Housing comparisons

This morning I was reading one of my very favorite blogs, in which Le ShallowGal talks about House Hunters. She showed me what one can buy for under $300k in certain parts of the country.

I work for a real estate company in Washington, and have for about seven years. I'm pretty out of touch with the real estate market in the rest of the country, so to read that there is actually a place in the US where one can reasonably expect to purchase a five bedroom house with a pool for under $300k completely blew my mind.

Now we're going to play the comparison game! I'm going to do a quick search and pick out a few houses from my area in Washington, then pick a few random states and do the same.

So, for around $300k in my neck of the woods one can reasonably expect to purchase these:

Two to three bedrooms, small lots, definitely no pools. And that first one is a manufactured home.

Of course, $300k would be completely out of my price range, along with the vast majority of other young adults in their mid twenties. Lets think about the first time home buyer and take a look at what we have for under $200k.

Ermm, no offense, but eww. Tiny, old manufactured homes on itty bitty lots in my least favorite area of the county.

BUT! Lets check a couple of random states!

If I felt like moving to Portland, Maine I could buy this:

So it's pretty ugly, but with some paint and landscaping it could be cute. I kinda like how weird it is. And it's four bedrooms, two and a half baths on over an acre with an in ground pool. For $158,200. And I love Maine.

Or if I took off to Huntsville, Alabama I could get this (I just have to point out real quick that in Huntsville one can get an ACTUAL HOUSE for under $20,000. WHAT?!):

Uh, this is pretty cute for a first time home buyer. Know how much it is? $65,900.

Hazen, North Dakota?

Three beds, two baths. Over two thousand sqaure feet. Larger lot. $89,900.

I've reached a conclusion.

I'm living in the wrong state.

It's frustrating to look around where you live and think to yourself, I will never be able to buy a house here. I hate paying rent, but even with the housing market crashing and burning and prices dropping like stones everywhere I look, there's still no way for me to buy something halfway decent.

Single men and women with decent jobs cannot buy a house in this area, unless they want to take a dive into the nasty part of the county. And I think there is something seriously wrong with that.