
Originally Posted by
Pete
This is exactly what has been going on in California and most larger metros, we're just late to the party because our housing costs have been so much lower.
What I always tell people is this: you have to enter the market, because it's only going to go up and owning will become increasingly difficult.
I broke down and did this in California after living there over 10 years. I hated the prices and didn't want to leave the beach, but while I was on the sidelines, things were getting worse right before my eyes.
I would look and then get completely depressed: the homes were super expensive, nowhere near the water, and far below my previous standards. I had to finally shift my expectations and I ended up buying a house in Thousand Oaks, which is pretty far out by L.A. standards, and it needed a lot of work. I literally moved from a bluff-top dream home in Malibu (which was just a rental) into a place with bad carpet, a cheap kitchen, and popcorn ceilings.
I cried like a baby and had enormous buyer's remorse.
But then I settled in, had a great view atop a hill, could walk to a small college that had a fantastic swim complex and workout facilities, had nearly unlimited open space right outside my door, and discovered T.O. was an incredibly nice place to live.
Over the 13 years I was there, I remodeled the entire place inside and out and did a ton of the work myself, like replacing all the interior doors, all the flooring, all the casings and baseboards, scraping ceilings, painting, landscaping, etc.
That house tripled in value in that time and by the time I left, I cried just as hard as when I left Malibu.
With a little creativity and elbow grease, you can have a really nice home in OKC that is affordable to almost everyone.
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