casacaudill: {MISCELLANEOUS} Real Estate Sampler

The idiocy in the Bay Area (namely, Silicon Valley) is at an all-time high and it's gotten to the point where I'm almost ashamed to work in the tech sector here. While there are a number of hard working people (and companies) that are creating products that are benefiting individual users and society at large, there are a number more companies taking millions of dollars in investor money for ideas and schemes that are just worthless. It's these people that are throwing parties with mechanical bulls and calling themselves innovative game-changers, or buying up dilapidated cabins from Marin and installing them in their campus cafeterias, or going on rants about how poor people need to leave San Francisco. (Yes, all of these things have recently happened - you can't make this up.)

With this in mind, it's pretty much every day that I look forward to the day that I can leave this insipid wasteland of arrogance and entitlement for somewhere you're not judged based on what startups you've worked at, or how many people you have a superficial relationship with on LinkedIn. (I'm sorry but just because I met you once at an industry party and talked to you for 30 seconds does not mean you are part of my network. Chances are, I thought you were a douche anyhow.) With that, I give you another installment of a somewhat regular feature here on the blog: Real Estate Sampler.

Today's locations include Portland, OR; Portland, ME; Lake Tahoe, CA; and Bozeman, MT, all priced below $500,000 (I know to some of you that seems like an insane amount of money; it's a sad state that having lived in the Bay Area for 12 years that seems cheap to me.). You'll also notice that I've tried to include a wide variety of style of houses in this list to make it interesting for everyone.

PORTLAND, OREGON

Portland is becoming more and more expensive, so it's harder to find the deals up there that existed even two years ago. Still, you can get a beautiful house in a city that is among my favorite in the U.S.

$499,000 - 3/2, 2483 sqft

$490,000 - 3/2, 1975 sqft

$489,000 - 4/4.5, 4052 sqft

PORTLAND, MAINE

I have to admit I don't have any knowledge about Portland, aside from the fact that we visited for an afternoon back in 2000 and I thought it was a great little city. I know people who are closer to the area and they concur. Still, I thought it would be fun to show the two Portlands, with an entire country between them.

$475,000 - 6/4.5, 3343 sqft

$449,900 - 4/2.5, 2500sqft

$420,000 - 3/1.5, 992 sqft

$380,000 - 3/2, 1147 sqft

LAKE TAHOE, CA

Lake Tahoe is a pretty huge area, and so it's not really fair to compare it to any of the other locations on this list in terms of availability. There is A LOT available under $500,000. There is also A LOT available over $1 million. It's a very interesting place.

$499,000 - 5/4, 1728 sqft

$499,000 - 3/2, 1692 sqft

$461,000 - 3/2, 1468 sqft

$449,000 - 3/2, 1812 sqft

$424,000 - 4/2, 1278 sqft

$342,000 - 4/2 1621 sqft

$309,000 - 3/2, 1584 sqft

BOZEMAN, MONTANA

Bozeman is another area that is filled with well priced homes, as well as mansions. It's also an interesting place in that it's a pretty remote mountain town, but because it's also a University town you get a lot of the cultural benefits of living in a city. This is also another place that has a ton of inventory available, most of it new construction and in the suburbs or out in the country. If you want to be close to the University and the adorable Main Street, you're going to pay a higher premium. You can find a house for under $500k, but it's going to be older, smaller, and need some elbow grease.

$489,950 - 5/3, 3081 sqft