New Appliances!

This weekend I saw a house listed for sale at $414,000. The amazing thing is that an exact same house in that same neighborhood that I had had my eye on a number of months ago (early in 2008) had sold for $450,000, after a $50K price cut from $499,000!

Who knows if this market has bottomed out yet?

But it was encouraging, actually, to see that prices were becoming even more affordable. It gives me hope that one day when we can afford to buy another place, that we may still be able to do so at a price that feels comfortable.

But anyhow, in the meantime, we had decided to buy some new appliances (stainless steel) to spruce up our kitchen in our condo, versus buying a new home.

Just in buying those appliances, which set us back a couple G's (damn, we still need to get a fridge, too!!), made me realize that if we do buy a house that is not in tip-top shape (and most likely it would not be), who has 2G's to spend on new appliances in another home??!

Fixing up a house may not be something that you attempt to do all at once, but it IS still something that needs to get done; whether you do it right away or bit-by-bit, the money has got to come from some place, right?

The hidden costs of buying a house are the fixing-up costs....the redecorating costs...and all the things that you don't include in the monthly payment when figuring out whether you can really afford the place.

So for now, we're going to enjoy our kitchen with our awesome range and our "mommy-is-so-happy-to-not-have-to-do-dishes-again" dishwasher! And I love heating up food in our new stainless steel over-the-range microwave, because the other one was terribly inefficient.

And I'm going to be happy with my new, affordable kitchen! :)