Goodness Gracious Sakes Alive!!!

Well, only a week to go. I definitely miss being at home, and it seems like Jack has grown even in the last two weeks (judging from the pictures). Sadly, up until this weekend, the weather has been nicer in Iowa than here. However, today was a really nice day out, so I decided to take my running outside.* Anyway, my hotel overlooks the Pentagon, and I am really only about 1-2 miles outside the city. As I was out running, I stumbled upon Beaverdale type neighborhoods. Well, being me, I instantly wondered how much these Beaverdale-like houses cost, so I looked them up on the in internet when I got back from my run. For comparison purposes, I pulled 2 similar Beaverdale houses off of Iowa realty (it is a pretty good apples to apples comparison re: house type, location in city, size, etc).
*Sadly, the pounds are not dropping off. The closer I get to 30, the harder it is to get in actual shape? Good grief!

First the Beaverdale houses...




Both are 3 bed, 2 bath homes in Beaverdale. House No. 1 goes for 155k, and No. 2 goes for 149K.

Oh yeah, given that I am a government employee, we have locality pay scales. If I were to move to Washington DC, I would get an annual raise of $5,487.00, which after taxes, comes out to about $310 per month. You tell me if $310 a month would cover the difference in cost of living!

Now for the good stuff...


House No. 1 goes for ONLY $617,500.00. You get less than a 1/10 of an acre, 3 beds and 3 baths. But at least it has been updated to include modern amenities like a telephone and cable lines*
*Don't laugh. We had to have cable lines brought into our house in Mission. Sad, but true.



Ok, so you can't afford house No. 1? Understandable. With house No. 2, you are paying for land, as the description for the property boasts that the home "needs extensive rehab." You can get this fixer upper, with 3 beds and 3 baths, for the as-is price of $464,000.00. Do I have any takers?

Maybe somebody should tell DC that the housing market is down?