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Looks like the house itself is a very well maintained charming property in good location near Harrisburg. I can understand why your wife loves the house. I like todor style too.

I used to live in western PA for a while before 2000. Have very positive memories. Nice people, even cops are not bad. Kind of sick of mountains and corn fields though. I am not sure that local harrisburg income level is high enough to support over 300K homes or not, and the price... not sure about it too. However, spending about 2K/mo (rent/mortgae + util + etc) for home is hard when your household income is less than 80K/yr. So, assuming your income is enough, your job is solid, and you have no problem maintaining the property, the home looks attractive. Otherwise, take your time, search more.

Hi Seaside,

Yes, we're above average for the area with respect to income and total "harrisburgians". I actually work in New Cumberland just 2.5 miles from this home. You are definitely right about the 300K threshold being a tad high for the area income levels. On the flip side, most people are employed by the State or Federal Governments, so job stability is less of a concern. There are ton of high 200s homes for sale right now in the exurbs. Once you push the 270K FHA limit for the area, homes seem to sit for a while.

Thanks for the reply. You are right about corn fields, but the mountains are really fun if you are on foot or bike.

I feel like you're sort of eagor to buy in hurry. If so, I really recommend you sit back little bit and check market trend. How fast are they selling? Is there any sudden price fluctuation across the area? The wallet situation of average people there got better or worse? Those are what you want to pay attention to.

The said home and other homes in the area are on market for more than 100 days. There maybe tons of homes and it looks to me they are not selling fast enough. Which indicates there're more homes than the number of buyers, or the prices are not right. If that's the market trend up there, you definitely want little more time to think about it.

Ok, that was my usual bearish conservative sort of opinion. By the way, Is harrisbugh yellow nation or eagle fly high place? :)

Well, we are eager to leave our current residence due to our expanding family. However, we have been looking for about 18 months. Unfortunately, the first 12 of those months had us looking at older homes with character in more densely populated areas of the boroughs. We've come to realize that the higher property taxes or increased upkeep in addition to a premium is not going to be feasible for our wants/needs. Consequently, due to market conditions and house infatuation, people in those homes are holding tight as few have come up in comparison to the surburban tract type housing built in the corn fields in the late 80s through today.

Once you leave the inner circle surrounding the boroughs, houses at 300K sit and sit. There is definitely a buyer shortage at that level. That doesn't mean that the houses are vastly over priced, it's just a reflection of the economic situation in addition to some overpricing. This house actually started at $350K, vastly overpriced.

Well, if we skip on this one it's back to the drawing board. Nothing else on the MLS interests us in th 225-300K range.

Just bumping.

Any news to share?

Hi Seaside. No, unfortunately, but thanks for asking. We might schedule another visit this week. There is a Sheriff's sale down six houses from this place on Monday and the house beside that one just went up for $240. The $309 always was a pipe dream. However, we know the people have the house paid off, so they only have to worry about utilities and taxes.

Drove and walked through the neighborhood again today doing the whole "soul searching" bit. Not being able to walk anywhere really stinks. However, you can't have it all. This place would sell for 400K easy three miles closer as the crow flies. It's like instant boonies once you cross a certain line.

We swing both ways when it comes to Eagles/Steelers.

NagaEator, had a good time at sheriff's sale up there? Time to stop eating Naga, you gotta level up. (guess you're playing WoW?)

It's beautiful weather outside, openhouses are popping up like sprouts after the rain, so we went out to visit some today. The target area is spingfield VA.

Among those homes we went, two homes are interesting. Man, people are doing all kind of weird things.

In a small SFH, I found round shaped metal hatch at the garage wall, wondered what is that about. Then I found another hatch in backyard under the tree. Opened it up, I realized that it is connected to the garage thru underground. Is the owner playing hamster or something?

Another home is nice. New paint, new windows, plenty of rooms, quite open. All good except couple things. Furnance and water heater is old, and the basement is creepy. It felt like bunch of dead bodies burried inside the wall. Some space b/w walls considering the thickness. Upon some peeping, I found tens of empty paint cans thrown in it.

Good luck with your search, and keep us posted. :)

Well, it looks like we're going to get it for $285 barring any issues with the inspection. Now I'm kicking myself wondering if we overpaid at that price! Hah!

Make sure inspect the property thoroughly. You want to be with the inspector during the inspection, and ask what to expect and how to operate the stuffs. If something should be replaced, ask him write it down. That's better than just waiting to get few pieces of paper.

It usually is wise to buy something the lady in the house want, and if you bought something you can not easily return, don't look back. Just enjoy the most out of it. :)

Good luck and keep it posted.