[keeena]

This is an odd request, but I thought I'd give it a shot since this board is local to the area.

I've been looking to buy my first house and have been debating on purchasing land and building a house as opposed to buying an existing house.

I'd need a lot of at least 1/2 acre...I've been looking for 1/2-1 acre. More land is fine, but I have to stay under $100k. Gas and public sewer/water would be a plus. I live and work in Westboro right now, but theres no way I could afford to buy a place here. I don't want to be very far from work (45min max?). I've been looking in the following areas:

Rutland / Holden / W. Boylston area
Sturbridge / Charlton area
Webster / Oxford / Uxbridge / Northbridge area

Its a stab in the dark, but I thought I would ask. Feel free to shoot me an email if you know someone who is selling / subdividing land or if you have 'connections'. Hook a fellow rider up!

[theothersean]

How about North Brookfield?
I too work in westboro on rt 9 near Mc Donalds, 55 min commute.
We moved out here in oct. There is a plot of land on my road for sale 6 acres, only one buildable lot as there is a stream in the back of it. I think the asking price is $80,000. As for town water and sewer It exists but not on this road. have to go septic with a well.
But to give you an idea we sold a 1950's 900 sq. ft ranch on 1/8 of an acre in Marlboro and bought a 5 yr old 1500sq ft colonial with an over sized 2 car garage on 2.8 acres for about the same money.

[Cam22]

Hey good post! Great idea. Wish I had thought of that. My bf and I would like to do that too, if the price of the land was right. We were thinking modular home though. I was curious about N. Brookfield and the surrounding areas too, wow I didn't think it was 55 mins to Westboro though (that's where my bf works too)

Thanks for the info about the commute anyway.

[keeena]

Thanks for the info on N. Brookfield. I had ruled out this town a while ago due to the commute time tho; 55 minutes seems so long to me especially considering that I have a 4 minute commute now. A couple places I looked at in Sturbridge are only about 35 minutes (w/ no traffic on the pike). And THAT seemed long to me. I heard you do get used to it, but damn! I feel like I have no time to get stuff done now...I couldn't imagine having 2 hours less each day.

It seems building would be a better alternative. Some of the houses I have looked at would require at least $20-40k in updates (hey, I'm picky, what can I say). And even after fixing some of this stuff they still wouldn't be really what I want. If the house prices were more realistic, then I wouldn't mind spending the time and money to update them. But they are asking so much to begin with. For the same amount of money I think I could build something new which would be twice as much house as the stuff I'm looking at now.

R.E. is sooo damn expensive here in MA. Enough ranting...I'm just bitter.

[Cam22]

keeena- I feel the same way as you! We are waiting to see if the rising interest rates bring the house prices down a bit to a more realistic level before we make any big financial moves. Some folks think they will lower, and some folks think we're nuts not to buy now with the lower int. rates. UGH!!!!!!!!!! I don't know!!!!!!!!!

[HBerry]

Live in the greater nashua area, no taxes and short commute!

[keeena]

Originally posted by Cam22
We are waiting to see if the rising interest rates bring the house prices down a bit to a more realistic level before we make any big financial moves.

Some realtors are quietly saying to wait about 3-4 months right now...they think that housing prices should definitely drop. I would love to see a price correction, but who knows?

Originally posted by HBerry
Live in the greater nashua area, no taxes and short commute!

Short commute? Not to Westboro.

[HBerry]

Argh I was thinking of Westford, not westboro, stupid work making me think about work related things

[RevHappy]

Nashua area has High High property tax! And you get taxed on the full value of your home. Not a assumed value.

[snowborder]

not to mention if you live in NH and work in Mass you still have to pay Mass income tax.

Think of it this way too:

Gas at $2 a gallon with a 25 mpg car with an added 30 mile commute each way:

60 miles a day x 200 work days a year = $960 a year in added fuel costs

12,000 miles per year means you will put a crud more miles on your car so you will have to buy more cars = another $1500 a year.

More miles = more maintenance of about another $750 a year

Time is worth a lot to many people lets say put an extra hour a day in commuting so hmmm. 200 hours a year in commuting at lets say $20 per hour = another $4000 per year.

And you own your house for what everyone says is the average of 7 years = (960 + 1500 + 4000 + $750) x 7 years = $50,470 added to your commuting costs over 7 years.

Not too mention higher insurance, blood pressure etc. etc.

There are other factors as well such as resale of your house. If you buy closer to a metro area, you are much more likely to sell your house and much quicker.

Positives to moving to the burbs, better schools, quieter and not so much traffic.

oh yeah check out isoldmyhouse com

[theothersean]

Snowboarder is right the commute can be costly, but the trade off is that in my location I have only 2 neighbors across the road and we are seperated by 300 feet of woods and the road, my next closest neighbor on either side is 1/2 mile and the same behind the house. What we looked for was a location that we can do all of our recreational activities right close to home , so we commute to work but don't have to travel to play., Is that worth 50k?, to me it is.

[cbrf41999]

I made the big move of commuting this year. 10minutes up to 45-65 a day. Believe it or not it is not to bad. As long as most of it is highway commuting. Even in crappy weather I can make it in decent time. Also keep in mind the area you may live in. I commute the 60 miles, and hear I cant see my neighbors house, and I paid about 160k less that I would have for the same house/location/acerage in Hudson, NH area. Also I pay less than $1900 a year in property taxes. Consider commuting a bit, see how much more it may get you as well.

[KB]

My girlfriend and I both currently work in Mass, and live in Mass. She works in Willmington me in Concord. I grew up in Nh and have been dying to get back since I moved to Mass. I just miss NH and that's all there is to it. We close on our house that we purchased in Manchester NH on the 31st of this month. I cannot wait. No roomates, no neighbors, nobody but us and the dog!!!She will get another job in Nh and I will continue to commute to Concord MA for the crazy salary that they pay me, which somehow when you cross the border to Nh seems to drop about 20,000 greenbacks?????

To me the commute is worth it to own my own home. My girlfriend and I would rather be paying ourselves every motnh instead of a landlord. Building equityfor that mother of all houses we all dream of, buy the lake house for the weekends, what have you. To top it all off all said and done our mortgage will be about 100 dollars more than we are currently paying for rent. To us it's a no brainer.

Good luck in your choices and land/house building. Give Nh a chance!!!! Live Free Or Die

Kb

[HBerry]

Im young, still in college and don't have to pay a mortage Fukkers! I enjoy living in NH very much, and Nashua is pretty much a part of Mass anyways.

[KB]

Originally posted by HBerry
Nashua is pretty much a part of Mass anyways.

I know you didn't just say that!!!

[HBerry]

Originally posted by rmbbikes
I know you didn't just say that!!!

HAHA I know its not really, but its just so much more like Mass than most of NH. Growing up in good ol' Nashtown, and seeing the rest of NH not including the three main cities, you have to say it is not much like the rest of NH.

[snowborder]

NH doesn't start until AFTER exit 20 on 93 in NH, everything south of there is now just MASS.

Originally posted by snowborder
NH doesn't start until AFTER exit 20 on 93 in NH, everything south of there is now just MASS.

If I didn't have you on ignore, I'd agree with you...

[snowborder]

ha? whats that I can' t hear you ? did you say something? and it continues.

[cbrf41999]

Originally posted by snowborder
NH doesn't start until AFTER exit 20 on 93 in NH, everything south of there is now just MASS.

Cmon I live off of 20, do I have to start taking the long way home to make me feel better!

[ftrain]

Originally posted by RevHappy
Nashua area has High High property tax! And you get taxed on the full value of your home. Not a assumed value.

Hahahah I love posts like this. Sorry I do not mean to bash you.

What is the differrence if an entire town is based off the full value of your home or half the value of your home? Please explain:

Example:

Town1 and Town2 each require 1 million for budget. Everything in both towns are the same (people, houses, etc) except:

Town1: Charges taxes based on 100% of value
Town2: Charges taxes based on 50% value

Since both towns need to come up with the $1 million for budget

House in Town1 pays $100 in taxes per $100k of house value
House in Town2 pays $200 in taxes per 50% of $100k of house value

So please tell me what the difference is? The both end up paying the same amount.

[ftrain]

As for were to live: NH is the place. KB, Manchester was on CNN a few months ago as 1 of 8 cities were the unemployment rate did not change during this setback in our economy.

I just purchased a house in Bedford NH. It rocks and love living up here. I found the worst house in the best area and even got an awesome deal on this house to boot. The equity in my home has been increasing at a good rate. Next year things will level off as I finish updating and replacing parts of my house.

[KB]

We close on the 31st. I can't fuckin wait to be back in NH.

Train we're only about 10 minutes from each other.

Who did you use for home insurance? Did they come out and inspect the house or did they just make you take pictures and bring them with you when you paid for the insurance?


KB

[RevHappy]

First off town 1 (Nashua) has high tax to begin with
town 2 (milford) "where I live" has low(er) taxes than town 1 (Nashua).

Now town 1 (Nashua) gets taxed 100% of the full market value.
while town 2 (Milford) gets taxed on 50% of the already lower taxes. Somebody replied with "come to NH, nashua area".

I want to know a town that has the same (people, houses, etc)

In a nut shell:
I was trying to explain that Nashua is not a cheap place to buy a house while 15 minutes to the west you can buy a house cheaper, pay less tax a year and only get taxed on 50% assumed value of there home.

Originally posted by ftrain
Hahahah I love posts like this. Sorry I do not mean to bash you.

What is the differrence if an entire town is based off the full value of your home or half the value of your home? Please explain:

Example:

Town1 and Town2 each require 1 million for budget. Everything in both towns are the same (people, houses, etc) except:

Town1: Charges taxes based on 100% of value
Town2: Charges taxes based on 50% value

Since both towns need to come up with the $1 million for budget

House in Town1 pays $100 in taxes per $100k of house value
House in Town2 pays $200 in taxes per 50% of $100k of house value

So please tell me what the difference is? The both end up paying the same amount.

Let's put this to a practical test....

In Dracut, MA (right on the NH border), my annual tax rate is 16% of an assumed value that is roughly 46% of my home's current market value.

ftrain?