You can still get homes for less than $200k, all over the midwest. You just cannot get them on either coast, or in any major city, and you are going to get a fixer upper. If you are OK with a major fixer upper, you can get houses for well under $100k.
People need to re-evaluate their expectations on home ownership, and stop treating them as investment vehicles. They are a roof over your head, first. If they appreciate, fine, but are first and foremost shelter. Lots of people need to learn this.
Banks don't give loans for major fixer uppers. Being ok with buying one goes out the window pretty fast. Matter of fact most of the cheap houses that you can get a loan for will be former fixer uppers that a house flipper bought two years ago. And you will see that transaction on Zillow and get pissed off.
Regular banks also don't give loans for raw land, either.
Fair warning to everyone looking into this; if you're thinking about buying up land and building a house yourself, you'll have to jump through hoops to find a local bank specifically designed for that.
You can still get homes for less than $200k, all over the midwest. You just cannot get them on either coast, or in any major city, and you are going to get a fixer upper. If you are OK with a major fixer upper, you can get houses for well under $100k.
People need to re-evaluate their expectations on home ownership, and stop treating them as investment vehicles. They are a roof over your head, first. If they appreciate, fine, but are first and foremost shelter. Lots of people need to learn this.
Banks don't give loans for major fixer uppers. Being ok with buying one goes out the window pretty fast. Matter of fact most of the cheap houses that you can get a loan for will be former fixer uppers that a house flipper bought two years ago. And you will see that transaction on Zillow and get pissed off.
Regular banks also don't give loans for raw land, either.
Fair warning to everyone looking into this; if you're thinking about buying up land and building a house yourself, you'll have to jump through hoops to find a local bank specifically designed for that.