for a ride or sink into the couch with a cup of tea and the cat. I've built a porch once - lots of fun, am never going to do it again because we spent 5 times as long doing it as a carpenter would. I'm all for doing stuff that gives a lot of effect for your time and money, though, like painting. And I'm game for remodeling for a shorter period of time, say 3 months. After that it had better be 5 years until we need to do something drastic.

That said - I think most people are pretty good at adapting to what they get. And if it's a really hard choice, chances are you would be equally happy both places, otherwise it wouldn't be a hard choice. Personally I tend to overestimate what I have and have trouble imagining myself somewhere new. I'm feeling pretty sad about moving out of our rather tiny apartment now because I'm losing a view. But then I tell myself that our next place doesn't have to be the home of a lifetime, just somewhere that I'm reasonably sure that I can thrive for the next few years. The last place wasn't perfect and if I expect the next one to be I'd never find anywhere to live.

Good luck

[Wahine]

The logging trucks would be the deal killer for me, period... I'd want to know the fatality rate on the road...

In the 6 years that I've lived in the valley, I've not heard of a single fatality on the road. It's relatively a small town, so if something like that happened it would be big news.

[nuliajuk]

I'd avoid the one with the logging trucks, myself. However, the other one will be more expensive in the long run due to the renovation costs. On the other hand, it will keep it's value better because of having the bigger lot and not being on a busy road.
There will always be houses for sale. If neither one is quite what you had in mind, keep looking.

[smittykitty]

Love my beautiful house and yard. We've worked very hard to make it what is over the years. HATE THE NEIGHBORHOOD it has turned into over 30 years.

Will be hard if not impossible to sell and with poor return in this market/economy/community.

So for now, at least, we stay.

As previously stated: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. Can't change that one!

And yes, a vacation rental would be an option in beautiful Hood River. (I'd rent from you for a fall ride week-end!) My daughter found renting her house in Eugene through VRBO to be a LOT of work though. They were able to sell it this summer and she bought a nice, new purse with the proceeds

I'm by far no real estate expert, but I guess I would sit on this a bit. Interest rates aren't moving much. I think you'll know when its right.

[Wahine]

The thing about location, location, location is that both locations have advantages and disadvantages. In terms of making the best investment, I think they both weigh out pretty evenly on the location aspect.

While the house I live in is on a busy road, it's only a 5 min drive into down town for restaurants shopping etc, and it's rideable as well. You're only 1 mile from the most well known trail head for the Post Canyon trail system that isn't functional as the moment but will be again (about 6 months I would guess), and you're less than a mile from 2 wineries, one very well known, less than 3 miles from several with another very well known one in there. The traffic seems like a lot to me, but as my friends that came to visit last night said, it's manageable. To put things into perspective a bit, the property is well treed and has a creek that borders the back property line, so when you're sitting on the back deck, you can't hear the road for the creek sounds and you feel like you're in the woods.

The other house has more acreage and solitude, it's on a dead ending road, and it backs onto county forest so you can access the well known Post Canyon trail system from the property but not at a well know trail head. These are things that are highly desireable to me but that I'm not sure I should weight them so heavily in my decision.

[Wahine]

Right now I am planning to keep looking through the next few months just to see what else is around and what else crops up.

[lovelygamer]

Do you have children or plan to? the logging truck scenario scares the crap out of me when it comes to pets or children. God forbid one wander into the street. I mean it could happen on any street-but what are the survival chances when it's a logging truck. Did you ever see pet cemetery, the movie? Ugh. So sad. P.S. kids don't even need to wander in the street anymore to get hurt. My niece was hit by a car when she was nine...standing in the most corner part of her families yard on a road with little shoulder. Thankfully, she survived but she was in the hospital for days.

[Scrappy]

DH and I went through the home purchase process a year ago. We looked at 72 houses in our price range. It was always a compromise between perfect house and perfect location. One thing we noticed was that the houses on the busy streets were always on the market the longest. You can change the structure, but you cannot change the location.

We settled on a fixer-upper 65yr house that was perfectly livable at move in time, smack in the middle of a nice small neighborhood. Since moving in last August the value of our home has gone up a fair amount. We looked at another home in the same neighborhood facing the busy street (which I rejected for that reason) has not had nearly the increase in value even though it had more improvements done to the property/structure.

Scrappy

[tulip]

I bought my house specifically because of its proximity to my favorite cycling routes without having to drive. There's nothing wrong with considering the location from a riding perspective, since that is what we do. You will live there; if your only consideration is resale potential to the widest audience, you might find it lacking in some of your own requirements.