My girlfriend and I have been living in an apartment for almost a year and half and are thinking about buying a place. We've looked online and in person at houses, condos, townhomes, etc. We've decided we'll probably buy a condo due to the higher prices of houses in our area and for comparable prices to condos, you will mostly find older houses that need a lot of work and maintenance.

After looking, we think we may have decided on a 3 bed, 2 bath condo with 1,376 sq feet. It has two balconies, one outside the living room and the other out of the master bedroom. It's new construction with all appliances included along with in unit washer/dryer. It's on the 5th (top) floor and is an elevator building with 60 units. One garage parking spot is included. They're asking $229,900 but we're hoping to get them down somewhere between $200-215k. They originally were asking about 300k but due to the market and they want to close out on the building, they lowered it and we're hoping they lower a little bit more.

Currently, we live in a one bedroom apartment. We pay $920 a month and it includes no utilities. We haven't been very happy about the management of the building and some of the small amentities they boasted about when we moved in were removed or eliminated.

The condo is located in Chicago near the suburbs. Our apartment is just a mile and half away just outside Chicago. The area of both our apartment and the condo our in a fairly good area with relatively low crime and very little serious crimes.

So that's my story right now. So what kind of place do you live in? I'm curious about location, price, size, do you own or rent, etc.

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Seems like your getting a good deal to be honest. I remember my grandmother sold her place in Skokie about 5 years back, it was two bed, two bath, not that big, pretty old looking, no private balcony, although being a four family 2 story home, the outdoor patio connected to the stairs and the neighbors house was good enough. I think it went for around 180K, but I could be wrong.

Keep in mind, 2004, and Skokie, which is a nice neighborhood.

On a separate note, damn, most Americans are so shy of buying real estate, but they don't realize how expensive it is in the NYC metro area. Although I'll give you credit, c-love, Chicago isn't that much less.

We rent in a quadplex that is 2 bedrooms, 1000sq feet and 1 and a half bath. We live on the bottom floor its two duplexes on top of one another. We hate it.

We are in the process of starting to look for a house. But, when you have had ok to crappy credit for years and paying it off slow it sucks trying to buy a house. And saving for a down payment isn't any easier.

We are looking for a bigger house to rent or buy depending on if we can get a loan approved for not.

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I wish you luck Katie!

Jerry, Skokie is nice and one of the places I'd consider since I like the area and go there often for the movie theater there, Costco and other stores and the numerous restaurants. It's also fairly close to the expressway and has decent public transportation.

As for a comparison between New York and Chicago based on housing prices, I know New York is expensive as many people say it's probably one of the priciest big cities. I know Chicago though is up there too though. It was amazing seeing how cheap in comparison prices were just 30-40 miles away from Chicago. I'd say you probably get twice as much as you would in Chicago for your dollar.

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

30-40 miles away...Where were you looking, Naperville? If the commute isn't a problem, I'd tell everyone to live there, it's a nice, clean, city, and living costs will be a lot less than Chicago-burbs. But no one wants to be all the way out in Naperville.

If only New York was the same. 30-40 miles outside of Manhattan, you're still in the metropolitan area. In fact, the city where my college is in, New Brunswick, NJ, could be considered part of the New York Metro area. Right on the southern border.

My permanent residence is about 20 miles west of New York, and you will still find homes sirectly in my area which are worth over $1 million (See Soprano House). I mean, they're big, but nothing you can't get for half that price in another area, like Bucks County, PA for example.

I'm currently living in an 81 sq ft cubby hole in a college dorm. It costs $2,665 per semester; that's $666 per month. Hmmm...

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^Leebrick, Koonce or Wright?

I live in a decent apartment complex, cheap rent for a one bedroom, $615/month. All utilities are paid, though cable/phone are my responsibility. There's an apartment complex that caters mainly to the Kent State students that just opened last month. They have 2-4 bedroom suites, furnished, individual bathrooms (each bedroom has their own bathroom) and EVERYTHING is paid for, including cable/hi speed internet. That also starts off at $600/month/

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^ I'm in Leebrick. It's not terrible, but damn is it small.

What's the name of the place that just opened? How far from campus? I may have to look into it if it's that cheap for all that's included.

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I'm in a 2400 square foot (3200 sq ft with the basement) house in one of those communities that's nice and all, but the rules are a real #@#%#. I know people who were fined for:

-Having vertical boards on the sides of their house instead of horizontal.
-Having too many inflatables outside on their lawn for Xmas decorations (the day after, they put out a Grinch Inflatable with an "RCA" shirt on it - Radisson Community Association - the name of our overlords)
-Having an above ground pool.




$230,000????!?!?!?!?!! Omg... that's insane. My house was $168k when my parents bought it in 2000, although it's worth $225k now.

Don't move to California if you think $230,000 is insane. Out here in the Bay Area, $600,000 is a steal.

I own (well, the bank owns most of it) a 3 bedroom, 2 bath ranch style home in the suburbs of Charlotte. Around 1200 sq ft.

I got quite a good deal I think, got it for $102,000. My next door neighbor paid something like $130k for theirs, and its not much bigger than mine.

Because northerners can sell (before all this mess) a house that is average in size for what, $300k-$500k up north, when they move down here you can buy a LOT more house for that kind of money. Which is why most of the neighborhoods being built around me START at $300k, which is a lot down here.

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Don't move to Charlotte. It's very nice and nothing but new construction all around but you have a slim chance of finding a house under 300k. Most new homes in my area go from 400k - 3 million.

My parents just bought a new house for around 425k and were kind enough to let me have the old one until they find a buyer. We're asking 321k if your intrested.

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The Houston area has many houses that go for as low as $90,000; the Greater Houston metro area is the cheapest place to live in Texas, which is probably due to its 9,000 square miles of urban sprawling land area, 600 square miles of that land belonging to the city of Houston itself.

The most expensive city in the state is Austin.

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It's time to play some DEFENSE!

I was in Leebrick for one summer, it IS a closet.

I want to say Campus Pointe, I know they advertise in the Stater. They are right in front of my complex, across from Gabriel Brothers. Their area on the web is http://www.campuspointekent.com

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Welcome to Chicago! You want a decent place, you'll spend at least that much unless you get lucky and find a foreclosure that wasn't raped. What I've found while looking at places is that many people who were being foreclosed on are either not taking care of the house or condo in the first place or after knowing they would be foreclosed, destroy it.

I've seen some where they did damage to walls or other aspects of the building. I've heard and maybe seen an instance where the previous owner purposely flooded the house and now mold had built up everywhere and was just garbage. Someone who gets a foreclosed house at a good price with little to no damage and is in very good shape is a lucky person. Another thing too is that both my girlfriend and I would much prefer a house that isn't sol old. In Chicago, that can be difficult since many house were build sixty years ago or more. It's not uncommon for a lot of Chicago houses to be nearing 100 years old. We would prefer a house not older than 30-40 years. If it's a condo, we want it less that 20 years old as we don't care for the older style of building with condos, they seem very dated.

That's what we like about the condo we're thinking about buying. It's very modern and all new appliances and just feels nice. Sure $229,900 might seem expensive but we're going to try and get it lower. In Chicago $168k will get you a small house that needs tons of work...not what we're looking for.

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YOUR HATRED AMUSES ME

^ Yeah when I went looking at houses, one of them I went into was a foreclosure and they had ripped all the appliances out of the place.

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Intimidator Coming in 2010 to Carowinds!

Ah, yeah, they advertise all over campus. And after looking at the site, it's $600 per bedroom, not the whole. Still a good deal, but a roommate's needed, and having privacy is the whole reason why I'm in Leebrick.

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Where I live, you could buy a mansion for under a half mil. If ya don't want land, 300K could land you a Mansion with a 3 car garage on this street.

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Not all Charlotte is that way. There are some new neighborhoods that are starter communities with house starting around $110k. But those usually aren't the best neighborhoods and the houses are just plopped down on a barren wasteland because the builder couldn't see any need of saving a tree or two.

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Intimidator Coming in 2010 to Carowinds!