Judy and I found a house that we LOVE in Philly. Too bad we are not ready, and too bad that house is so expensive. Look, I don’t mind talking about what these houses cost; I feel like people who can talk about money are better with it. I know it’s not the popular opinion and that people are hush hush wayyyy too frequently in regards to this topic, but such is my opinion: If you can discuss money and what you want to do with yours or what goals you have for yourself, I feel you are that much more acclimated to your own financial situation and ways to improve it.

I do hate the the world we live in is so materialistic, but I have become accustomed to the fact that money is a necessary evil. In order to fulfill the goals I have (both philanthropic and not), I need the flow. So that’s the goal – make a bunch. Sounds fun, huh? Then I get to distribute it (be it spending it, investing it, or donating it).

So, there goes another rant. But this house we like is $500,000. It has 5 bedrooms, so we would rent out 2 or 3 rooms (depending if I can fit my office into my bedroom or another room in the house or not). That would be like a $2600 to $3000 monthly mortgage – if you consider insurance, taxes, and the fact that Penn offers a no-down payment loan for its employees. So for 5 people living there, it would be $600 per month from each to cover the mortgage (in excess). I feel this is doable, but not preferable for my and her friends. [For city living, this is a pretty good price in my opinion] So I may have to look for a cheaper house: about $300,000. Then I would get it completely stripped by Paul the construction guy at work. He does really nice work. So I could see spending $50,000 on construction / renovations. I’d incorporate that into the cost of rent (and our mortgage payments) to cover it within the year. This mortgage would be about $400.00 per month per person. Much more manageable – in fact, very cheap for CITY living.

House One, in Wildwood Crest, was $200,000. That was September 2002. Now we have been offered $420,000 for it. That’s insane. We got so lucky on that!

House Two, in West Chester, was $248,000, and that was in April 2004. I just got notice from my Realtor that a house sold on our street, a few doors down, for $290,000. I don’t know if it is comparable (just got news today), but I was very excited to see that. I did not expect the West Chester Borough area to rise as quickly as that suggests. I knew it would be a steady increase, just didn’t see a 20% increase in less than a year.

I would be shocked if I try to pull off a more expensive house than *both* of the other houses, but Penn gives its employees a deal that is impossible to turn down: no down-payment loan and a certain amount of money for home repairs. It would, in essence, increase what we can afford.

Anyway, sorry to bore you with numbers, but I was excited about the notice I received today about the West Chester house. And I was excited that Juice and I found a house that we really liked in Philly – even if we don’t touch it. I still love house-shopping.