Day Eight: Scoping Out a Potential New 'Hood

Today the girls and I took a little trek back up to Lake City (which is one of the most Northeastern neighborhoods in Seattle) to drive around a bit, see where the farmer's market is held and visit the playground. We met a super nice little girl and her nanny. When I asked the nanny if she liked the neighborhood she said "I love it, except for the car prowlers that have broken in to my 21 year old Honda three times." Ouch. To be fair, we've had our car vandalized in our neighborhood, so nowhere is safe from that sort of stuff, but it made more aware.

I wanted to show you something fun about Seattle real estate. I will be totally honest and tell you that our budget for buying our first house is $320,000. This is lower than the average home's selling price in this county. Right before the mortgage crisis, this amount of money would have barely bought you a shack next to a crack dealer, but now we have more options.

Here is a home in a less-desirable (though not UNdesirable) neighborhood just north of where our apartment is:

Hopefully you can tell that this house barely looks like it is able to stand on it's own. Now when you drive by it there is a large piece of plywood blocking the front door. Want to guess on the price? It's $250,000. No shit. I wish there were pics of the inside!

Here is the house we like:

Fabulous, no? Seriously, this house looks like a palace compared to some of the houses we saw. My mom thinks is terribly over-priced but she also has never looked at real estate in Seattle.

I am excited to go have a look at it tomorrow!