Corvallis makes the Top 10!
Too bad it's the top 10 towns with the highest home price appreciation in the nation. Corvallis ranked 8th in the country, with a 16.2% increase in home prices in 2005.
Most of us who have lived here for any length of time already guessed it was a pretty steep rise. In 2000, the median price for a vacant home was $121,000. In 2005, when Corvallis was ranked 10th on Sperling's Best Places to Live, the median price had already jumped to $198,000.
I know that's probably a reasonable figure compared to many places along both coasts, but virtually all new housing being built in town is above the $200K mark. I think the costs were initially driven up by the mass production of $400K McMansions on Timber Hill, but now these fairly small houses in Southtown are going for nearly $300K and the McMansions are pushing $800K. I like looking at the housing flyers in older parts of town where cocky homeowners encouraged by the mad increases are trying to sell off their 800-square-foot shanties for $180,000. That does cheer me up a bit, because those places still sit on the market for a good long while, until common sense prevails.
But actual affordable housing in Corvallis now basically means $150,000 two-bedroom condos and trailer parks, folks. Or you can rent for all eternity and hope your landlord doesn't raise the rent every 6 months. I'm glad I like my landlord!
Most of us who have lived here for any length of time already guessed it was a pretty steep rise. In 2000, the median price for a vacant home was $121,000. In 2005, when Corvallis was ranked 10th on Sperling's Best Places to Live, the median price had already jumped to $198,000.
I know that's probably a reasonable figure compared to many places along both coasts, but virtually all new housing being built in town is above the $200K mark. I think the costs were initially driven up by the mass production of $400K McMansions on Timber Hill, but now these fairly small houses in Southtown are going for nearly $300K and the McMansions are pushing $800K. I like looking at the housing flyers in older parts of town where cocky homeowners encouraged by the mad increases are trying to sell off their 800-square-foot shanties for $180,000. That does cheer me up a bit, because those places still sit on the market for a good long while, until common sense prevails.
But actual affordable housing in Corvallis now basically means $150,000 two-bedroom condos and trailer parks, folks. Or you can rent for all eternity and hope your landlord doesn't raise the rent every 6 months. I'm glad I like my landlord!
posted by Corvallist at
10:46 PM
2 Comments:
It does sound like Corvallis is moving out of the affordability range, at least for first time home buyers. A $200,000 house with 5% down and a 30 year fixed rate of around 7% would require a monthly income in the range of $6,000, or $72,000/year. That $300,000 home in Southtown (same down payment, etc.) would require an income of around $107,600. Since the average family in Oregon makes around $40K, they would have substantial trouble buying a first home in Corvallis.
(Here is a link to the calculator I used: http://www.decisionaide.com/mpcalculators/AffordabilityCalculator/Affordability2e.asp )
By
Anonymous, at 11:30 AM
I got driven out of Corvallis by this exact thing, since my brother wanted to buy a house I could rent from him after my eviction mid December, so I'd not have to rent from slumlords in Corvallis. I'd lived in Corvallis with a HUD voucher for 30 years.
Sure feels wierd, since i lived there so long, to be gone. I feel without roots anymore, like a woman without a town or something, like a Corvallisite from the outside, but that doesn't feel the same.
Corvallis is like the golden land, yet out of reach for many in lower income brackets. It's kind of a catch 22. Corvallis wants to celebrate diversity, be progressive and green, but the nicer it becomes, the less diverse it becomes. You get the wealthy progressive and the poor and lower middle class get the boot.
Unless you forever remain a renter. But even that teensy shack where I lived, without drinkable water, went for over $500.
So over here, in the land of Linn, there really are no amenities, like nice parks, etc. Bunch of asphalt. So, I call it a burb of Corvallis. Yup, the Albany burb.
By
Strayer, at 12:30 AM
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