Cute houses, yet another thread

[iris lilies]

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.

[rosarugosa]

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).

[Tradd]

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

[iris lilies]

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

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.

[catherine]

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.

[Tybee]

What a charmer! Have also been in Alton!

[early morning]

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.

[jp1]

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.

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?

[iris lilies]

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?

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.

[nswef]

Looks like quite a bargain from here in Maryland.