| Author | |
hmbress
Forum Pro
Joined: April 19 2007
Location: Maryland
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 313
|
| Posted: Jan 25 2010 at 9:52am | IP Logged
|
 |
|
Our house in Dearborn, MI has sold (praise God!) and we're house hunting in the Ann Arbor area. As our budget is limited, we find ourselves in the quandary of having to choose between the ideal house in a rotten school district, or a much smaller, older house with fewer amenities and in need of much updating, but in a good school district. The poorer school district does have a couple of nicer neighborhoods with educated professionals who plan to send their kids to private school, so the safety and social aspects aren't so much the concern. I just don't know if WE will necessarily be able to afford private/Catholic school should the need arise, plus what if we need to sell down the road? Resale won't be as good.
What would you do? Please pray for us, that we be given wisdom and guidance in this decision.
Thank you so much!
__________________
Heather Rose (ds13, ds10)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Chris V
Forum All-Star
Joined: Dec 03 2009
Location: Washington
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1598
|
| Posted: Jan 25 2010 at 10:26am | IP Logged
|
|
|
...I don't have any advice, sorry! But wanted to offer my congratulations on your house being sold!
My dh and I often browse real estate in areas we want to live, but we have to sell our house first, before we can buy, and that is always the point at which we throw in the towel, and try to find a renewed love for what we already have  . I envy your sell! If our house sold, we moved in a  beat 
I will pray for you, in these exciting (but nerve-wrecking) times!
__________________
Chris
Happy Wife with my Happy Life
Mama to My Five Girls ('04~'07~'09~'11~'11)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
mathmama
Forum All-Star
Joined: Jan 07 2006
Location: Pennsylvania
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 771
|
| Posted: Jan 25 2010 at 11:26am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Congrats on selling your house!! The market in MI is so saturated right now, it is close to a miracle to sell a house there these days.
We are hoping to move in the next 12 months and our number one concern is selling our current house, you luckily have tackled that task! For us, this move will be our final move because we will only be moving if DH gets tenure, which means no job change for him until retirement  So, we aren't really concerned about resale value. Is there a chance that you could make this a final move? If so, I would forget about worrying about resale value. We are personally looking in places where the school districts are a little less desirable academically. We know it is a bit of a gamble, but we really plan on sticking with homeschooling through high school. We want to live somewhere that is a bit more affordable so we can hopefully get some land and a more desirable house.
We plan on sitting down and making out a list of priorities and dreams. We will start with our ultimate choice, which is a new house on a little land and if that isn't affordable we will go on to looking for a pre-existing house that has what we need or could be made to have what we need. I think it is a good idea to get these things down on paper so you know what you want to focus on when you go looking.
Not sure if this is at all helpful, but these are my thoughts. Good luck
Beth
__________________
Beth, wife to Tom and mommy to 4 beautiful girls:
Therese 11/04
Anna Mary 6/07
Veronica 10/09
Theodora 11/12
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
hmbress
Forum Pro
Joined: April 19 2007
Location: Maryland
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 313
|
| Posted: Jan 25 2010 at 11:36am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Oh, how I would love this to be a final move. And it may well be, but there is also the possibility of dh getting a better paying job elsewhere down the road.
I do not at this time plan to homeschool high school, rather, I'd love to send my little guys to a truly wonderful Catholic boys' HS in the area, but will we be able to afford that? Hard to say.
Sigh.
__________________
Heather Rose (ds13, ds10)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Maddie
Forum All-Star
Joined: Dec 27 2005
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1804
|
| Posted: Jan 25 2010 at 12:09pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Just wanted to say I'm so impressed and happy for you! Selling a house in MI is no small feat. God must have a great plan for you.
__________________
~Maddie~
Wife to my dh and Momma of 9 dear ones
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Kathryn
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 24 2009
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1520
|
| Posted: Jan 25 2010 at 6:10pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
mathmama wrote:
We plan on sitting down and making out a list of priorities and dreams. I think it is a good idea to get these things down on paper so you know what you want to focus on when you go looking.
|
|
|
As a former real estate agent in my past life  , this is an excellent idea. It will really help you focus on what your priorities and goals are in the short-term and long-term. Letting all the ideas bounce around in your head can become too overwhelming when you're faced with a "this or that" choice.
Good luck...may be in my future life, I can get back in the real estate game. I prob. won't have quite the energy anymore though.
__________________
Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
florasita
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 06 2007
Location: Canada
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 907
|
| Posted: Jan 26 2010 at 8:25am | IP Logged
|
|
|
some tips I can offer now after being home owners in our area are check on how many homes in the area are rentals . I'm sorry to say but in pooer neighbourhoods low rentals are often owned by slum landlords and the renters are not often nice people .
schools ! yes , this is a must because the fact is there may at some point be a reason we will need to send our children to school . If you find out later the schools in your area are not great think about if you want to be driving kids out of area each and everyday . Or taking long long bus rides. school bus rides in the city can take up to an hr on the bus for kids who are picked up first ( yes in the city !not just the country ) think of nieghbourhood for public transit as well . It is great to live near easy access public transit for kids to get to school however it makes absolutely no help if your children are not safe taking the buss in your area. We used to have to walk , stand and wait with our boys even when they were 16yo because of gang members jumping young men .
These are just issues we have encountered . Our older children were fortunate that our street had many families whom raised thier children in loving homes etc. so they played with many nieghbourhood children . Since we now have at least 8 remtal homes on our street families have moved away . I'm not kidding that the only children we had on the street playing were those from the 3 crack houses . So we now only have friends who live in other nieghbourhoods .
__________________
May I rise & rest with words of Gratitude on my Breath
May I have the Heart & Mind of a Child in my Depth
May I forever remember to be a Light
May Peace Love & Hope be My Sight
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
melanie
Forum All-Star
Joined: June 28 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 563
|
| Posted: Jan 27 2010 at 9:47pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Oy. This is hard.
I think an argument could be made either way, but I would probably go with the un-ideal house in the better neighborhood. I say this becasue we did the opposite and I do regret it. We could have gotten a smaller house in a better area, or a bigger house in a not-so-great area, and we went bigger. It's been an issue in many ways. There are many renters here, so "neighbor turnover" is very quick. Some neighbors are fine...some not. We've had lots of issues with problem neighborhood children that run unsupervised, we had a drug felon across the street with his teenage son hitting on my then 11-yo daughter, the 12yo girl we found making out with the aforementioned teenage son behind our garage, and just last week the biggest meth bust in the last ten years happened two blocks from us.  It didn't look like that bad of a neighborhood when we moved in. This is a small-ish town, and there's not a lot of crime in general. There are many nice houses around us and some nice people too. I feel like it's more just like this town is growing quickly and our area is deteriorating fast. My children are not allowed to play outside our backyard without supervision, even though they are old enough that they should be able to do so. I wish we had gone smaller. You can always add on or fix up as money in the future allows.
__________________
Melanie
homeschooling Maria (13yo), Kain (10yo), Jack (5yo), Tess (2yo), and our newest blessing, Henry Robert, born 4/23!
slightlycrunchycatholic.blogspot.com
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
hmbress
Forum Pro
Joined: April 19 2007
Location: Maryland
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 313
|
| Posted: Jan 28 2010 at 4:56am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Yikes Melanie and Florasita! How awful. Thanks for sharing your experience. VERY good things to consider.
__________________
Heather Rose (ds13, ds10)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MichelleW
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 01 2005
Location: Oregon
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 947
|
| Posted: Jan 28 2010 at 12:31pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
If it were me, I would buy a house in a parish with an active and flourishing youth group. I know it sounds weird to buy a house based on the local church instead of on the local school. I taught in high schools for many years before having kids and it was extremely noticeable that the kids with a strong connection to their youth group did so much better both socially and academically. In the last school where I taught I found I could pick out the kids that went to St. Timothy's very easily.
I also think that the support you get in a good parish will be far more useful to you than trying to guess what the market is going to do...
__________________
Michelle
Mom to 3 (dd 14, ds 15, and ds 16)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Help! Moving and Choosing Neighborhood
