The Silver Buick wants a garage.

[Scott Liggett]

jebus, with those house prices and taxes I'd buy a couple just for something to do (I'm not rich, but a BASIC 50 year old house in my neck of the woods is $400K (just bought one in December), and property taxes are $3000+ / year - and I live "out in the sticks" - but with only a 100' x 120' lot) Damn you americans and your cheap property!!!!!

Property is cheap in small towns way out in the boonies. Not cheap at all where I live. A shit box in a crap neighborhood is $500k.

[moparmaniac07]

jebus, with those house prices and taxes I'd buy a couple just for something to do (I'm not rich, but a BASIC 50 year old house in my neck of the woods is $400K (just bought one in December), and property taxes are $3000+ / year - and I live "out in the sticks" - but with only a 100' x 120' lot) Damn you americans and your cheap property!!!!!

I may be wrong because I've never been there, but I was under the impression there was a lot of land in Canada. How can Canada not be rich if they're selling/taxing that much land at those rates. I also thought 90% of Canada was 'the sticks' so how much is property where it's actually inhabited? (insert 'shocked' smiley here)

[TheSilverBuick]

Ha! Property taxes at the new 5 acre place with ~1984 home is right around $1,000/yr. My 1955 house on a 60'x200' lot (also 12,000sqft) would sell I think fairly quickly at $110,000, with $400/yr taxes. Now I really really live out in the sticks. That same type of property in southern California could be a $400,000+ place depending exactly where in SoCal.

I have an appointment with the insurance people this morning, and this can be the killer, is flood insurance. The new place is in a flood plain at the base of the mountains (supposibly the water table is 16ft down based on the well measurements), so I could get a sticker shock price on flood insurance today. Even though I do live in a desert......


As for land availability in Canada, doesn't 90% of Canada's population live within 100 miles of the US border?

[milner351]

It seems there's always a catch.

Flood insurance is sure confusing - they are telling us we may have to get it after what happened with the Army Core of Engineers opening the flood gates along the Mississippi to protect the larger cities while flooding farms and plains sacrificially. We don't even have a sump pump and have never had water in our basement, we are at least 40 feet above the surface of the lake..... and we need flood insurance?

[BBR]

Randal you probably know this but FEMA publishes flood hazard rate maps of most areas. They have a nice website that you can look up your location and print a small map.

FEMA SITE

[TheSilverBuick]

Randal you probably know this but FEMA publishes flood hazard rate maps of most areas. They have a nice website that you can look up your location and print a small map.

FEMA SITE

Yeah, I have a copy of the flood map from the appraisal and this house is literally right on the edge of it. Half of Ely is actually in a "Flood Zone" as the city was built in a canyon, but my current house is at the top of a hill.

[DanStokes]

We carry flood insurance given that we're about 16' above sea level (as far as I can tell) and about 0.8 mi from the Atlantic (Middle Sound, just north of Wrightsville Beach). It really isn't too pricey although I don't have the figures in my head. The house 4 down from us floods when there's a hurricane but our lot never has - it's visibly lower than ours.

Dan

[TheSilverBuick]

Well the news is since FEMA just recently adjusted the flood plain map in November of last year, I can get get "cheap" $400/yr flood insurance, BUT after two years it can get jacked up to a WTF $2,350/yr

The house is in a Zone A, meaning that the flood level potential in a 100 year storm is really unknown because a detailed evaulation of the area wasn't done. Doing some reading, it looks like to me that the flood boudary was designed along topo lines and I read that in some cases these Zone A areas are created by inaccurate or low resolution topo maps, which near as I can tell looks to be a 40ft contour map.... Some more reading, it appears that some have had success in getting areas re-zoned by having a survey of their property done showing their property is above the Zone A criteria of flooding. Same flood zone report states this area get's between 7 and 11 inches of precipitation a year, which is about what I figured based on snow levels, etc. Pretty dry.

I have two years to either sort it out or just eat a $200/mo increase in my mortgage. I'm going back to the insurance company's office tomorrow to sort through more of the details.

[SuperBuickGuy]

keep in mind, the only thing that has to be out of the flood plain is the house itself. There are lots of houses around here that are up on dirt berms that raise them just above the flood plain and thus to cheaper insurance.... kind of sucks, though, when there's a bit of extra rain...

[milner351]

At least you are learning about this early in the process and not after you lived there a few years - like the surprise we got. It sounds like a survey maybe worth your while - like SBG says - it's only the house that really matters, so the survey won't have to cover the entire property.

[STINEY]

This is interesting stuff. Fortunately I have not had to deal with flood insurance, but we DID have a freak flood in town a few years back.

It was said that the affected area was in a 100 year flood plain - - which most assumed meant that it flooded once about every 100 years.

I researched and learned that it actually means that the odds are 1 in 100 that there will be a flood every year. Big difference there.

Anyway, it ended being beneficial to most who suffered having water in the 2nd story of their houses. (no fooling) FEMA bailed the owners out, with the stipulation that it was the last time ever. The city then recieved a grant to buy the properties and turn it into a park.

Now we have a very scenic large grassy area with some very big trees along the river in the middle of town where the local Soccer organization has 6 different fields laid out. Everyone wins.

[TheSilverBuick]

I'm definitely on the fringe of the flood line and looking at satellite images and going out there after work yesterday, it look like a sure 50/50 gamble on paying for a survey and it coming out in my favor. It's pretty flat and the water shed by the google satellite image also makes it look close by the geomorphology features seen. It's definitely out of the range of the features, but the features might not represent the 100 year flood because of the infrequentness.

I'm going back to the insurance place today, perhaps I'll see something in the higher quote that doesn't need to be there. Either way, $200/mo isn't going to break me, but still.....

[milner351]

I hope you can fight it and win - if nothing else - perhaps you can shop other insurance companies and end up with a better rate.

[chevy3100truck]

Property is cheap in small towns way out in the boonies. Not cheap at all where I live. A shit box in a crap neighborhood is $500k.

Average price in Vancouver - Condo $400,000, Detached house - north of $900,000, average transaction (combined condos and houses) - $718,000......

I'm out in the sticks where the average is only about $380,000

[chevy3100truck]

As for land availability in Canada, doesn't 90% of Canada's population live within 100 miles of the US border?

it's somewhere around 80-85% I think now, but yeah, most of us live right near the US border. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live up north here in BC (I have to travel up that way for work sometimes). -40C/F is too damn cold in the winter........