[please, wrap your lines at 72 if possible] On Tue, 2002-08-13 at 13:44, Melissa Wyatt wrote:
>The housing is going up in these outer ring areas because we don't have >the legislation or vision on a regional level to coordinate our >growth. "cheaply built" is definately not the norm in all communities. When we moved eariler this year we didn't even look into 'cheaply built' new housing but we did look for decent quality low-maintence [ie: not something that I would need to pour more than $5k into to make decent] housing of a certain size in a few different areas in the metro in a specific price range. The problem we found in the 150k-160k range in some parts of the inner-subarbs is that the available housing is many times in disrepair or has no updated electric infrastructure. Many times the appliances are well on their way to dying. Many homes in that price range didn't 'follow the times'. The worst homes generally had kitchens that were untouched for 40-50 years, basement ceiling tiles with water damage that weren't replaced nor ever investigated, musty basements that weren't dehumidified, fuseboxes (gimmie a break, this is 2002, get a circut breaker based panel put in), 4 prong phone jacks, etc.. We did find some nice homes near 200k in the area that did 'follow the times' in utilities and appliances and other upgrades that are part of decently built modern homes. I'm not saying this doesn't happen in the 'burbs, but at least not in that pricerange. For $158k we were able to find a 6 year old townhome of decent construction in Coon Rapids (with a basement, even). We've not thought twice about living here since. -- Scott Dier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.ringworld.org/ Home: Coon Rapids, MN _______________________________________________ Twin Cities Metropolitan Issues Forum http://www.e-democracy.org/tcmetro Rules: Sign posts with real name. You may not post more than twice a day.
