| We live in one of those dumpy areas, Patuxent Park. Are there some crappy looking homes? Of course there are. Just like any neighborhood. Just more. When we were shopping, we told the realtor we wanted to look at homes based on only the income from my job on the base. She was stunned that we did not want to borrow to the neck. Now, if spouse or I lost our job, we can still afford to live without worrying about money. We bought our house for 100K about 5 years ago. In those 5 years we spent 90K rehabing it.
I'm retired Navy with a job on base and spouse is a Special Ed teacher in the county also. We could have afforded to buy darn near anywhere in the county but choose a budget close to yours. We no longer wanted to be house poor to have an "acceptable" address to other people. We enjoy living in Pax Park. People walking to the store, lots of kids, some trouble makers of course and a short comute to work for spouse and I. Gas is going to be $4.00 per gallon soon. The area is multi-ethnic. We have had no issues during our living here.
The county has decided this area is worth saving and is attempting a general redo of the whole area. New sewers, water mains, sidewalks, curb and gutters and finally new streets are being installed. All of these capital improvements to the infrasture are only going to cause the value of the homes to hopefully go up in value.
Please don't take this wrong but, your budget is 220K. What do you expect for that around here? If your expecting a picture perfect "suburban" home with identical neighbors, it is not going to happen. Drive anywhere in the county and you'll see $400k homes next to ratty trailers with cardboard additions. Home prices are not in line with wages around here. So we can either live where we can responsibly afford to, get a second or third job (no chance) or move out of the county.
Bucket |