Buying or Renting In Small Country Town

[bunnerz]

Just after ideas about whethere you think its best to buy or rent in a small country town. Where i live the population is 2000 and houses are cheap although would be hard to sell.

eg. you could buy a lovley little house for $180 000 here however in a few years time it still may only be around the $200 000 mark and would be hard to sell if you decided to sell with a decreasing population.

To rent a nice little house here it is only $160 approx.
So the question again is, would you rent or buy if you enjoyed living in this town?

 

[gottabespotless]

With rent in the town being so cheap, I would rent. But I also believe in owning some sort of real estate. If your financial situation allows you to afford it, I think that purchasing a house in a more prosperous area and renting it out would be the way to go. I would buy a house in a large town within 1.5 hours of a capital city, that is also close to the coast and has good infrastructure like hospitals, shopping centres, a choice of public or private schools, university, TAFEs, etc.

 

[InnerWestie]

With rent in the town being so cheap, I would rent. But I also believe in owning some sort of real estate. If your financial situation allows you to afford it, I think that purchasing a house in a more prosperous area and renting it out would be the way to go. I would buy a house in a large town within 1.5 hours of a capital city, that is also close to the coast and has good infrastructure like hospitals, shopping centres, a choice of public or private schools, university, TAFEs, etc.

+1

Rent where you want to be and buy where others want to be...

 

[RumpledElf]

Rent. Why pay more than you have to? Unless you want to be able to knock out walls and stuff.

You're lucky though, here a house worth $160k would rent for $200+ a week (in fact one fitting that criteria has been for sale forever, noone wants a house with tenants). Some cheeky locals manage to rent out a single ROOM for $200 a week.

Rapidly increasing population here though, not decreasing.

 

[Mick691]

Hi

Yes i would rent as well, but depending on how long you plan on staying there for, it may be worth buying in the long run

 

[bunnerz]

Thank you for the replies to date, hope i get a few more. I do like the first idea about possibly renting here for a chip as chips $160 a week and putting a deposit on another house in the city.

After we sell our house ( if we sell ) we should be saving approx $300 a week due to cheap rent, lesser bills, no insurance and no rates.

So we would have that money to make payments on an investment house whilst getting rent.

 

[our obsession]

Just after ideas about whethere you think its best to buy or rent in a small country town. Where i live the population is 2000 and houses are cheap although would be hard to sell.

'Hard to sell' can be a rather generalised statement for small towns, there can be often very little choice of 'well presented' rental properties, let alone 'well presented' homes for sale, full stop.

There can be a considerable amount of 'vacant' houses, for multiple and complex reasons, (eg Gran and Pop in the local Aged Care Home and refuse to sell their family home or rent it out).

eg. you could buy a lovley little house for $180 000 here however in a few years time it still may only be around the $200 000 mark and would be hard to sell if you decided to sell with a decreasing population.

Yes, and it's more complex than that. You could buy a house in Toorak and pay $1,450,000 one year and 8 months later fire sell it for $1,020,000. Property can be volatile short term, 'any place'.


To rent a nice little house here it is only $160 approx.
So the question again is, would you rent or buy if you enjoyed living in this town?

It's all relative I think. Depends upon a person's circumstances, preference, wants, needs..I don't have a PPOR, but do have a rental property 'in a small town' that is well presented, furnished and in much demand.

So I have rented an older farmhouse for $20 p/w and rent the nicer/newer IP for $180. I've had it almost 5 years and it has almost doubled in value, and yes, the population of the small town is decreasing. But that does not follow well presented houses/PPOR's or IP's are in plentiful supply, they are generally not, and when they do come onto the market they can be in demand and sell rather quickly, (eg before they even get listed).

That has been my long term observation(s) of many small communities within regional Victoria.

So, my answer is, 'it depends'.

 

[our obsession]

...and just on small towns, how they can be pigeonholed and generalised 'about dying' Casterton is not about to keel over....(anytime soon) on it's viability.

Pigs Will Fly-Casterton Hardware innovation..

Excerpt only:

A few months ago, in Casterton, a small township in western Victoria, a room of 100 people gave a local community co-op the go-ahead to waylay a possible decline of rural businesses and services by reinstating the local hardware store. This business, Peden’s, closed in December 2009, forcing locals to travel almost an hour to another big centre for building supplies.

Facing Reality…Collaboration Was Essential

There was a natural fear that even more business than building and hardware supplies would be taken out of the town, so farmers, a trucking company owner, an engineer, shopkeepers, builders and the local dentist, formed a steering committee to establish Casterton Community Co-op Limited.

The steering committee chairman, Clyde Lawrence, said only 400 people needed to buy $1000 worth of shares for the co-operative to reach its projected target of $400,000 to start the hardware business....so on->

From the Spec:

Good Onya!! Casterton

I think it's important to understand small towns need not necessarily decrease in determination, foresight, brain power or innovation accordingly in proportion with decreasing population, it is often the small places 'through necessity' bring together some of the most innovative minds and ideas..

 

[itsjustme]

I would not be too pessimistic about Casterton. Whether you buy or rent you are living in one of the most beautiful places in the state. This is just speculation, but Casterton has good hospital facilities, and I wonder if this will be attractive to those baby-boomer aged farmers who are reaching retirement age, who want to sell up the farm and move into town - and can't bear the idea of living in the 'city' (ie, Hamilton or Mt Gambier).

If I intended to live in Casterton long term, I would buy because at the prices you are quoting, repayments will not be much more than rent in some cases. But if you do buy, and then decide later on to move and rent out your property, what is the demand in the rental market like? Alternatively, if you decide to rent rather than buy, is there much available to choose from at the moment? (I will admit to having a particular interest in Casterton, so my questions might be leading ones).

Much of this depends on how long you think you will stay?