Or non-clickbait title, got my wife to move to the sticks. :D
We live in a HCOL area and have been looking to buy a place. The market is batshit. The final straw was a 1300 sq ft place listed for $625k. Needed a roof, needed a furnace, had rats in the crawlspace, leaks under the floor in both bathrooms, some rot under the deck, electrical DIY stuff out of code. 68 RE agent cards on the table, our RE agent telling us if we want it $750k would be a good target. This is pretty typical of what is going on here now due to high income DINKS and Chinese investors, both of whom buy at these prices, then full gut reno or bulldoze and mcmansion.
Not bitter about this, the market is what it is. We finally had enough though and most importantly my wife gave up on needing to live in the burbs and agreed semi-rural was ok as long as the house and schools were good. We found a hidden gem only 15 minutes from my work, I have a 12 minute commute now. House is 2x larger than the ones we were looking at and needs nothing, it's a dream house. Private lake access is included. Pending inspection we'll be moved in a little over a month from now.
I know there are a lot of posts that pop up here about spouses having differences in lifestyle desires, and that's a tough situation that I've been living for the last few years. Compromise is possible! I get to live out in the woods by a lake, she gets the pimped dream house, we don't kill ourselves financially! Strangely enough each of us being dug into our positions was the key to compromise. We have a rule, it's either a "Fuck yeah!" or a "Hell no!", no settling. Since we had no dual "Fuck Yeah!" we didn't put ourselves into a position where one of us wasn't happy.
With the housing madness settled, we can get back to FIRE plans. :D
