Cost of Houses

1) Where do you live?

2) How much did you pay for your house?

It's came to my attention that housing costs vary dramatically here in the US depending what state you're in. We live in Los Angeles so obviously it's a higher cost of living but it's insane to see how much more! Our neighborhood is upper/middle class with great schools and our neighbor just sold their 3 bedroom 2 bath home for $700,000! Not a mansion or anything special by any means, just a typical single family dwelling in our area. Go up the hill a little bit and similar homes are $1mil+! Meanwhile my friend in Montana just bought a house with similar specs but more property/land for about $40,000, no more than a down payment here 😖 We're planning to refi for some renovations to our home and then take over the loan that's currently in MILs name but even though she's owned the home for 15+ years and has never borrowed against the equity, we'll still owe around $200,000 after pulling out less than $100,000 for renovations! We both have pretty good jobs but this is literally the only way we could afford a home in this nice area we live in...friends of ours just purchased a fixer upper in not that great of an area for $500,000 😱