When you live in a major metropolitan as college student or new professional, life can get pretty expensive. Especially if you have the crazy idea of owning a home in markets like Los Angeles, Seattle, Austin, San Francisco. So what do you do? Well thank goodness for the internet and city web pages. This takes a little time and some question asking but in my experience i've found it to be really helpful to find an inexpensive market perfect for a first time home buyer.
When I was in my mid twenties I was looking for a 4 year college to finish my degree at and I was also looking for a spot to buy a house. I knew homeownership could be a source of eventual financial freedom and real estate was a path to success. While checking out colleges that rated high for my area of study and weren't going to cause me to be poor my whole life I eventually settled on Oregon State and University of Oregon. Both were well regarded school and the markets around the towns weren't terribly expensive to where I might be able to manage to buy a house. So I was on to the next step. Market research and question asking.
I was lucky enough to know a few people, while I lived in Los Angeles, that were from the area and their feedback was ... "insightful." The towns the colleges were in were too expensive but the towns around them were perfectly priced and close to work. However, every person I asked that use to live there said they were crime ridden drug infested towns and should be avoided. Undettered my wife and I decided to take a road trip and see for ourselves. While on a visit to these places we noticed there was a lot of construction going on and things would be changing, at least physically, pretty quickly. Where was this town headed? It was in a great location, smaller, and affordable.
We got a completely different "vibe" from the town then what people had said. There was a good feeling around and I wanted to find out more. We stopped in a couple bars and restaurants while we were here for our visit and it was filled with younger families and professionals NOT drug addicts and criminals. So my next stop was the town website. They had a TON of usefull information. They had a story of their past and were open about the problems the town had. Most importantly they had a plan to get out of their past behaviors and make improvements for the future. They were nearing completion on a new jail, police reform and safetly implements for the downtown area. EVERYTHING about the website spoke to a bright future and things changing for the better.
That settled it. We would buy a house in the smaller town of Springfield Oregon (home of the "Simpsons" writers apparently) and we could still live a decent life quality with work and school. As it panned out the city website was a great source of information and really spoke to the direction of the town. We originally purchased our home as a 3/1 with .25 acres at 159,000 in 2015. As of January 4 2020 it was valued at $280,000. Our downtown area is vibrant and has great spots in it. Our block is full of young families and the construction has moved farther up our main street. The city website continues to talk about the direction the town is headed and the improvements it has planned.
Robert Jenkins
Owner of RJ Buys Houses
RJ Buys Houses
