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A couple caveats to that. I'm in NY and I bought a huge mansion in my upstate city. It cost me $250k for 8,000 square feet, turn of the 20th century woodwork, arts and crafts movement. My property taxes are $9k a year. And now you know why housing stock here is relatively cheap.

Our transaction taxes in NY are relatively high. it takes about $8k to close, but most of those are fees for title searches, surveys, appraisals and the like. Only $2k of that goes to the state as tax.

Lastly, I believe federal law has changed now and homes that sell for under half a million are no longer subject to capital gains.

by Upstate NY on Wed Jun 15th, 2011 at 12:35:49 AM EST
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I had a house like that--not 8000 square feet, but same general concept. After fighting with plumbing, electricity, HVAC, roof, landscaping for a few years it got old and I moved to a brand new house. Where I can get the rarely needed plumbing part at Home Depot instead of from the guy who custom makes them on his basement lathe for $250 a pop.
by asdf on Sun Jun 19th, 2011 at 12:15:18 PM EST
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Tell me about it!! Upkeep is insane. But, we do replace copper pipe with PVC. The problem is the asbestos.
by Upstate NY on Sun Jun 19th, 2011 at 12:30:06 PM EST
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