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Affordable small housing - uh, okay


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2016 Jan 18, 10:07am   4,394 views  9 comments

by mmmarvel   ➕follow (1)   💰tip   ignore  

So yeah, up in Portland, Oregon they are building and selling homes that range from 450 - 500 square feet and cost ... an affordable $175,000, Granted you get an open floor plan, one bedroom, a full kitchen, a full bathroom, stained concrete floors, a storage loft, a vaulted ceiling, skylights, on-site parking, outdoor storage, and gardening space.

The eco-friendly homes feature radiant floor heating, Energy Star appliances (including a stackable washer and dryer), and soy-based foam insulation.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/136-NE-117th-Ave_Portland_OR_97220_M26602-70716

To me it sounds like an oversized garden shed - if THAT was all I could afford ... I'd move somewhere to where that kind of money actually bought a REAL house.

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1   Bellingham Bill   2016 Jan 18, 10:11am  

mmmarvel says

I'd move somewhere to where that kind of money actually bought a REAL house.

Location, location, location . . . location.

Where you live largely determines your quality of life, especially what kind of wage-work you can get.

Granted, if you can work remotely and/or have non-wage income, you have much more freedom finding a good life situation.

Good schools and non meth-head neighbors when you're out in the sticks are still an issue tho.

2   Bellingham Bill   2016 Jan 18, 10:17am  

In Tokyo I rented a 30m2 (300ft) "1K" -- single room plus small kitchen and bath -- for $800 to $1300 depending on the yen FX.

Fine for me then or as a love nest, not for raising a family.

3 story bldg, 4 rental units, owner on the ground floor.

I generally detest LLs but this guy was just sacrificing his living space and took out the loan to build the place, so he deserves to reap some of the location value as a return on his capital investment.

An alternate approach is just putting in massive housing blocks, but Japan is moving away from that I guess, now.

These ugly things near the station were put in in the 1960s when Tokyo had a bona-fide housing crisis. I think a middle-ground approach is better, less big-block stuff but more quality mfh 1,2,3 bedroom places.

3   Tenpoundbass   2016 Jan 18, 10:44am  

Why can't people just do what suits their fancy and leave the rest of us alone?
Because no self respecting moron would intentionally buy a garden shed for $175 grand unless there was serious movement to make everyone shamed into the same nonsense. Then those same Idiots wants to be first. These were the guys that paid $800 for the original iPhone. And still brings it up every time a new iPhone drops with a 99 cent trade in promotion.

There's no reason that modest affordable 1200 - 1750 sqft sf houses running $175K to $225K communities aren't being built in almost every city in America. Well there is a reason, that it is Policy from the TOP office in the land.

There has never been a time in post war American History that we weren't building affordable housing. It wasn't even called that back then it was just housing, and everyone knew who the President that at least gave a shit meant by that. All housing were affordable relatively. You had your starter home communities, then those same homes in communities with better amenities, then you had the bigger homes in gated communities.
There was a whole tier system of housing you could afford depending on your financial means. Now it's just a given that no house is affordable. Really? Come one, enough with the bullshit cut the CRAP!
Trump 2016 Make America great again!

Then when he gets in, he better or else!

4   Tenpoundbass   2016 Jan 18, 1:43pm  

The president simply doesn't say I want $150 Oil.

He says he'll give tax breaks for Green energy and create EPA legislaion that puts pressure on fossil fuels. He also ignores a crooked futures and commodities market.

I was here early last year telling you guys that we've only been using 1/3rd of the Gas and Oil we were using before 2007 or when it ever it went over $75 and stayed.
The world's Oil reserves have been running over, NOT because we're pumping more. Because in 20006 there was serious talk of peak Oil, which also served as permission for a highly manipulated market.
He also doesn't set RE prices, but then again can use his EPA might to make sure your small time cheap housing developers don't try to dig up a turttle habbitat and incroach on before hereto unknown turttles, unless they make a community for what the houses will sell for, they can pay the EPA their protection money. It's all to keep RE prices from cratering and giving Iwrong a heart attack you see?

5   Tenpoundbass   2016 Jan 18, 1:47pm  

And if the President of the United States is so feckless then you guys don't have nothing to worry about the inevitable winning of President Trump.

He's going to TRY to make America great again, but Barack Obama aint going let him.

It will be just like old time for you Clowns.

6   Tenpoundbass   2016 Jan 18, 1:56pm  

Well you guys said Obama wasn't getting anythign done because of George Bush.
Isn't that how it works?

What in the hell do all of these buttons do?

7   Booger   2016 Jan 18, 2:36pm  

$175K for a house that small sounds expensive to me.

8   mmmarvel   2016 Jan 19, 4:12am  

Booger says

$175K for a house that small sounds expensive to me.

And it is (hence the reason I posted it). However, as BB said, location, location, location. Idiots in CA would be more than happy to spend that on that small shack because they HAVE to live in CA. As BB also pointed out, there are apartments that are about the same size that rent for well over $1,000 a month. The mortgage on this shack would be about $750 a month, making it a bargain. But like I said in the posting, if they want that much for that crap shack, time to move somewhere that you could get a real house for that kind of money.

9   FNWGMOBDVZXDNW   2016 Jan 19, 8:12am  

Sounds perfect for young people without a lot of crap / furniture, especially if the hoa fees for that common / entertaining space are not really high. IDK what the land costs are, but $200/SF for building a small but well appointed place seems about normal in a city like Portland. Small places have higher costs / SF, b/c you still need to have all appliances, plumbing, etc. That leaves $90K for the lot, which also sounds like it's in the right ballpark.
At that price, though, I'd want higher ceilings and some bigger eves or something on the outside. It looks kind of ugly.

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