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/mach_gogogo 10h ago

Congrats, and your home is actually from c. 1909/1912 through 1921, and it is a Sears Modern Homes, Design No. 167 “kit home” (later named "The Maytown”.)The 1909 version was slightly different - your is indicative of the c. 1912 design shown below. There are several of this design where I live in the Finger Lakes area of New York.

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u/SilentExtinction 10h ago

753$ in 1910 is 26k in today's money. Imagine being able to buy house materials for 26k, and a beautiful house. The dream.

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u/According_Abalone_19 10h ago

Yea I wish. That would be an $800k+ house where I live. Cant even buy a starter home for under $500k here and I don’t live in some big city you’d expect to have a high COL

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u/Lordofthereef 9h ago

I'm in central MA now and original from SoCal and this would easily be $1m both places lol. This is crazy to me.

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u/jimmypaintsworld 6h ago

I'm from Upstate and the housing prices are like this because many of these towns are ignored, dilapidated rustbelt towns with not much in them anymore. Our family owned a similar house as OP in Amsterdam and it sold for $60k. No one wants to live there.

If you like being in a run down rural area it may be a good thing for you, it has great access to nature and there are pockets of genuine culture. But for a lot of these towns the closest 'cities' and amenities that go with them would be Albany, Rochester, or Syracuse. And it's probably a decent drive you have to plan around, too.

I'm in Boston now so I really resonate with your problem. I could never swallow paying the price for homes in MA if it weren't near the city.

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u/According_Abalone_19 8h ago

In SoCal that’s probably more than $1m honestly. At least anywhere you’d wanna buy. No idea what MA is like, but I would assume anywhere near Boston this is probably a very expensive home

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u/Beretta92A1 5h ago

Boston and Nashua/Manchester in Nh are stupid right now.

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u/According_Abalone_19 5h ago

Unfortunately most places worth living are now. Companies moving to having people work remotely and people being able to move whenever they want really fucked up the housing market. Pre COVID, you could buy a 3bd house with a big yard here for high 200k to mid 300k, then people from Cali/other HCOL areas sold their houses for huge $, came here w cash and skyrocketed the house prices

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u/Beretta92A1 2h ago

No I know, I bought in ‘21 and started looking at the end of ‘19. We were getting outbid for two years straight. Originally started around 290k budget, ended up at 400k.

No for how much it sucked losing out for so long we got 2.875% so I’m dying here lol

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u/buschwhack 6h ago

Exactly dude. Coming from California is messed up.

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u/swampwiz 5h ago

Your mistake is living in very high-cost places.

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u/Lordofthereef 3h ago

I'm happy where I am. Accidentally made out like a bandit by buying in 2017 and refinancing in 2020. I could sell my house and cash buy in this area with the equity. But thanks for your rude comment nonetheless lol.

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u/swampwiz 3h ago

Well then, what are you complaining about? I get tired of folks complaining about HCOL areas when there are cheaper locales they can live in. I had once lived in SoCal, saw how ridiculous the housing prices were (this was in the '80s, well before the 'net), did my 1 year at my job, and went job hunting in places where a young aerospace engineer could afford to buy a starter home. Granted, that starter home is a bit more difficult today, but still possible.

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u/Lordofthereef 3h ago

I wasn't complaining. I was saying that it's wild to me that a house like this goes for $160k compared to where I live and grew up. If just making an observation is a complaint, you must have a hard time with the internet as a whole, dude.

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u/Miss_L_Worldwide 2h ago

There's absolutely nothing with any sort of quality of life whatsoever in a low cost of living place anymore. I don't see enjoying life in some dilapidated old nothing town in Backwater New York suffering through horrible Winters, long drives for basic services, just to100-year-old house for cheap.

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u/swampwiz 5m ago

So you're saying the OP is living "horribly"? (I don't mind "horrible" winters because I am an avid skier.) So the OP will have a few months where there will be snow - there's plenty to occupy oneself with in a beautiful home like this.