House Hunting

With the housing market and interest rates continuing to drop, at least here in Bend, Doug and I have really started to seriously think about getting into a house sometime this summer. Our apartment lease ends in April, so we are at a good point to start looking at our options. Right now we live in a 4 plex, in a great part of town, and if it weren't for the fact we are throwing our money away every month and that our college kid neighbors across the hall like to party 7 nights a week and litter the hall with energy drink cans and cigarette butts, we wouldn't be so eager to leave. When Doug was out of town last week I ended up having to call the cops to report them because of the loud music, shouting outside, slamming the front door and breaking bottles in the parking lot. We are soooo over it. Time to grow up and get in a big boy/big girl house.

Bend isn't the cheapest place as far as housing goes, but the prices are dropping, and we've seen a couple homes advertised that we could definitely afford. All of these are new construction, which is kind of nice. In some ways I'd like to get a home that is already in an established neighborhood with, hopefully, a larger lot than most newer construction homes have, but it's looking like the most affordable option for us to pick a plan and have it built. And that would be nice- new home, no problems, and most things still under manufacturers warrenty. Plus it would give the chance to put in the kind of yard and plants we want, pick out colors and flooring, and make it ours from the ground up. Exciting!

But it is a give and take situation. You get a new home, but here in Bend, that means, NO YARD! We looked at one home yesterday afternoon that had a detached garage behind it, where the backyard would be, and instead of grass or anything, you just have a concrete slab that is 20 feet wide and 10 feet deep and NO room for entertaining, or having a dog, which are must haves for us. We saw a home on Saturday that we really liked, in a great area of town, and may get to tour this week that does have a smaller yard, but at least its a yard! With grass and a fence and room for a dog to play fetch and someday, to have the little ones play around in. So we are pretty enthusiastic about that option. We would get to pick out which lot we would like it on, and that is good too. The turnaround time for a home to be built there would be about 60-75 days which would be awesome! So we'll see. We are still scouring the market for anything else we can find in our price range.

Exciting times! This picture of the house above is the one we are excited about maybe building!