Our financial system is crumbling this week.

[ghostrunner]

While I'll cop to not being edgy, I'm not sure how a car or city townhouse affects that.

Not trying to pick a nit with you specifically, but the perception of suburbs on this board continues to perplex me. I'm trying to understand it.

It's kinda like movies. Plenty of people like Michael Bay movies, but others find them stupid and predictable. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

Suburbs are fine. They're inexpensive, convenient, etc. They're just not for me. I don't like the maze of subdivision streets. I don't like the traffic. I don't like the architecture. It screams "comfort". I'm not comfort driven--I like things to be a bit interesting, even if they're inefficient.

I guess it varies. Our suburb is in the city, and the traffic isn't very bad. In our case, living downtown would make traffic a worse problem in addition to having all the one way streets. My wife works North of town and I work all over it. I do wish suburbs had more interesting architecture, particularly newer developments which seem to just grind out the same house one after another.

Seems to me like you have to either live in large cities (Chi, NY) or find a good location in a smaller city to live what I'd call the city life. I'd love to live in Chicago, where you can just hop on a train and avoid cars altogether. In Austin, you can live in the city but unless you live right downtown it's still a matter of getting in your car and driving to some other part of town to eat or see a movie or shop. Indy is fairly boring as a city, so there's not much difference culturally between being downtown and being somewhere else.

Anyway, let the freaking out over money resume.

[Popeye_Card]

I guess it varies. Our suburb is in the city, and the traffic isn't very bad. In our case, living downtown would make traffic a worse problem in addition to having all the one way streets. My wife works North of town and I work all over it. I do wish suburbs had more interesting architecture, particularly newer developments which seem to just grind out the same house one after another.

Seems to me like you have to either live in large cities (Chi, NY) or find a good location in a smaller city to live what I'd call the city life. I'd love to live in Chicago, where you can just hop on a train and avoid cars altogether. In Austin, you can live in the city but unless you live right downtown it's still a matter of getting in your car and driving to some other part of town to eat or see a movie or shop. Indy is fairly boring as a city, so there's not much difference culturally between being downtown and being somewhere else.

Anyway, let the freaking out over money resume.

Living in the city of course doesn't have to mean living downtown. I live in a wonderful old neighborhood within walking distance of downtown, where people have yards, garages, and the whole shootin' match. I don't really mind most inner suburbs--in St. Louis, places like Webster Groves. It's the ones way out there with subdivisions that I would never live in.

Some people like more contemporary/modern design and conveniences, which the suburbs are good for. That's cool--they can have their thing out there, and I can enjoy my thing in the city. Really, the only thing that really bugs me about the suburbs is that they continue to grow and grow, while perfectly good buildings inside of the city crumble because people aren't re-using what's already been built. I understand not wanting to move into "a bad neighborhood", but they never become good neighborhoods again unless people move in and clean it up. Most of south city was slums 50 years ago. Most of it is at least decent today, and some places are spectacular.

[cardinalkarp]

Going from Popeye's post. I would love to live in one of the lofts downtown but when I was looking to buy those places were easily in the 200-300k and w/ pets made it unfeasible.

They're were a few requirments I wanted in a house and a two car garage was one of them and they're pretty limited in the city.

I would love to live down there but the type of house we wanted and to be in a decent neighborhood in the city made it not possible. We still love to go downtown to do things and driving to there from our house is a pain in the ass no doubt.

What can ya do?

[Popeye_Card]

Pets do make lofts pretty tough to live in, though more of them are building pet walks on the roofs. That's probably the biggest reason why I didn't get a loft myself.

There's a few places in the city where you either have a two car garage, or have enough space to build one. The biggest drawback there is that attached garages are very few and far between. I wanted a garage myself, but ended up settling for a place without one. It means my workshop has to be wedged into my basement, but it's not so bad. Thankfully, my block is apparently off the crime radar, and there haven't been any vehicle break-ins the entire time I've lived there.

It's all about priorities. Different people value different aspects of housing more.

[TimeForGuinness]

Going from Popeye's post. I would love to live in one of the lofts downtown but when I was looking to buy those places were easily in the 200-300k and w/ pets made it unfeasible.

They're were a few requirments I wanted in a house and a two car garage was one of them and they're pretty limited in the city.

I would love to live down there but the type of house we wanted and to be in a decent neighborhood in the city made it not possible. We still love to go downtown to do things and driving to there from our house is a pain in the ass no doubt.

What can ya do?

I'm pretty sure that if you move downtown, you'll have to trade in that Mazda.

[ThatGuy]

So imagine you get your house appraised, and the appraiser tells you not to be disappointed if the final number comes back a bit lower than you were expecting. He says that the price he comes up with will only be a snapshot of the market right now, and that it might change drastically in the next year or so. Hearing this, you expect the worst. Then, a few days later, you get his report, and your house is 800 square feet bigger than you originally thought, along with being worth $155,000 more than what you bought it for less than three years ago.

I bet my parents are glad they decided to refinance.

[Radbird]

My neighborhood is bland suburbia. Your typical sprawl. Planned subdivision, not much differentiation between houses or streets. It was a good place to raise our kid, and has other good points, like lots of walking trails, rec areas and open space - the dogs love it. 3-car garage, so no issues there. And quick access to shopping, Boulder, Denver and the mountains.

Would I like to live in the heart of Boulder or Denver in a quaint, eclectic neighborhood? Sure. Not sure I'd want to pay the premium required. Other choices are the mountains or smaller towns like Lyons or maybe Ft. Collins (but right now, Mrs Rad has a 1.5 mile commute that would be hard to give up). Tying this back into the money thread theme, were the economy better, we might be contemplating a move consistent with the empty nest phase we're moving into.

But it is really hard to quibble with the overall quality of life our current house provides.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

were the economy better, we might be contemplating a move consistent with the empty nest phase we're moving into.

This is what I don't understand. Why does the economy being bad prevent you from moving? If you have job security and good/decent credit you should be able to get a loan, especially having the equity from the house you're in now as a downpayment. (If you have any after the hit you take) Granted, you won't be able to sell your house for what you could have 3 years ago, but then again, you won't have to pay for a new house what you would have 3 years ago. And, chances are if you are willing to fix it up a little bit, you can get an absolute steal right now from a foreclosure....

[TimeForGuinness]

were the economy better, we might be contemplating a move consistent with the empty nest phase we're moving into.

This is what I don't understand. Why does the economy being bad prevent you from moving? If you have job security and good/decent credit you should be able to get a loan, especially having the equity from the house you're in now as a downpayment. (If you have any after the hit you take) Granted, you won't be able to sell your house for what you could have 3 years ago, but then again, you won't have to pay for a new house what you would have 3 years ago. And, chances are if you are willing to fix it up a little bit, you can get an absolute steal right now from a foreclosure....

This economy is going to get worse before it gets better...that's why people are worried.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

were the economy better, we might be contemplating a move consistent with the empty nest phase we're moving into.

This is what I don't understand. Why does the economy being bad prevent you from moving? If you have job security and good/decent credit you should be able to get a loan, especially having the equity from the house you're in now as a downpayment. (If you have any after the hit you take) Granted, you won't be able to sell your house for what you could have 3 years ago, but then again, you won't have to pay for a new house what you would have 3 years ago. And, chances are if you are willing to fix it up a little bit, you can get an absolute steal right now from a foreclosure....

This economy is going to get worse before it gets better...that's why people are worried.

I would agree, especially the housing market, but that's why if you can find a buyer for your house now (as prices are going down) and then buy using the falling market as your leverage in negotiations (basically say you're not going to pay market price b/c in 2 years the house is going to be worth 20% less, so that's where you'll start) you could come out much better than what you started. This obviously is contingent on 1) finding a dumb buyer and I don't know if the market is as flooded with those now as it was 3 years ago and 2) being a good negotiator and getting a very good deal on the house you're going to buy.

I guess that is always true, but buyers definitely have the upper hand when negotiating right now making the first step of finding a dumb buyer all the more difficult. But, if you want to move, I wouldn't use the economy as a reason not to......