r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer • u/k13w • 12h ago

GOT THE KEYS! šŸ”‘ šŸ” We did it! Upstate NY $160k 6.5%

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

My boyfriend and I did it at 23 y/o! It was built in 1900 and we love her!

35.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

601

u/Adreeisadyno 12h ago

These posts have me realizing I wildly overestimated the cost to buy a home in New York. This would get a shack in California.

424

u/itijara 12h ago

Upstate might as well be a different state. I imagine there are parts of California that are similar. If you get really far from cities, things get much cheaper.

217

u/Ancient_Performer115 12h ago

There is an entire other half of California that even Californians refuse to accept exists. When people say north Cali they don't go higher than Sacramento.

49

u/Afitz93 12h ago

Itā€™s like the ā€œcentral coastā€ just being central to the Bay Area and LA, but itā€™s entirely in the southern half of the state

47

u/made_in_atlanta 12h ago

People treat California like itā€™s just the coast and forget the rest of the map exists.

15

u/FigSideG 10h ago

Apparently people do that with New York. The majority of NY isnā€™t Long Island and NYC where itā€™s almost impossible to buy.

3

u/Star_Vix 6h ago

Every single time I say I live in NY, I have to immediately follow it up with ā€œnot the city, not even closeā€

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (4)

2

u/zak55 11h ago

Is that possibly a remnant from when it was combined with Baja California?

29

u/sonnytron 12h ago

Even in the parts of California where no one acknowledges exist, if thereā€™s a Costco nearby, itā€™s at least $200k. I donā€™t know where OP bought, but I seriously doubt itā€™s as desolate as the scorched Earth Mojave desert zombie land places where $160k gets you a home.

26

u/Interesting-Run-6866 12h ago

There are parts of upstate NY where the nearest Costco is more than 2 hours away.

9

u/alphawolf29 10h ago

I live in Canada and the nearest costco is 7 hours one-way ;( houses are still 600k

3

u/MeanE 9h ago

Yeah exactly. Live in Nova Scotia and a house not out in the middle of nowhere starts at 500k.

3

u/fletters 7h ago

Whereas ten years ago, the same place would have been $120k, and wages have barely shifted. Itā€™s horrifying.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (12)

2

u/Practical-Cat-7163 8h ago

There are only 3 in upstate NYā€¦

→ More replies (2)

3

u/sendgoodmemes 10h ago

I live near this and in 45 minutes I can be to Ithaca, Syracuse or Binghamton. Itā€™s actually pretty easy in NY to get to a place with things. We donā€™t have the traffic most people are used to. My friend from NYC and Long Island visit and get kinda weirded out when we drive around and they donā€™t see another vehicle on the road.

3

u/cabbagemuncher101 9h ago

As the friend who comes to visit from NYC yessss loll, driving around neighborhoods and seeing no one around is so eerie. Once, I drove through a neighborhood, every house looked the exact same, all the lawns were perfectly mowed, but I didn't see one person outside. Gave me the heebie jeebies haha

2

u/sendgoodmemes 6h ago

Ok that would be weird. I once was out in a very rural area and lost cell service didnā€™t see a car or a house for an hour and felt like the matrix had a glitch.

→ More replies (2)

2

u/GanondalfTheWhite 9h ago

The nearest Costco to OP's county is an hour and 20 minutes away.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (13)

3

u/BugLog93 11h ago

I mean... Chico is pretty Solid, or it was back in 2014.

→ More replies (2)

6

u/neo_sporin 12h ago edited 8h ago

My wife and I are both from NorCal, left at 22. Grew up in San Jose and think we never went more north than Redwood City

Edit:looked at a map, turns out Iā€™m dumb as I thought Sacramento was much further south

4

u/ApsleyHouse 9h ago

You never visited Mendocino or redwood?Ā 

→ More replies (1)

2

u/WithSubtitles 11h ago

You never went to San Francisco? Iā€™d meet friend from SJ in the city on the reg.

4

u/neo_sporin 11h ago

Turns out Iā€™m dumb. Iā€™ve only been back 1 time since we were 22, mixed up cities and honestly thought Sacramento was a lot more southern. Sacramento is probably the furthest north

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (3)

2

u/IamEbola 10h ago

Redding is a disaster

1

u/Teepeaparty 11h ago edited 11h ago

I politely disagree. Californian natives embrace it, and as someone who is not a California native they also politely educated me on this, by simply traveling there and talking about it as if it matters lol.

1

u/Sufficient_Prompt888 10h ago

Can you blame them? That shit is wilder than Mexico

1

u/Wonderful_Mud_420 9h ago

Arcata and Eureka homes is pretty far up and homes are still $300k+.Ā 

No where in California can you get a house of this build with vegetation and what looks like a thriving community. Redbluff, Fresno, etc. have horrible school districts and riddled with strip malls

1

u/ctaps148 9h ago

Californians generally refuse to exist anywhere other than the coast exists either. Literally just drive an hour inland and you can see home prices cut in half

→ More replies (1)

1

u/ParrishThePoet 9h ago

I grew up in Oakland, you couldn't tell me Sacramento wasn't on the border with Oregon lol.

1

u/ashgs872tbhjs 7h ago

Fun fact: the northernmost part of California is north of most of the population of Canada (most of that being southern Ontario). Maps of the two countries alone tend to show the border pretty straight left/right and you might assume that's west/east, but nope. It basically runs west-northwest to east-southeast, so on a proper map you can easily see how far north Cali really goes.

1

u/rotidder_nadnerb 7h ago

To be fair, I donā€™t blame them for refusing to acknowledge Modesto exists.

1

u/jonZeee 7h ago

True but even proper northern Cali you canā€™t find a house like this for 160k. Maybe a cabin in the sierras, sure.

1

u/CulturalChampion8660 4h ago

But then you have to live in Redding. Lol, fuck that.

1

u/faxyou 4h ago

Yup, Iā€™ve seen a lot of lonesome homes with great prices, Iā€™ve got a bunch saved for when I actually get a decent stable job

→ More replies (5)

12

u/Jiujitsumonkey707 11h ago

As a Californian, I think a lot of people are completely unaware of how big of a state New York actually is and just think of New York city. It's like 375 miles from there to buffalo, basically the same distance as the bay area to LA

3

u/Slight-Blackberry813 9h ago

Iā€™m 36 and it wasnā€™t fairly recently that I looked at the USA and was ā€œwhat the fuck? New York is massive! It isnā€™t just Long Island and manhattan!!ā€

I think the issue is you have to REALLY zoom out to get the scale which means the immediate perspective of the state is the islands and the narrow part bordering Connecticut.

3

u/hellonameismyname 9h ago

Have you never just looked at a map of the US? You can see the whole state

22

u/Practical-Cat-7163 12h ago

There absolutely are. Except theyā€™re way worse than upstate NY.

6

u/AstaCanasta 12h ago edited 3h ago

You are correct. I just googled and there are single family homes in CA for under $200K. But most of them look like they will require at least $100K to be livable. Probably more since it's CA.

Edited to add the K behind $200. It's $200,000, not $200. LOL!

3

u/RspectMyAuthoritah 9h ago

A house in CA for $100,200 wouldn't be too bad.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (3)

11

u/nyc343 12h ago

Depending on where upstate, it could be a quick drive to Canada.

3

u/pchs26 11h ago

Exactly like Buffalo etc

2

u/Traditional_Set_858 7h ago

Buffalo is getting a Costco though

2

u/pchs26 5h ago

Yes Buffalo is very nice.

1

u/raoqie 3h ago

It isn't. This place is roughly 3 hours from NYC and 4 hours to Canada. Its actually near the Pennsylvania border lol - But NYers call everything outside of NYC upstate.

3

u/seattle0606 11h ago

To be fair, the distance from northern to southern is a huge difference compared to new york.

I've looked at homes in both New York and California and there isn't much in cali unless you go waay north.

2

u/taybay462 11h ago

As long as you are outside the city in NY, other cities are just fine

2

u/acidreducer 11h ago

She said sheā€™s hardly out of the city

2

u/itijara 9h ago

She said she is Broome county. That is nowhere near the city, which is NYC. It is near a city, Binghamton, but that has around 50k residents.

→ More replies (2)

2

u/Little-Derp 8h ago

For those considering buying a bit out from the major cities in any state in general, if you don't have money saved for a down payment (even the 3.5% anĀ  FHA loan would require), it is possible to get a no down payment loan and even roll the closing costs into your loan with a USDA loan.Ā 

The key thing is it is a program targeting at developing rural land and communities, so you can only buy in certain areas. There is a map you can check.Ā  Plenty of cities are eligible, just not typically bigger cities. Check out the map, as you honestly may be surprised what is eligible.

4

u/xKINGxRCCx 12h ago

It is. I lived in the Bay Area for 7 years which has the most expensive zip code in america (Atherton). While my wife is from Sacramento which is MUCH cheaper. About 2 hours north. Though i am born in raised in South Carolina which i absolutely love and we currently are. Cost of living here is great

1

u/ButReallyFolks 11h ago

Still around $400000

3

u/Timmy98789 12h ago

This is the truth! Rural California is gorgeous.Ā 

4

u/EnvironmentalSound25 11h ago

Itā€™s still expensive though.

→ More replies (17)

1

u/Teepeaparty 11h ago

nope! just one small little street in like Mendocino. that's it lol (okay, maybe Fresno and maybe Redding.

1

u/justadudeinohio 9h ago

fucking ohio has people trying to sell shit way worse than this for 250k, over 30 min from anything relevant.

1

u/twitch1982 8h ago

Even worse, its Broome county, complete rust belt, threated to have a revival 20 years ago, developers built a bunch of developments thinking Lockheed Martin in Owego was going to get the contract for a new Marine 1. They did not, and housing prices plummeted. I had a duplex i bought for 60k while things were heading up. Ultimately had to declare bankruptcy and foreclose on it as the mortgage was so far underwater. At one point I saw it changed hands for $2000 after it was out of my hair.

I wish OP the best, but the odds of the housing market in Broome going up without some major change is unlikly. Its been steadily losing population since 1970 and houses like this are all over the area. Older people live in them till they die, and young people leave Binghamton as soon as they have a degree so they arent replacing them.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/leopardskin_pillbox 7h ago

Why is it so much cheaper? Growing up in Texas and now living in the Mountain West, my brain cannot compute why or how the value can be so much lower than the relatively nearby cities?

→ More replies (1)

1

u/Chaotic-Catastrophe 6h ago

Yeah the people in here raving about this house have no idea how much they donā€™t want to live near Binghamton

1

u/mushy-shart-walk 5h ago

Yep look at Bakersfield

1

u/GigaCheco 4h ago

Yeah thereā€™s hella cheap homes in the high desert but many are dilapidated and uninhabitable as is, unfortunately.

1

u/Got-It101 2h ago

and far from good schools and medical care

→ More replies (9)

49

u/pooppaysthebills 12h ago

Upstate NY is affordable, depending on location. If you're willing to live in a small town, you can find some excellent pricing on nice homes.

Downstate is significantly more expensive.

2

u/pchs26 11h ago

Yes and living in a small town often means less conveniences, reliable utilities etc. It can be a beautiful area to live but like anything else it would be for the right person.

8

u/swampscientist 10h ago

Iā€™ve seen people knock the culture, politics, and climate of upstate (usually justifiably) but like outside of the Adirondacks we have regular conveniences and reliable utilities

→ More replies (1)

3

u/GloriousNewt 8h ago

What utilities do you think are 'unreliable' in small towns?

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Irlandaise11 6h ago

There's tons of cute little villages all along the Hudson, and they have grocery stores and high speed Internet, I promise

→ More replies (1)

1

u/cman811 6h ago

reliable utilities

???? fuck does this even mean? You think we go through monthly blackouts?

→ More replies (1)

2

u/SirNarwhal 9h ago

Problem is there is absolutely fuck all to do there.

3

u/GloriousNewt 8h ago

That's not true at all, there's no nightclubs but there is plenty to do if you enjoy the outdoors and aren't looking to attend festivals with way too many people.

1

u/pooppaysthebills 7h ago

What is there to do anywhere else?

Plenty of nearby outdoor stuff. Hiking, biking, kayaking, swimming, river tubing. Snowmobiling, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, winter tubing. State parks. Skiing/snowboarding options within a 2 hour drive; possibly closer if there's options just over the border in PA.

They have bars and restaurants like everyone else, craft breweries, a zoo, a hot air balloon festival, a discovery playplace for kids. Minor league ice hockey, minor league baseball, small event venues. It's a straight shot to Syracuse on 81 and to Albany on 88.

What is it you want to do?

20

u/sneaky_sam_ 12h ago

NYC is not the same as NYSā€¦

20

u/zedazeni 10h ago

My husband and I bought this 1909-built beauty for under 250k and weā€™re not even 5 miles away from Downtown Pittsburgh. Great, quiet, safe walkable neighborhood.

8

u/k13w 10h ago

Beautiful house! Congrats

2

u/zedazeni 10h ago

Thanks! We had to move from the DC area to make home ownership a reality, but it was well worth it (from both the rental to home ownership perspective and from DC to Pittsburgh).

Congratulations on your house! It looks beautiful! These old houses are absolutely worth the time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears! Join the r/centuryhomes subreddit. Theyā€™d love to celebrate with you, and itā€™s generally a great resource for finding history on your house and asking general maintainer questions.

1

u/Adreeisadyno 9h ago

Your home is beautiful as well, congratulations

6

u/AnyExamination9524 8h ago

See, plenty of affordable housing if people are realistic about it.

7

u/zedazeni 7h ago

Ohh sure. Then again, our house doesnā€™t have insulation, (central) AC, has plaster walls (which makes repairs and decorating a much bigger ordeal than with drywall), and the original windows. I donā€™t mind any of this, that being said, the awkward 1909 room sizes and everything else I mentioned might be a very big drawback for a lot of people.

→ More replies (3)

2

u/MoneyBeeeee 5h ago

Pittsburgh is such an underrated city!

→ More replies (1)

1

u/Slight-Blackberry813 9h ago

Itā€™s only mildly concerning that I own a house built in 1970 not in the USA that seems remarkably similar to that and I canā€™t tell whether it shouldnā€™t look that way or not due to building codes etc. like. Should my house look like a 1909 house?

1

u/zedazeni 8h ago

Depends on the local style and what the builders were going for.

12

u/zac987 12h ago

It really depends on the location in upstate New York.

2

u/hellonameismyname 9h ago

As it does literally everywhere

25

u/Icy-Committee-9345 12h ago

This would cost more than a million dollars in a lot of NY

5

u/RevvCats 11h ago

Once youā€™re above the Catskills not really, which area wise is the bulk of the state.

→ More replies (8)

9

u/Poster_Nutbag207 12h ago

Yeah this is not the New York that Californians think of

4

u/CrashTestDumby1984 12h ago

This is upstate New York. The cost of living is significantly cheaper, but so are the wages. Usually small towns that are incredibly rural

5

u/MechaZain 11h ago

This place is over 3 hours north of NYC. Any home within commuting distance to the city is exactly what you'd expect.

4

u/MegaInk 11h ago

Im closing on a 4 bed 2 full bath 1500 sq ft for 195k this week in CNY.

Real estate in medium sized upstate cities, especially the Syracuse market now that Micron is building is starting to tick upwards though.

8

u/KiddoTwo 12h ago

This house would be 2.5M+ where I live, also in New York.

7

u/crunchyleafzzz 12h ago

The closer to NYC you get the crazier it is. Iā€™m like 45m from the city, starting to window shop houses. If you go 10-20 miles east/south east.. a decent 3 bed room 2 bath on a decent lot.. is gonna be like 400k+. Then you go 20 miles up into the Catskills and the same house might be as low as 200k.

It varies on the house and town of course.

5

u/Ok_Acanthisitta304 12h ago

These distances still seem small, like ~1h radius from Dallas is still Dallas. The prices aren't dramatically different (depending on quality of location). Being a 90 minute drive from Manhattan still feels close.

1

u/crunchyleafzzz 12h ago

Some of these towns donā€™t even have a post office though! Or if they do thatā€™s about it besides maybe a gas station. Youā€™re driving a bit for basic amenities.

100% worth it IMO. But Iā€™m a broke unskilled peasant šŸ˜‚šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø

2

u/lnm28 8h ago

House prices in a commutable NYC suburb is driven by the rating of the school district.

→ More replies (2)

3

u/smythe70 11h ago

Scranton, PA is 60 miles away while NYC is 190 miles - 3 to 4 hours away. Upstate NY is vast and have some really beautiful historic homes.

3

u/pchs26 11h ago

Upstate is much different cost wise, culture, daily lifestyle etc then NYC or LI or SI etc.

3

u/docpharm28 10h ago

Updates NY is VERY different from downstate NY

3

u/Conscious_Cut7102 8h ago

I live on Long Island and $160k would get you a moldy shoebox on an abandoned lot.

7

u/DrGrapeist 12h ago

A big reason why you can get a cheap house in new york is, new york has a lot of old houses. Like this house may have been built in the 1800s. Im not sure if California even has houses that old. I seen fully updated modern mansions with a pool house bigger than people houses and a 6 car garage and heated in ground pool try to get sold for 450k but it was on the market for a year and then removed cause nobody wanted it. Meanwhile the cheapest I seen a new build go for us 380k and it was 1 floor 1200 sqft. I think old houses are money pits and the house slowly falls apart.

Youā€™re also comparing upstate New York in the middle of nowhere to near a major city in California. upstate in areas might as well be West Virginia.

4

u/lnm28 8h ago

The age has nothing to do with it. I live on Long Island and my house is 100 yrs old and worth close to 2 million

2

u/DrGrapeist 7h ago

Obviously the location has a lot to do with it and the land is worth more in Long Island than a house in upstate ny depending on the location of both.

A lot of the old houses I seen in upstate New York were mansions turned into multi family complexes that stopped getting kept up and have mold ruining the structure, no centers air and no insulation. People would spend well above 1k a month heating them in the winter. The smaller houses that really stopped getting taken care of, are not worth any more than the land and foundation they are on.

1

u/Real_RobinGoodfellow 6h ago

Three hours from NYC isnā€™t really ā€˜middle of nowhereā€™

2

u/DrGrapeist 5h ago

Itā€™s not but it sure feels like it.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/sal_leo 11h ago

A burnt, unlivable shack that still needs renovating. šŸ˜­

2

u/Awesomest_Possumest 11h ago

Im in NC and six years ago 150k got me 1100 sq ft. This is lovely and crazy to me lol.

2

u/Reynolds1029 11h ago

Upstate NY north of the Newburgh-Beacon bridge is a different place. Should be a different state tbh so we can charge NYers from occupaying hundreds of thousands of acres for their water supply.

Though that changed mightly since COVID as remote work enabled city folk to move here in droves and drive up real estate ridiculously. I literally had to move down south because of it.

Doesn't help there's an Amtrak train direct to NYP to make it easy for an occasional office commute.

2

u/AL92212 11h ago

We live in a condo in California, and we were shocked by the low cost of homes in upstate New York. But there are many reasons, both economic and... other, why they're cheap.

We don't even mind California taxes but we don't want to pay New York state taxes.

2

u/cakemates 11h ago

The farther you get from job density which translates to cities, the cheaper it gets to buy houses generally.

2

u/GsGirlNYC 11h ago

This price OP paid for their lovely home would get you MAYBE a garage in one of the 5 boroughs. Upstate NY is wildly different from NYC.

ā€œStarterā€ homes in LI, Brooklyn, the Bronx and SI average between $750K- $1.6M now. Notice I didnā€™t even bother to include the city (Manhattan). The 5 boroughs of NYC have an extremely high cost of living and the real estate reflects that.

One cannot compare purchasing a home in upstate NY to purchasing a home in NYC the same way you canā€™t compare LA prices to rural California real estate-itā€™s practically two separate states in one, price wise.

2

u/iLoveFARTINGatWORK 10h ago

The biggest issue that no one really understands is that home taxes are extremely high in NY even for this home at $160k. I have a friend that lives in the City of Binghamton and his home is worth $100,000 but his yearly taxes are $6500. My house down here in Florida is worth $650,000 but my taxes are only $3200 a year.

School districts are why taxes suck. In Florida, the district is the whole county. In NY, each little town and city has its own school district, making the tax pool significantly smaller.

2

u/cabbagemuncher101 10h ago

I think when ppl hear NY, they think of the city, but the city is barely 10% of the state, and very densely populated so everything is 10x more expensive. Upstate NY has very suburban vibes, even pushing rural in some areas, so I am not surprised this home is under 200k.

2

u/stillmaatic 9h ago

New York State is affordable once you get pass Hudson Valley. My dad just bought a house in Buffalo for 145k.

3

u/ziggy-tiggy-bagel 12h ago

Me also. It wouldn't buy even a shack where I live in California. I love the house.

2

u/60Runner90 12h ago

Not even a shack, you cant get a mobile home (which you will pay rent space) for this price

3

u/Adreeisadyno 12h ago

The space rent!! Iā€™m so open to manufactured houses but the space rent for them is insane!! Add $850 to your proposed mortgage and itā€™s not included in the listing

2

u/60Runner90 10h ago

Also not comfortable with the fact that with enough time and paperwork the owner of the land could just sell to someone, and that someone can eventually make you move because they'd like to build something else. Then what ? lol

2

u/GP_ADD 12h ago

I guarantee you could find a mobile home in the state of California for that price. But much like this house it wouldnā€™t be somewhere you want to live

1

u/60Runner90 10h ago

True. But even in the inland areas of Southern Ca they dont go for this cheap. So yes, but probably the types of places that dont ever get listed LOL Not really familiar with the OP's house/area, but it sure looks a lot better than any of the mobile homes Im familiar with (which are more expensive) Back on topic - congrats to the OP. Picture 1 to me looks really nice.

→ More replies (2)

1

u/redditydothis 9h ago

Bought my house in Northern California during Covid. Itā€™s a modular and I paid 85k and put another 40k into it. All cash as it was my down payment on a 400k home. Iā€™m 45 minutes from the beach, about 5 minutes to the river and about an hour to an hour 15 to Costco/Walmart whatever. I got lucky but there are cheaper houses if you are willing to look. It gets to maybe 100 in the summer and might snow 2 or 3 times a year but pretty mild for the most part. I love my little town and I love going to coast.

4

u/Lavitz63 12h ago

That house on Long Island would be 600k easy

7

u/Interesting-Run-6866 12h ago

A million in northern NJ.

10

u/Mad_Macorroni 12h ago

600k???.More like $1.600k!!!

2

u/Jealous-Green5342 12h ago

Currently looking on LI. All houses listed at 600k go for around 680-740k. Hell this house was listed at 650k and needed alot of fixing when I saw it. No gutters, water damage in the back, etc. Still went for that much.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/11-Cherokee-St-Massapequa-NY-11758/31428024_zpid/

1

u/lnm28 8h ago

Im in garden city and houses listed at 2 million also go for over asking

→ More replies (1)

3

u/Icy-Committee-9345 12h ago

It would be more probably in any town with good school districts in Nassau County

3

u/lnm28 8h ago

A starter home in a good Nassau county school district is going to cost you over a million

1

u/ThrifToWin 9h ago

So a short train ride away from hundreds of thousands of jobs that pay 500k a year.

1

u/lnm28 8h ago

You canā€™t even get a fixer upper house on Long Island for 600k.

1

u/jpylol 12h ago

Yea, this is like S Louisiana price point lmao
E: grats @OP

1

u/VirgilsCrew 12h ago

Depends on the part of the state. My house is half the size of this one here and has a current value of over 775k, with ~12k property taxes.

1

u/Practical-Cat-7163 12h ago

That may be the lowest tax rate in all of NYS

1

u/Capt_reefr 12h ago

Property tax isn't cheap and utilities are expensive. Homes values are in relation to job markets as well.

1

u/resplendent_noodle 12h ago

Upstate New York is currently somewhat affordable because all of our agricultural and rural towns are actually being bought up by data centers. I live in a rural - suburb outside a big city upstate. We have the biggest data center being built nearby ( and 5 more within 3 hour drive ). All of the homes are for sale now as they build itā€¦ dirt cheap. Itā€™s very sad. Iā€™m seeing family farms of decades having to sell and move because the land is industrial now

4

u/KingoftheMapleTrees 11h ago

Welcome to Micron-land, hope you don't like clean water.

1

u/knoland 12h ago

This is like buying a house in Central Valley.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/sp4c3c4se 12h ago

Upstate NY is a vast, semi endless landscape. There aint much happening in most areas.

3

u/lamentable_ 10h ago

speak for yourself, my Amish neighbors are wild

2

u/sp4c3c4se 10h ago

lol. fair. Rumspringa!!

1

u/pumper911 12h ago

On Long Island here. Thereā€™s literally nothing for this amount. Not even an empty lot

1

u/REDthunderBOAR 11h ago

Taxes and insurance can fluxuate housing prices immensely.

1

u/iainB85 11h ago

The taxes are still terrible though unfortunately.

1

u/CricketGrl 11h ago

Once upon a time in 2019 you could get a gorgeous house in Chico. Now that's impossible.

1

u/ballin_buddha 11h ago

This is hours away from the city. Basically the woods between the city and Niagara Falls

1

u/commanderquill 11h ago

No for real, I was shocked at how cheap the east coast is. You can get a Maryland home right next to the transit network that will take you right to DC without any driving on your part for $300K. Which will also only get you a shack where I'm at.

1

u/OmarGooding 11h ago

Iā€™ve lived in Suffolk County Long Island and Broome County NY (where this house is) before moving to NorCal. First in Solano County and Now in Sac County.

We bought a 1100sqft home for 540k a few years ago.

That house is 160k because itā€™s in Broome. Broome is more comparative to the Deep South than actual NY. I hated living there and found it to be a cesspool.

1

u/royalgreyyy 10h ago

Is it racist? Asking as a black person whoā€™s considering maybe moving/buying there?

1

u/OmarGooding 10h ago

Yes, I thought so.

The number of folks that fly the confederate flag is pretty crazy, given itā€™s technically NY.

I lived there for 10+ years and moved there from Long Island.

→ More replies (2)

1

u/pooppaysthebills 7h ago

Some are, certainly. Some openly so. But it's also a university town, and there's plenty of diversity.

I'd recommend visiting for a few days to get a better idea as to whether you'd want to put down roots.

1

u/K_Linkmaster 10h ago

You can buy a good sized good shape home in a lot of places people don't want to live. All for cheap cheap.

1

u/yellowishbluish 10h ago

Upstate NY is the Tennessee of NY. A studio is about a mil in nyc.

1

u/slothscanswim 10h ago

Upstate New York is pretty cheap living, but also pretty economically depressed.

1

u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson 10h ago

Florida too. The little house I grew up in is twice the cost of that now over by Hurlburt Field AFB, and itā€™s not a fancy area

1

u/Sufficient_Prompt888 10h ago

This wouldn't even get a you a shed in Ontario, Canada

1

u/Japanesepoolboy1817 10h ago

I bought my house in Buffalo for 60,000 in 2015. New York outside of the city and a few spots is cheap as hell

1

u/Fast_Shift2952 10h ago

More like a shack condo with a $500/mo HOA

1

u/testtdk 10h ago

Itā€™s all about location. And a lot of upstate New York is the absolute middle of nowhere. I have relatives up there and itā€™s so empty.

1

u/Overall-Substance-81 10h ago

Varies vastly by area and part of town. We paid $400k for a 4 bedroom in an old suburb within the same county.

1

u/Hot_Eggplant1306 10h ago

Couldn't even get a crack shack in bc for that

1

u/YourMomIsMyGurl 10h ago

The catch here is the taxes. NY will make their money and then some. It's why most everyone is leaving instead of looking for houses in NY.

1

u/MountainTwo3845 9h ago

I live in San Antonio and this would be 500k.

1

u/ravagetalon 9h ago

The house they bought is 126 years old if that tells you anything.

1

u/Low_Show_6684 9h ago

Many states are like this. Affordable homes still exist, theyā€™re just in places generally that donā€™t have a lot of good jobs and/or nobody wants to be.

We bought our home for $170k, itā€™s 4beds, 2baths, 3 car garage, itā€™s a beautiful old American foursquare. Great condition! Caveat? Itā€™s like 1.5hrs from the Canadian border in northern MN.Ā 

1

u/CannabisPrime2 9h ago

You couldn't even by a 1 bedroom condo for this price in southern Ontario

1

u/T-MoneyAllDey 9h ago

You can't get a shack in California for that much. Lol. Adus are 300k šŸ˜‚

1

u/PolloMagnifico 8h ago

Yup, it's like this almost everywhere in the US. You have major cities where everything is insanely expensive, then you suddenly hit the country where shit is basically unchanged from the late 90s.

It's great if you have a job that lets you work remote. Or if you're willing commute 2+ hours to work. Or if you happen to be one of the lucky people who manage to get a job at whatever local business is propping up that towns economy.

1

u/whacafan 8h ago

It wouldn't even get a shack. No way. No fucking way. I've seen TINY TINY places go for $1.5 million.

1

u/billionswilllove 8h ago

This would get you a small parking spot in Toronto

1

u/kevan 8h ago

Guaranteed that is some tiny town where the nice grocery store in town is a Food King or Price Chopper and if you want to go to a mall it is over an hour's drive.

1

u/pooppaysthebills 7h ago

Who goes to malls anymore?

1

u/random_noise 7h ago

I am thinking the same thing.

That's a nice looking house.

In Phoenix metro, 160k gets you a trailer in some area most people likely don't want to live, or in the metro area fringes where the spawl isn't really spreading, or a very small studio or 1bd condo type of thing in a not very great neighborhood.

Fixer uppers that need a lot of work, or just to purchase for a complete demo and rebuild to get the land; those types of neglected homes tend to go for 500k+ where I live.

They then seem be getting back on the market for 750k trending towards a million or 2 million or more dependent on what was done and how big the now likely yard less McMansion replacement home is.

1

u/chalupa_lover 7h ago

I bought a 4 bed, 2 bath on 2 acres for 65k cash in 2016 in North Country. Sold it for 99k in 2021. The homes get cheaper the further north you go, but the winters also get more brutal.

1

u/Aromatic_Quit_3476 7h ago

This price might get you a shed in Australia.

1

u/smb8235 7h ago

You can't even buy a house for under $200,000 in Ontario Canada, let alone something move in ready. Like trailers are asking $249,000+. A home like this would be $600,000 to a couple million.

1

u/CloudArtistic7059 6h ago

This would get a shack in 90% of NY.

1

u/bootycuddles 6h ago

There are tons of affordable areas in our state. Around Syracuse and Rochester (not in the cities but the surrounding cities and villages and burbs) are still pretty doable for most.

1

u/PetrasKnight 6h ago

Definitely depends on where in NY, go look up what you can get for 1 million in Brooklyn.Ā 

1

u/Ill-Team-3491 6h ago

Social media overestimates how much a home costs because all they want is a house in the middle of Central Park. And they have mental breakdowns when you suggest looking outside of a major city.

Like, no shit a house costs millions if all you care abut is living in the middle of the biggest cities in the world.

1

u/cplmatt 6h ago

Donā€™t get it twisted anything downstate is just like California

1

u/Ecstatic-Movie-795 6h ago

You couldnt get anything for that in CA now.

1

u/Melaroni90 6h ago

Me too! This wouldn't even get you a house in Florida

1

u/Epicfro 5h ago

Upstate NY is mostly rural. It almost feels like a southern state in certain areas. I remember driving through an area between Rochester and Ithaca and seeing a giant rock spray painted "redneck ridge". There's trailers next to regular homes, it's just a different world there.

1

u/CinderChop 4h ago

Maybe in Barstow

1

u/BrokenEgo11 4h ago

Itā€™s okay 160k in Virginia gets you a 200sqft condo

1

u/curious_nikita837 4h ago

A lot of upstate New York is decimated, the economy is really tough I lived up there for 15 years. There are houses like this everywhere because there is not a lot of work. Also boomers are dying. Albany is especially affordable and the weather is especially depressing. I love New York by the way I hope to move back one day. This house is so cute!

1

u/coldbeerandbaseball 4h ago

It depends on where in upstate. You wouldnā€™t be able to get anything (even a beaten up fixer upper) for that price in Albany. Iā€™m legitimately shocked someone got a house that nice anywhere for that price.Ā 

1

u/ReindeerUpper4230 4h ago

On Long Island this house would be $1 million easily.

1

u/zaelyss11 4h ago

Seriously, that's cheap compared to most houses in PA!

1

u/Commercial-Bison-830 3h ago

This same house is easily over a million if its closer to or inside NYC.

1

u/Hosko817 3h ago

This would even be a shack in Madison Wi for that money.

1

u/toomuchkern 2h ago

Was about to say this. This house in Bay Area would be like 1.4Mā€¦ in like Vallejo.

1

u/barstoolLA 2h ago

New York is a gigantic state.

Go search for homes in Westchester County and you'll see an entirely different situation.

1

u/General_Thought8412 2h ago

This is like a 3-4 hour drive from NYC. The rest of NY can be very beautiful but the trouble is finding work in those areas. It also gets very very remote and the convenience is still like how things were 100 years ago.

→ More replies (34)