patrick.net

bob2356 says

LOL...I wasn't asking if americans call small homes in other countries "starter homes". I was asking if the people in other countries referred to small homes as STARTER HOMES.

Try reading the link names. .co.uk is uk .co.nz is nz .ca is canada. french-property.com is also uk which is why all the phone numbers are international code 44. Those pages ARE people in other countries.

I'm not quite convinced. Those articles seems to be written by/for and american audience. For example, from my experience in latin america, I've never heard the term starter home. It's just a house. You buy it and you add on to it when you need more room. Then you pass it along to your kids when you die. The term "starter home" implies that it's your first home and you aren't supposed to stay there. You aren't supposed to put down roots. You are supposed to flip it and move into a bigger pressboard and vinyl structure.
When you see a family that has lived in a house for several generations, does that mean that they failed in the pursuit of the DREAM of "moving on up"?
What was the need to use STARTER in the title?
"Young Adults Are Losing All Hope of Buying a Home" would work just fine.

IOW Calif has a case of sticky prices, that are kept up by investors, government manufactured shortage through regulations (think Santa Barbara), and the Fed.

But at some point reality is going to trump all of the above and prices are going to unstick, right quick. But at the very least they are not going to continue up for long or much.

komputodo says

Those articles seems to be written by/for and american audience. For example, from my experience in latin america, I've never heard the term starter home. It's just a house. You buy it and you add on to it when you need more room.

Well yes that is a key difference.

In the US it is often discouraged to add rooms, and particularly to delete them.

Part and parcel of our developer-driven throway economy also.

No kids? Buy a townhome.
Having kids? Time to kick that one to the curb and buy a McMansion.
Kids gone? Time to move to a planned retirement community.

Starter home: Dads and Mums give you the down payment and co-sign for the mortgage.

mmmarvel says

Heck, tell her to move to Houston, that $450K condo would be between $100K and $150K.

Move to detroit and they'll give you a house.

bob2356 says

Move to detroit and they'll give you a house.

I hear investment in Detroit is very strong.

Call it Crazy says

that $450K condo would be $175K here.

Unlike Ocean County, Orange County, and specifically Irvine actually has jobs....condos/townhomes in NJ closer to job centers/better school districts than 'Heroin High' cost more than 175K.

My mortgage in Decatur GA close to Emory is 1300/month.....my brother's rent in a new townhome in Highland Park, NJ(near Rutgers) is 2700/mo and a good bit smaller, to boot.

I will say though, even Atlanta is getting expensive....starting townhomes inside I-285 are around 400K

I didn't see anything on zillow in Highland Park, NJ for 175K

http://www.zillow.com/highland-park-nj/

virtually no homes in Edison for 175 K....anything decent will be bare minimum 320K

http://www.zillow.com/edison-nj/

You can find a 1b/1ba for 158K in Plainsboro....
http://www.trulia.com/for_sale/Plainsboro,NJ/TOWNHOUSE_type

Nothing below 350K in south brunswick
http://www.zillow.com/south-brunswick-nj/

Ahead of time, I ask you to forgive me for cherry-picking.....It's just that I think comparing similar places in terms of #of professionals, education levels of neighbors and quality of school districts matters.

Where are the 175K homes in NJ in a decent school district close to jobs? Please post links though, as opposed to claims of cherry-picking without any supporting evidence to the contrary.

Just for context
Heroin High is the nickname of Toms River High School North....the only semi-respectable high school in Ocean County, NJ
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=heroin+high

If anyone can show me that it is so much cheaper to live in a professional-predominant communities with good schools in New Jersey vs California....I am open to the evidence....but please post links to support your opinions.

Call it Crazy says

You're REALLY good at that

get to the point ......sometime this year would be great.....still waiting for the links.....

Call it Crazy says

Apples and Oranges seems to be a strong suit of yours, not to mention going off on tangents...

But hey, cherry pick and spin all you want...

Where are the 175 K houses....I'm still waiting for proof.....anytime this year would be great....

Where in New Jersey are there 175K condos....this year

Jackson, Point Pleasant Boro, Bayville, Manchester, all Ocean County, no less...... wow, loads of professionals there and good school districts to match.....but thanks for proving my point with your links. Even San Joaquin County, Riverside county and San Bernardino county are comparably priced on a per sq ft basis, if you want to live in a neighborhood of uneducated, non-professionals with mediocre schools. Once you figure in taxes, it's nearly equal.

I stand by my original comment that it (Ocean County)is not the best place to live for professionals with school age children. Nor does it represent New Jersey as a whole, which, like California, is unaffordable. House prices are cheaper slightly in NJ and slightly less per sq ft, but NJ makes up for it with the taxes.

Given the choice, if money was that much of an issue, the Texas idea, (Not including Austin) makes more sense.

Call it Crazy says

How many $45K jobs are available for graduates vs. how may $100K jobs are available?

Well, it depends if you're looking in Ocean County, NJ or Bay Area, CA.

Maybe some of these young adults are making 100%/yr with biotech stocks and don't care about buying a starter home. That party has been going on strong since 2009, but most likely will end by this summer.

Call it Crazy says

MMR says

I stand by my original comment that it (Ocean County)is not the best place to live for professionals with school age children.

If you would have paid attention, this is where the condo talk came from:

The reasons why Ocean county isn't the best place to live for professional types with school age children is because 1) Most of the people in Ocean county are not professional 2) Most of the schools suck.

Call it Crazy says

OK, lets talk affordable...

First, the $450K condo in Orange Cty, CA, run the numbers... with 20% down ($90K), mortgage would be $360K, which would require close to a $100K annual salary.

Plus, how many 23 year olds have $90K for a down payment?

Median income in Orange County is $75K

You could get a cheaper condo in Riverside or San Bernardino county, if you want to live 1-1.5 hrs away from the city center (LA) or have an hour commute to Orange county.
Whether you live 1 hr away from LA/OC or 1 hr away from NY, you will find cheaper rates either way.

Call it Crazy says

Now, in reality, how much is your average college graduate making in salary after graduation??

Sounds to me that people in their 20's have a hard time buying a house whether it is NJ or CA. Having been in and out of Ocean county for the last 21 years, I haven't seen too many homeowners in their early to mid 20's despite being affordable compared to much of the rest of the state, especially not anybody who went to college and has loans. Young people with 100K jobs, single or with young family aren't really sticking around Ocean county or coming to Ocean county from someplace else, for that matter.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/12/nj_young_adults_more_likely_to_live_at_home_less_likely_to_marry_than_rest_of_us.html

http://www.nj.com/morris/index.ssf/2014/12/morris_has_high_proportion_of_young_adults_living_with_parents.html

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/08/why-are-young-adults-living-with-their-parents-and-when-will-they-move-out/

http://www.kfbk.com/articles/california-news-489209/report-35-percent-of-young-california-13038493/

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/711-Waters-Edge-Dr-11BA-Toms-River-NJ-08753/2103691770_zpid/

Waters edge is a dump and has been as long as I can remember....home to low level criminals....yeah great place to raise a young family and hobnob with other professionals....Just a hop, skip and jump from Toms River East (shitty high school) and its continuation, Hooper High (Ocean County College)

http://patch.com/new-jersey/tomsriver/toms-river-man-arrested-in-home-invasion-robbery

http://patch.com/new-jersey/tomsriver/toms-river-police-coax-upset-man-home

MMR says

Heroin High is the nickname of Toms River High School North....the only semi-respectable high school in Ocean County, NJ

How bad is the heroin problem in Toms River and Brick? They rank only behind Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Camden, Atlantic City, and Elizabeth....Jackson and Lacey are 13th and 14th.....4 out 25 cities in NJ with the worst heroin problem are in Ocean County. These articles are just in the last year with several of them being less than 3 months

http://patch.com/new-jersey/tomsriver/25-towns-new-jersey-heroin-abuse-toms-river-seventh

http://patch.com/new-jersey/tomsriver/toms-river-most-heroin-overdose-deaths-ocean-county-2014

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/13/22292970-heroin-deaths-surge-at-the-jersey-shore?lite

http://www.app.com/story/news/local/ocean-county/2015/03/16/lakewood-bust-nets-guns-drugs/24867825/

http://www.nj.com/ocean/index.ssf/2015/03/toms_river_drug_raid_nets_4_arrests_heroin_and_cra.html

http://www.nj.com/ocean/index.ssf/2015/03/man_charged_with_heroin_overdose_death_in_brick.html

http://abc13.com/health/us-heroin-overdoses-shifting-to-young-white-midwestern/544094/

http://www.app.com/story/news/local/new-jersey/2014/12/05/admit-drug-trafficking-monmouth-ocean-counties/19938291/

http://www.app.com/story/news/crime/jersey-mayhem/2014/09/12/ocean-county-heroin/15519301/

http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-heroin-overdose-suburbs-20150308-story.html#page=1

The average home value in Toms River is 248,500....250K home in Toms River will be around 1800 sq ft and most likely needing work.

http://www.zillow.com/toms-river-nj/home-values/

If you go for something that costs 175K or less...it will probably need work, but more importantly, you will have shitty neighbors.....and worry about being robbed

Call it Crazy says

There are boatloads more, but I'll let you continue to spew your crap....

You could of done a real easy search on Zillow, but then the truth would have blown your narrative...

MMR is right your list sucks. Most of these are in area's that are right next to busy roads. NJ 24/7 3 lanes of non stop traffic busy roads. If you want you view to be the back of strip malls and hear traffic noise at all times then that's ok I guess. Try hotpads, it will let you see exactly what the prices are on a map.