You have got to be kidding

We live in a fairly nice neighborhood (aside from the fact that my brand spanking new - first payment wasn't even due on it yet - car getting stolen from our driveway while we slept about a year ago). Sure we have the occasional kids causing trouble (our next door neighbor's porche got a chunk of concrete thrown through the windshield) by some kids, and our bikes got stolen from the garage. But I feel safe there for the most part. It's a neighborhood of well manicured lawns [well, aside from us on occasion. We are the only people who don't have a lawn service] and flower beds teeming with impatiens and trellises dripping with bouganvillea. It's a neighborhood of dog walking (sadly not much dog scooping) and strollers. The end of our street abuts a lake made by the Intercoastal Waterway.

It's also a 'transition' neighborhood. Most of the houses were tiny little vacation homes built in the 1940s and 1950s. They look very "old Florida" and a lot of them have been significantly remodeled, expanded, gutted and reworked. Some of them still have a way to go for upgrading purposes(for instance our laundry room is only accessible through the back yard, not through the house). But they're cute homes.

We noticed yesterday that the house across the street was up for sale. Property here has literally jumped anywhere from 50-300% in value over the last few years. We really should have bought instead of renting for the last three years - but eh - on student's budgets that wasn't really feasible. Last night cloaked in darkness, we scrambled over to see the slips they had describing the house.

A 2/2 with no garage, rumored to have termite issues (a common problem here) and a teensy tiny yard for the grand price of THREE HUNDRED FORTY NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS.

When I stopped laughing I realized - they were serious. Do you know what kind of a home I could get for that elsewhere? I'll tell you one thing - it wouldn't be a 2/2. Moving is starting to look better and better.