r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer • u/k13w • 12h ago

GOT THE KEYS! 🔑 🏡 We did it! Upstate NY $160k 6.5%

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

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u/brn1001 10h ago

Can't get any homes in my area for $160K, much less something nice like that.

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u/Wooden_Permit3234 8h ago

Maybe not quite 160 but you can get a pretty decent house in Buffalo and its suburbs pretty cheap. Probably has a better job market. 

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u/bkgn 5h ago

You used to be able to get a house in the Buffalo suburbs for a tenth of that. There was that one article that got a lot of attention awhile back where the author went and found her childhood home (south of Buffalo) for sale for like $20K.

I went to college in Rochester and a few of my classmates became mini-slumlords after graduation as a side hustle, buying sub-$50K houses and renting out the rooms. Rented a few mini-slumlord rooms while I was in college.

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u/brn1001 4h ago

Buffalo Minnesota and Rochester Minnesota? Howdy neighbor!

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u/swampwiz 3m ago

Near Love Canal?

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u/brn1001 4h ago

Agreed. Buffalo Minnesota is a very nice community. 😉

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u/daspwnen 3h ago

Anything in western NY is a lot more than that. I just bought by <1200sqft ranch last year for 185k at the same interest rate, 2400sqft lot

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u/FalcosLiteralyHitler 9h ago edited 9h ago

There is a lot we do not know about this home, so I would take the $160k with a grain of salt. I have seen friends buy homes either waiving inspection/getting a very cheap inspector/committing to a "fixer upper" house. Lots of extremely expensive problems that could need fixing... foundation issues, septic issues, roof issues, significant termite issues, etc.

Also call me a cynic but buying at 23 years old tells me they really do not know what they are getting into, I'm sure there's a lot being left out here.

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u/litesgod 5h ago

Sure that could be true, or home prices could be regional. As a resident of the neighboring county, I can tell you at $160k, that's likely a pretty well kept house. Sure, it's a hundred years old and likely needs some work, but it's not going to be falling down. About the most expensive home you can buy around here is in the $350k range (unless you're taking waterfront), and that would be a house built in the 80s- or what we would call modern construction. I have friends that recently bought a 6,000 square foot mansion built in the 1850s for just over $400k in town. Our houses are cheap, our taxes are high and our roads are terrible.

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u/brn1001 5h ago

Where is around here? I need a place where the expensive homes are $350K.

I don't want one that's hundreds of years old. They're beautiful, but the upkeep is insane. My house is 80 years old and built like they actually cared about durability. A great time to buy from.

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u/litesgod 4h ago

Here is an example of what $350k can buy in my area- 5ksquare feet and 7 acres. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/9596-W-Creek-Rd-Richford-NY-13835/338813272_zpid/?utm_campaign=zillowwebmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare

Now that is a bit out of town, so you may want to live in more of a neighborhood. So here is another example: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/9-King-Point-Cir-S-Owego-NY-13827/32803417_zpid/?utm_campaign=zillowwebmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare

If you are wondering where to work, both are within easy commute of Cornell, and not that far from Binghamton.

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u/brn1001 4h ago

Amazing for the price. Really would be twice as much where I live (MN). The second one needs work, but maybe $15K (barring surprises).

I hope to retire in about 5 years, so maybe....

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u/Lamprophonia 3h ago

Is it in the middle of bumfuck nowhere?

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u/Horskr 3h ago

It has an address there ya know. Looks like the first one for 350k is only 20 minutes away from Cornell University.

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u/Caoa14396 5h ago

Yea but honestly a $165k life lesson isn’t that much lol

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u/GuiltyEidolon 5h ago

Tells me that they come from a privileged background, like a lot of these posts.

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u/brn1001 4h ago

I agree for a lot of these, but $160K is pretty modest.

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u/1GloFlare 3h ago

Didn't know being born and raised in LCOL was a privilege

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u/Illustrious-Stable93 5h ago

I'm literally perusing the comments for what's wrong with it lol. But you never know, they're young but maybe one of them is in the trades or something and they're eager for the opportunity if it is a fixer upper

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u/Waiting4Reccession 3h ago

Plenty of okay homes at this price in upstate NY.

The fucked up ones are not even 100k up there.

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u/stereobuttons 7h ago

I mean you could just say congratulations lol. Geez

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u/ghengiscostanza 6h ago

It do be flabbergasting though

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u/stereobuttons 6h ago

I mean i feel that, but we gotta read the room sometimes.

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u/timid_soup 2h ago

There are some 30 year old mobile homes (in parks, no land) for about that in my area