How do they afford it????

On some of my trips to get materials for my new tractor shed, I have photgraphed some of our local new homes....Just thought some of you may be interested in seeing them.....What I am interested in is how do they afford to build them? This one was built about 8 years ago

You can just about see the top of this red brick house. The owner built this house about 12 years ago and started a plant hire business at the same time

Here is a very old granite built house that was bought in a run down condition a few years back for serious money and then completely renovated

The next 3 pics are of a new house just being built,Sorry about pic quality as I was driving while using the camera (tut,tut!)



The next 2 are of a house built 9 years ago. The owner has 7 daughters, guess he lives in the top of the tower (in solitary)? This photo was taken on Christmas day on the way to my sister-in-laws for Christmas dinner


I reckon there is a bit of interest being paid on mortages???

...and then we see the samchalet and new 22 car
garage he's building and still has room for a
pony......

Hi
Same as they afford houses and all the toys/ holidays here in Canada. The hard working people like us they rip off, in their line of work pay for it, 6 times outta 10. The other 4 are balancing the never pay for it or live long enough to own it game.
Regards Robert

But what about property tax? Here, old, large houses, lake front, etc. are taxed to death.
Property used to be a decent measure of someone's wealth. Not any more, with so many ways to have wealth. People of limited means are forced out of old family homes. Like a long since departed neighbor once told me- he never imagined that in his later years he would have to pay for his place over and over again!

Yabutt...Sam built his own with his own bare hands using recycled materials and a few trailer loads of rocks and.. the project is still on-going!
LOL.....Sam

Saw many new and expensive homes go up and many
new diesel dually pick ups on the road a few years
ago in the gas lease feeding frenzy. Seems many
who leased got a chunk of change in their pocket
and believing there was no end, went to spending
it like a drunken sailor. Then reality hit, gas
prices plummeted and the wells that were drilled
are plugged and the gas company said see you when
it's profitable to extract the gas and build the
infrastructure to support it. (read this to mean
likely your kids or grand kids might benefit if
you don't lose the property to the tripling of
your taxable assessment) or die of old age.

i wonder nice house no furniture? seen one built all you
would need is a sharp knife to get in.walls were vinyl siding
insulation and paneling . you get what you payfor .watch
when wind storms hit old house is still there newer ones
are all over

Not these houses, All built with concrete block to the highest spec. Our building control is real strict over in Northern Ireland.
Sam

In my area of rural southern Virgina, they are building either McMansions or what we call "double wides" (Factory built). Nothing in between. There are very few 3 bedroom ranch style homes going up that are "stick built" (nailed together on site by good carpenters). I built a 1200 ft2 ranch house in 1984, paid it off with a 20 year mortgage. It is now mine free and clear. Now that we are in our 70"s wife and I are glad we did not build more than we could maintain in our "Golden years".
BTW, those McMansions that some built with a salary less than my meager earnings were the culprits in causing the recession.

Same way they aford them anywhere, dollar down and a dollar a day.

were the hale you been ?,///this kinda progress is destroying the once stable way of life of rural America by leaps and bounds,///,you need to google BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE ,anatomy of banking debacle , circa 2009.. this is why we are in the mess we are in , Here is QUIK summary ...in the mid 90s as free trade withchina and nafta was shuttin down factories all over America ,, the grand scheme was too boost the housing boom and put these displaced factory workers into the home building industry,, how this was done around 1994 clintoon relaxed the bankin regulations,allowing banks to over loan savings reserves , if a bank loaned to people that could not afford to pay attention,,fredie mac and others ,, these banks were allowed to expand and get federal aid to buy out more stable banks so that would anchor the buyer banks debt , again the debacle would repeat itself . the real loser was those that had savings account cd's that at one time in the mid 80s paid around 10 percent interest.when these cd;s matured they could be renewed for half what they originally paid 5 percent , then 2 percent and even less today ,,, making a mockery of every stable conservative idea that once made AMERICA GReAT .eventually the house of cards collapsed ... I call such houses sh!houses, because usually sh!heads live there that should live in a apartment somewhere away from farm country and should never visit farm country ,,they are a dangerous threat to the true American way of life ..THEY have no idea how to react to a cow on the road or a combine,or how to be agood neighbor , only to blow the horn and act like a complete I diot and threaten to sue or call h s us down on your operation ...

Keep track of the next 100 items you have to pay about $100 or more for, and I bet each one of them will be behind one of those items. Example you fill your pickup with fuel. See if one of them is in to OIL.

We built some big houses and sub contracted parts of others. Doctors, lawyers and other highly paid professionals can easily afford houses like that. We built a 5500+ square foot house for a commercial insulating contractor. Not that there was a fortune to be made in insulating work. That guy made his fortune removing asbestos from schools. He's paying for it with health problems now.
A lot of people made a bunch of money in the stock market. Many cashed in and built big houses.

In the late 90's early 00's there were a lot of nice, mid size houses built in this area. I'm talking 1600-2400 SF. As often as not the buyers had two new cars....probably leased. MANY of those houses were put up for sale within 5 years. The owners cashed in on the inflated housing prices and got out from under the big house payments and sky rocketing real estate taxes.
New construction is still in the toilet here. Running about 10% of what it was prior to the crash.

Well try out one of those 80-100 Year Home Loans =You never pay only the Interest ;or Just Become a Drug Money Middle Man !

I have always been real lucky when buying a house sold my
first one 27k bought it for 20k 3 years earlier. The one I'm in
now I paid $100,000 in 92 it went up to around $450,000 then
down to $300,000 now going back up. By the time I leave this
earth it will probably be over $1,000,000
Walt

My daughter and her husband just built a new house on one of our farms and it cost around $400K and the farm it is on cost $460 acre in 1966.With higher land prices that seemed to have peaked for now I could have bought 600 acres. Unreal government spending will at some time in the near future become a big problem.Not much into politics but common sense is seldom used in D.C.

The houses I can understand, you have real value. I bought my farm for $75K in 1995. I had a not too old truck that cost a little under $13K at the time. Today I see trucks going for more than I paid for my farm and I'm driving a $1K truck. How anyone can justify a 75-80K pick up truck I don't know, but I've seen several advertised lately. Neighbor drives a Ford that goes for more than $50K...for a pick up!

I don't think people have the same value on money we do. It still irks me to pay what we do for so many items.

All but the last would be average sized homes here in southern NH. The people who make the big bucks in Boston area high tech businesses have to move to NH for the better life style. We call their houses McMansions. They bring ready made families necessitating new schools. They need 24 hour police coverage. Their subdivision is off from a dirt road so it needs to be paved for them. They need for the fire department to have $500,000 trucks. The upside is that they drive the price of hay up too! $7.00 per bale, spring summer and fall $14.00 per 50# bale in the winter.

There are subdivisions full of houses that size in my area.The really big ones are out in the country,the biggest house I know of is a 35,000 square ft house yes 35,000.I went to school with him and his brothers nice folks he sold an internet company he founded for $400 Million so I guess he can afford it(LOL)Lots of Millionaires retire in my area for some reason.Pretty good deal fo us poor folks though when they want something done they rarely ask how much it'll cost.

Nice homes.Either did real well at what they do for a living or made
it the old fashioned way,inheritance.

Vito

That is what I think when I go to estate sales in some towns. Whatever these people do for a living is what I shoulda done. I just can't figure out what they do. Only thing is a guy in a house like that is never selling any good tools . They all just get on the phone and call a contractor. Those pics are not Mcmansions they are mansions.

Heck, I question how people can afford houses that are WAY less extravagant than that!

I know people who do the same job I do, so they earn about the same. Single-income family, married with 2+ kids, they drive two nice cars, have all the premium cable channels, own an RV, and live in houses priced at about DOUBLE what my place is valued at.

I can barely keep my head above water being single, living in a meager house, driving a 10 year old truck with 200,000 miles on it, watching basic cable, with a tiny credit card balance.

I remember right out of college my sister started working in St Louis and I was working in Emporia KS. She paid more for her PARKING SPACE than I spent on monthly rent for an apartment.


With interest rates around 3% locked in for 30 years you can afford to build a lot of house.

I would guess that it is the bank's money, not their own. Unless they inherited a pile.

A friend of mine just finished building a 3900 sq. foot home for a middle age married couple, no kids. The guy inherited 1 million $$ from his granddad.

I like to live within my means so that when times go south you can still eat 3 meals a day and pay for fuel.

My wife and I built a modest 3 bedroom ranch. Two years latter we added a nice sized second garage. The other lots that were divided from the original farm house my neighbors $500k house where he still hasn't had any concrete for driveway and needs me to plow him out as he can't afford a decent plow vehicle or tractor...but he has a nice house to show friends. The other lot has about a $650k house, but at least he can afford it (or makes it looks like he can) as he own's his own business. The neighbors probably hate me for having a practical house that brings down their property values, but I know mine will be paid for in about 5-7 more years...Oh and the one neighbor complains that his taxes are 2x mine...well no crap, build a mansion, expect to pay the price.

500 acres on one side of me sold 2 years back for $70k with no real house on it. 500 acres other side with big, unfinished house just sold this summer for $510K. Tiny stone house on 500 acres of rock and swamp sold for $250K 5 years back, was for sale next year for $750K and finally sold last year for $450K. Meanwhile my place, 342 acres with decent house, garage, machine shed and barn plus rental property, was appraised at $250K in 08 was just reappraised for $225K.

Makes no sense to me.

I honestly don't see how most can afford to build ANY house today.
I checked into it a few times...was shocked, and bought an existing house instead.
I see a few hillside mansions going up every year in my hunting camp area. huge, entire walls of glass, amazing $.
and how to they heat the dang thing?