Items tagged with 'houses'
New city of Albany homeownership program
The city of Albany and group of the city's largest employers today announced a new package of incentives to encourage people to buy homes in the city.
The incentives include zero-interest and forgivable loans for down payments and closing costs, and in some cases grants for home improvements.
If this gets more people to live in Albany, great. The city could use more homeowners (as do many of the Capital Region's other urban centers) -- as long as those people really can afford to buy a house . And if it gets more people living closer to where they work, even better -- a short commute pays off in all sorts of ways.
Highlights from the program after the jump, along with the full press release.
The plumbing hall home is for sale
As the owner joked with Akum: "It's not a large space, it's a big space."
As Patrick pointed out earlier this week, the former plumbing hall in Albany that's been converted into living space is for sale. The asking price: $199,000.
Akum profiled the home back in March. It's an interesting space -- and, not surprisingly, the current owner sounds like an interesting guy.
The building is also the TU's "House of the Week" today.
Renting a house?
Crystal asks via Twitter:
Dear @alloveralbany, any tips on where one can find HOUSES for rent in the #518? I'm so over apartment living. xoxo, @CAPowCAPow
Mike followed up Crystal's question with a response that was basically "Why rent, when you can buy?" -- she says they're still saving up a down payment.
So, any suggestions for Crystal? Please share!
photo: Flickr user woodleywonderworks
Little house on State Street
We're pretty sure this is the smallest house in Albany.
The other day we noticed that what is arguably the smallest house in Albany is for rent.
303C State Street is a sturdy looking, cute little brick place that kind of puts us in mind of where the first third little pig lived in the fairy tale.
It's one big room with a good size sleeping loft. It's got charm, but it's definitely not meant for pack-rats.
Owner Adam Ladopoulos, who also owns the State Street Mansion Bed and Breakfast, gave us the 5 cent tour this morning.
Inside the movie house on Hamilton Street
What, your dining living room doesn't look like this?
Yesterday, while we were on Hamilton Street checking out the set of that movie (whatever it's going to be called) we got a quick look inside the house where they're filming.
Turns out the 140 year old brownstone is kind of interesting on its own, even without a movie crew hanging around.
What's the price of a little extra style?
People love these Spanish-style houses.
The TU looked at the backstory on the Spanish-style houses that are somewhat unexpectedly clustered on a few streets around Albany (Hansen, Woodlawn, Main, Rosemont, Greenway).
People seem to really love these houses -- and how could they not? They're stylish. They're cute. And judging from the few we've been through, they have some great (if small) spaces in them.
OK, so people dig these houses. But how much? Well, we can make something like an educated guess by running a few numbers.
Pretty much whenever you hear people talk about how much a house costs, the figure used is the total sale price. And that makes a lot of sense -- that's how much someone's going to be spending.
But another way to think about housing prices is the amount people are paying per square foot. When you break it down that way, it's a little easier to make comparisons between different houses and locations.
In fact, real estate agents do this all time. Sure, you won't usually see it on a house listing, but ask an agent and they'll almost always be able to tell you what a house's price is per square foot and what the average per-square-foot price is for the neighborhood.
We were kind of curious about how the different cities around the Capital Region stack up on per-square-foot house prices. And as it happens, Trulia -- a real estate site -- makes it easy to find out.
Here are how the towns rank, highest to lowest.
... said Jenna about The quintessential Capital Region food?