Cute houses, yet another thread

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...=srp-list-card


Here is a house I am absolutely obsessing over. I love everything about it. It is old for the Midwest, 1850s. It’s in a not bad part of Alton, Illinois, where they love to tax you. My goodness real estate taxes are high by Midwestern standards.

But I love everything about this house. I would not do one thing to the kitchen it is perfect the way it is.

Alton, Illinois is on the Mississippi river and was a major hub at one time. A big Abraham Lincoln/Douglas debate took place there, very famous.

That is a wonderful house, and it's practically free by Boston area standards. However, I do not admire their taste in garden statuary, and the interior decor kind of gives me a headache (nothing that cannot easily be changed though).

House looks like it was chopped up from something else bigger. I despise that sort of decor.

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Originally Posted by Tradd

House looks like it was chopped up from something else bigger. I despise that sort of decor.

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Oh no, it’s not chopped up. It’s a typical Mansard Victorian, it’s just small. That’s what I like about it, it’s like a miniature mansion.


Decor is quite extreme and I wouldn’t replicate that but that said, I like the atmosphere it provides.

the kitchen is so cute. I’ll bet that is a working fireplace. It just has old vibes and I love that.

I think it's cute, too! DH always talks about wanting a "wee castle" which is an oxymoron of course, and this strikes me the same way... like a dollhouse version of a grand Victorian house. I also like the kitchen, and I dread what the new owners will probably do to it. That all said, it's a bit dark for my taste, but I'd definitely take it over most modern designs.

I've been to Alton--when my son was shooting King of the Hill. I remember. it is also famous for a giant, right? It's a lovely town--I do remember that.

What a charmer! Have also been in Alton!

the interior (red! giant checkerboard floor!) gives me a queasy Twin Peak's vibe, but overall the house is really cute. I'm a sucker for mansard roof houses. I like strange garden decor- now I want life-size giraffes overlooking my parking area! But then our gardens (ok, flowerbeds) currently house a bomb tail, a three foot long flat metal wall-hanging fire-breathing dragon (that we put on stakes) that's about to torch a bunch of dickens-village type houses, and a bunch of crashed (trashed) 1/72 and 1/35 scale models of various WWII aircraft, trucks, and tanks. With the odd star-trek model, just for balance, lol. Oh - we also have a large rabbit holding a defunct solar lantern. I do hope the new owners leave those fireplaces, and the kitchen, overall, alone. But what are the odds? I know a guy who bought a lovely. almost entirely original Craftsman bungalow, gutted it, and put in all shaker-style cabinetry, wall to wall carpet, and a metal staircase. It was truly g-dawful, but he loved it. Me, I just wanted to cry.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...=srp-list-card


It’s in a not bad part of Alton, Illinois, where they love to tax you. My goodness real estate taxes are high by Midwestern standards.

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Are you saying that you think $188/month property tax on this is high?

Because of Prop 13, our tax assessment is 1% of purchase price plus the local additional assessments that were approved by voters. In Marin county that is about $2,000 above our 1% assessment on $727k purchase price. The 1% of purchase price assessment goes up 2% per year. We're just shy of $10k property taxes at this point. How does Alton pay for schools/police/fire/etc if every house has such cheap property tax as this one?

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Originally Posted by jp1

Are you saying that you think $188/month property tax on this is high?

Because of Prop 13, our tax assessment is 1% of purchase price plus the local additional assessments that were approved by voters. In Marin county that is about $2,000 above our 1% assessment on $727k purchase price. The 1% of purchase price assessment goes up 2% per year. We're just shy of $10k property taxes at this point. How does Alton pay for schools/police/fire/etc if every house has such cheap property tax as this one?

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just based on the market value of $179,000, yeah, that tax amount of $3500 annually is a lot. Real estate taxes are high in the tax-me state of Illinois, and I don’t quite understand why. I know that real estate taxation is a local issue but yet it’s high across the state.

For comparison, my Hermann house is worth about $100,000 more and my taxes are lower. They’re just at $2000 a year.

As an aside, when we first bought this Hermann house, before it was renovated, our taxes were $1000 a year. This would’ve been a perfectly fine house for people to live in inexpensively. The family that did live here had a lower middle class sort of income.

We pay for schools and roads and etc. here because things cost less than in California. By the way the Hermann school district graduates and sends to college a whole lot more students than the St. Louis city schools do. City schools have much higher per pupil funding.

success is not about the money, necessarily.

Looks like quite a bargain from here in Maryland.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

just based on the market value of $179,000, yeah, that tax amount of $3500 annually is a lot. Real estate taxes are high in the tax-me state of Illinois, and I don’t quite understand why. I know that real estate taxation is a local issue but yet it’s high across the state.

For comparison, my Hermann house is worth about $100,000 more and my taxes are lower. They’re just at $2000 a year.

As an aside, when we first bought this Hermann house, before it was renovated, our taxes were $1000 a year. This would’ve been a perfectly fine house for people to live in inexpensively. The family that did live here had a lower middle class sort of income.

We pay for schools and roads and etc. here because things cost less than in California. By the way the Hermann school district graduates and sends to college a whole lot more students than the St. Louis city schools do. City schools have much higher per pupil funding.

success is not about the money, necessarily.

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The math for how they provide services doesn't work. Even assuming the average property tax bill is 50% higher than the $2300ish bill for this house, Alton has a population of 25,600, living in 12,518 households. That would be total property tax of $43.2m. Their school district alone has a $95M budget, according to the district's web site. Where does the other $50m come from? And that's ignoring things like police and fire departments, roads, etc. that also need to be paid for somehow.

Looks cozy for sure. I am always looking for the house "that puts its arms around you". I have been perusing some of these old houses for sale websites like Old House Dreams or Zero Down. There are so many affordable ones - mostly in the midwest but probably out in the middle of nowhere or in dying towns.

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Originally Posted by jp1

The math for how they provide services doesn't work. Even assuming the average property tax bill is 50% higher than the $2300ish bill for this house, Alton has a population of 25,600, living in 12,518 households. That would be total property tax of $43.2m. Their school district alone has a $95M budget, according to the district's web site. Where does the other $50m come from? And that's ignoring things like police and fire departments, roads, etc. that also need to be paid for somehow.

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I don’t know where you’re getting your math assumptions on income, but the budget for the city of Alton alone is $71 million. They are getting more income than what you are estimating. There are other taxes collected by municipalities other than real estate ‘tho that real estate tax revenue forms the bulk of income. Other income streams such as business tax, ?personal property tax?, fees, money from the Feds, etc are collected.

their budget ampunt is the last line of page 1.

https://www.cityofaltonil.gov/view-t...1%2C801%2C124.

And then, I assume a portion of real estate tax not reflected in the $71 million goes to the school system. Plus, the state is probably throwing some money at the Alton school district.

Our real estate tax bill was just issued on Jan 1st and since we're on the road I've just today downloaded a copy of mine so that we can pay it from the road before it becomes due on Feb 8th. Our home is assessed for tax purposes at a value of approximately $400,000 and the annual tax due is $6,488.00, of which the county gets $822, our township gets $1626, the local school district gets $3772, a local vocational school gets $198 and the public library gets $70. Other than the county's portion, all the rest are the results of successful school, police/fire and public library levies approved by voters.

It's interesting to me that they list the Gross Real Estate Tax at $13,141 before applying credits for 'Reduction Factor' of -$5,354, Non Business Credit of -$664, an Owner Occupancy Credit of -$166 and a Homestead Exemption of -$469. While I'm grateful for the credits, it bugs me a little to know that even afterward my monthly R/E Tax charge of $541 is our largest recurring monthly expense.

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Originally Posted by jp1

Are you saying that you think $188/month property tax on this is high?

Because of Prop 13, our tax assessment is 1% of purchase price plus the local additional assessments that were approved by voters. In Marin county that is about $2,000 above our 1% assessment on $727k purchase price. The 1% of purchase price assessment goes up 2% per year. We're just shy of $10k property taxes at this point. How does Alton pay for schools/police/fire/etc if every house has such cheap property tax as this one?

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not to beat a dead horse here, but the property tax listed on this real estate listing is $292 a month, and that’s 3500 a year. I don’t know where you’re seeing $188 a month

I was going by the "monthly cost" section of the listing where it said Property Tax $188. I don't especially care since I'm not planning to move to Alton IL. I've been there numerous times because SO's family loves going to Fast Eddie's Bonaire for the cheap peel and eat shrimp. Those annual trips are enough for me. I don't need to experience the place on the daily.

I suppose they get enough welfare from someone else's taxes paid elsewhere to make the budget work. Good on them if they can work the system to bring in the unearned bucks?

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Originally Posted by jp1

I was going by the "monthly cost" section of the listing where it said Property Tax $188. I don't especially care since I'm not planning to move to Alton IL. I've been there numerous times because SO's family loves going to Fast Eddie's Bonaire for the cheap peel and eat shrimp. Those annual trips are enough for me. I don't need to experience the place on the daily.

I suppose they get enough welfare from someone else's taxes paid elsewhere to make the budget work. Good on them if they can work the system to bring in the unearned bucks?

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for the zillionth time I looked at the tax information for this house on realtor.com, and it listed the figure you use, $188 for a monthly tax bill. I closed that tab and looked it up again, and it displayed the figure I have seen in the past, $292 per month.

Below is a screenshot showing taxes but I can’t prove that it’s coming from that exact listing. realtor.com is often wonky. Anyway, who knows how much the tax bill is but $188 a month isn’t much and I wouldn’t complain about that. I would complain about $292 a month.

We’ve never been to Fast Edie’s. Parts of Alton are very cool: the old Victorian neighborhood, the private streets area is cool.

Attachment 5733

If you go to Fast Eddie’s have you gone down the river road to tiny charming Elsah? Have you seen the Principia college campus up on the hill from Elsah, the one with the 1920s architecture? It is beautiful and so peaceful.

Weird that we're seeing different stuff. This is what I'm seeing. The difference is meaningful. ANd yeah, were both trusting realtor.com ...

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https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...=srp-list-card


here is another dollhouse in Alton, Illinois right across the river from St. Louis. Alton has some sketchy neighborhoods that’s for sure, but this house does not appear to be in one. It’s on a street of tiny little houses. It listed $95,000 and boy is it cute.

Alton have some great Victorian architecture because it was an important Rivertown back in the day. They have cultural institutions in their town. For entertainment, you can just go across the river to St. Louis.

I would love to find a place like this - size and price - in my area/surrounding area! I could live without the basement, but it's just the size I want!

Other than the color of the kitchen cabinets I could make this place work. Especially for the pocket change price.

Very cute, although I agree with JP that cabinet color has to go. In my area, that house would go for over $600,000.

Adorable! I actually could live with the cabinet color, but I would probably paint them something other than red and keep red as an accent somehow. But the house is great. And that price! As rosa said, in the Northeast you couldn't get a garage for that.

Really nice. Could use some trees.

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Originally Posted by Rogar

Really nice. Could use some trees.

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Yes.

as I panned down that block, there are not trees. I wonder if it’s one of those old neighborhoods that lost its trees due to some disease

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Originally Posted by catherine

Adorable! I actually could live with the cabinet color, but I would probably paint them something other than red and keep red as an accent somehow. But the house is great. And that price! As rosa said, in the Northeast you couldn't get a garage for that.

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I’m just charmed at how cute it is from the outside, and then on the inside it has pretty hardwood floors, which are typical, but still they’re nice, the bump out bay in the living room which is an added feature, and the little nook, the kitchen sits in. Very very cute. And I like the red kitchen cabinets even.

it has a garage which for this price is pretty unusual. I wonder why it hasn’t sold?

houses like this go for an extra hundred thousand dollars in the city of St. Louis in neighborhoods with you want to live in

If you like looking at cute old houses by state, this website is fun:
https://theoldhouselife.com

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Originally Posted by pinkytoe

If you like looking at cute old houses by state, this website is fun:
https://theoldhouselife.com

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That is a fun site, pinkytoe!

The other site I "window-shop" on is https://www.cheapoldhouses.com.

Here is a cool hobbit treehouse complex on bae’s isle of Orcas.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vac36s...b24gb3JjYXM%3D


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okay----cute houses in my 'hood. Well, the place two doors down sold to a flipper. The flipper bought another house nearby several years ago for $60k, and it was on the market a year or two later for $240k, and sold. 'course----this is a very low-income slum; nothoing like Fran Louisco or other upscale places. But yeah---his latest acquisition is a bit stigmatized. It's the one that 35 years ago, Lonnie Mow and his wife rehabbed, then moved. Lonnie Mow passed away, not long ago. Well, the place changed hands several more times, and a couple in their 50's bought it, and lived there 20+ years. But then---he got tired of living, and shot himself, and several years later, she passed after being ill for awhile. Both deaths occurred on the property. So, it could be haunted. I don't know, but I would not care to live there, knowing that. OTOH, the Bentler place up near Bonaparte, IWAH sold for a nice sum, but still very cheap compared to either coast. Hope th

One of the only HGTV shows I like anymore is Bargain Block. A couple moves in, literally, to these abandoned, nasty houses in Detroit after buying them for a song, and on the cheap they renovate with cosmetic improvements, and a little bit of creativity (one of them is the "artist" and the other is the "builder"). I don't think of them as opportunistic flippers, like the kind that bobby is talking about. They take a decent profit for their labor but nothing exhorbitant (because they actually drag their personal possessions from house to house and live there while they work) and in the meantime, the whole neighborhood is being rehabbed. They are performing a community service, IMHO.

SO likes to watch Bargain Block from time to time. They finally bought a home for themselves a few years ago.

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Originally Posted by jp1

SO likes to watch Bargain Block from time to time. They finally bought a home for themselves a few years ago.

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That's good to hear! They deserve it!

okay---here's a cute house that would be economical to build & maintain; just use cardboard & glue. But yeah---I'd recommend locating it under a viaduct; one that doesn't have 18-wheeler thundering over it, 24 hrs a day. (see photo)Attachment 6196