ah, progress

[ilanarama]

Just got back from a fabulous backpack and successful thirteener ascent, of which there will be pictures and story coming shortly.

But this is not about that. This is about the house next door, which is for sale again. It was for sale when we were looking to buy 3 years ago; although we loved the neighborhood, $287K seemed a little steep for an 1898 house, maybe 1200sf, 2br/1ba with an odd interior layout (one downstairs bedroom which has a window to an enclosed porch rather than to outside, and an upstairs attic-bedroomy-thing with headroom of maybe 6 feet) and obviously necessary roof and foundation repairs. (We said to our realtor, "Alas, too bad that nice house next door isn't for sale," and a week later he called us and said, "Guess what?" and fifteen minutes later we were there, and fifteen minutes after that we put in an offer.)

Anyway, the house next door didn't sell, and after a few months the owner put it up for rent, and it's been rented more or less steadily, although not for longer than a year at a time. And they did put a new roof on it late last summer, although to our critical eye it was a quick-n-dirty cheap job.

So it's for sale again. For $425K.

Want to be my neighbor?

Comments

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Gosh, as tempting as you're making it sound, I think I'll stick with my bargain-basement-super-cheap house. :D

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Heck, at this rate you can buy FOUR houses where you are for the price of one here. Oog.

[alembicresearch.livejournal.com]

I'd love to be your neighbor, but $425K? Gez!
That's getting up to bay area prices.
Is Durango turning into the next Boulder or something? :-)

I think I want to find some undiscovered place,
buy a house there for $100k, and then have it turn
into the next Boulder, so I can "flip" it for $500k!
Or a million!

Either that or find some undiscovered place,
buy a house for $100k, and pray to gawd that it remains
undiscovered, since the whole idea of flipping and $500k
1200 sqft 2bed/1bath houses seems abhorrent to me.

But then again, here I am in the land of $750k 1200 sqft
2bed/1bath fixer-uppers ... which I'm not totally thrilled by ...

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Boulder's still even worse. But this is what happens when you live in a resort town in the mountains, I guess.

I take it you still live in the same apartment?

[alembicresearch.livejournal.com]

Yeh ... same old apartment ...
its only $705 a month ... so its hard
to move, since going anyplace else would cost
twice as much. At least here in Sillycon Valley.

I have dreams of someday getting
something somewhere.

But probably not until I "retire" in
about 3 years (assuming things go as planned).

My problem is I really don't know what I
want to do with the rest of my life,
or where I want to do it.

I'm looking for a new goal in life,
since I achieved my last one in December
(i.e., becoming a Grand Master beer judge).

But I haven't decided on one yet ...

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

I'd love to be your neighbor. But... no. Prices. Winter. Sorry. *g*

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Hee. Winter here is actually really nice, but don't tell anyone. We perpetuate the myth that Colorado is blizzardy and miserable so as to keep all the Californians and Texans from moving here.

The prices, alas, are no myth.

[venivincere]

Urk. No. Well, I'd love to be your neighbor, but how about the house on the other side of you? I hope this means your house has almost doubled in value since then.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Heh. Actually I expect the house on our other side to go up for sale, because we've just found out the husband has accepted a job in another resort town which is too far to commute. Nobody wants to be our neighbor!

And if the house next door actually sells for $425, I'd be amazed. If it does, our house would probably sell for $500K, which is yeah, double what we paid three years ago, and which is also ludicrous. (Even though we've done massive remodeling.)

[(Anonymous)]

"want to be my neighbor?"

Only if you will wear cardigans and cute little Keds and sing to me :-)

Seriously, I'm shocked at house prices in Durango. Looking at my old neighborhood in Lakewood, house prices for houses similar to the one I grew up in are not even 1/2 the price of the house-next-to-yours. What the heck is happening in Durango to drive the housing market so aggressively?

Eric Wampler

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Hey, Eric, you should get yourself a lj account so you will get these replies emailed to you!

Anyway, it's the fate of a resort town, I think - like Vail and Aspen, just not quite so $$$ (yet). We're surrounded by unbuildable public land (like Boulder), which slows development and lifts prices. An awful lot of houses here are second homes for the wealthy, although that's more true in the county than here in town.

It really is stunning, though. When we were house-hunting three years ago, there were still a few houses under $250K, although they were all fixer-uppers to some degree. Now in town is $350 and up, even for townhouses. And yet wages here are 75% of Colorado average, according to an article in this morning's paper.

[(Anonymous)]

re: LJ account... yeah, I keep thinking about it, and then I think about it... and then 3 weeks later I think about it some more...

That's pretty interesting -- Durango a resort town? I was last in Durango in '98, and I don't remember it having much of a resort town feeling. Of course, I was so excited about riding the narrow guage and fulfilling a childhood dream that I probably wasn't too focused on the town :-)

Out of curiosity, is the same inflation striking Ouray? I've always said I wanted to retire to Ouray. I may need to revise my plan...

Eric W.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Tourism is a big part of the local economy, between the train and the rafting and wilderness stuff in the summer, and Purgatory (which has been renamed Durango Mountain Resort to obscure the fact that it's 20 miles away) in the winter. Although gas and oil is more important in the county, and I suspect the #1 economic driver is...real estate ;-)

Ouray is definitely experiencing a similar rise in prices, but it's not as high as it is here. We were there just a few weeks ago - I love it in the summer, but I'm not sure I'd want to live there in the winter, and I think it's just a little on the small side - I like the amenities of a college town.