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.

I can’t stop thinking real estate. I know that it can be considered to be a volatile market at this time, with the predicted interest rate hikes coming up, but it doesn’t phase me. I know that I can still be successful if sticking to markets that I feel can’t go anywhere but up.

For example, the Jersey shore. They aren’t building any more coastal land. While Wildwood did once go through a phase where the property values tanked, they are in a surging market currently. The value of House One already doubled after we bought it in September 2001. And there’s no where left to build on the Jersey coast. My feelings are strong that the coast is not going anywhere, and that no one is building more of it. And with the northern shore points overdeveloped, the trickle-down effect on the southern shore points is more that apparent when suffocated with constant development.

[This leads me to ask why the area between Wildwood Crest and Cape May is not developed. I assume it's too marshy, but I don't know. It is about a mile strip of road that has nothing on the left driving southward, but restaurants and a marina on the right. Why is the left not built up?]

And House Two, in West Chester, PA, is in the same situation. There is a high demand for people to move into the Borough. There seems to be a high demand, at least in this southeastern PA area, for moving back into the city – for having amenities in walking distance. It makes sense, if you think about it, that as the baby boomers age there will be a resurgence of city-dwellings.

And now I am looking up houses in Philly. Judy and I will be moving into Philly in a year or so, if all goes as planned. So today I hopped on Realtor.com to see what’s available in the city. I love to have everything so close, but I still want to have a yard. So a townhouse may not fit. I dream of having a Gaitley-style basketball court in my backyard, with lights and everything

[Gaitley-style = n. ridiculously awesome court with full glass backboards, playground quality rubber-like painted courts with stadium lighting ]

. I only need room in the yard for a half-court, but this is something I really want. And I know houses exist like this in Philly – the problem may be finding one. So the hunt is on…