jrb451- I live in community like that you're describing. It's along the Jersey coastline and there is very little available land. "Teardowns" as they're referred to here can go for between $300,000 and $2,000,000 depending on how far they are from being beachfront.

That said, I live in a 1,800 square foot home that was built in 1952. We've done quite a bit of renovating since we bought the home 15 years ago, but it's all been on level with the age of our home. Simple kitchen, appliances, windows, etc. There's still value in keeping up our home because not everyone can afford a "teardown" and new build. There are still plenty of folks who want to buy a home here that they can live in, as is.

The trick is renovating to the right level because there is very fine line between a livable home (as they're referred to) or a teardown. If you let your home go too far without updating, you'll never get more than land value. HTH

If you live in a knockdown, then all money put into improving it is purely for your own comfort while living there. And there's nothing wrong with that as long as you realize it when you're doing it.

It isn't throwing money away if you renovate your kitchen so that you like cooking in that room for the next 10 years vs being miserable every time you step into it.

Almost all improvements to any house should be primarily for your own benefit while living there. You rarely recoup ALL (or even most) of your costs despite what HGTV says.

With a knockdown, it's just solely for your own benefit as opposed to primarily.

I was wondering about this, because the village that I live in is going through a reconstruction project along the river. What was a paper mill is being redesigned as multi family, and single family living property, as well as a commercial district and parks areas with one mile of river frontage.

The homes surrounding this project are very, very old. Some of them are already knock down properties as cheap housing built by the mill for workers. I wonder if more of those properties surrounding this development will become more valuable, and people will buy houses for the land.

Time will tell.

when we bought our home 15 years ago, this old neighbourhood was a bit on the undesirable side and inexpensive. over the years it's been rezoned for infill development so the original modest sized blocks can now have 2-3 houses built on them with the newer zoning. Just about any old house which gets sold is bought by developers who just knock the old house down and replace with brand new houses on postage stamp sized blocks. To make it profitable, they generally build 2 story homes to get more benefit from the tiny blocks they sit on so they arent interested in retaining the older houses, even ones in good condition, (at one time they did, but not anymore) they're basically just in the way of getting the most out of the development.

So every dollar we spend to renovate this house is basically money that wont be recouped, but we do it for our own benefit, not for resale value since we plan on being here long term. We dont want to move since the neighbourhood is well situated and close to the city centre, the land is in demand for the same reason, people want to live here now but they wont pay a premium for an older house on a regular block, they would rather buy something brand new even though it comes with very little land beyond where the house sits. It wasnt a knockdown when we bought it, but it is now, the land is much more valuable and the old (1960s) houses have no real value to add anymore.

That's a damn shame, trancegemini. Such a shame.

Karen

Greg_2015 - "If you live in a knockdown, then all money put into improving it is purely for your own comfort while living there. And there's nothing wrong with that as long as you realize it when you're doing it."

I guess that's what I should do. The last lakefront lot sold a year or so back for $250,000. It was smaller than ours and the terrain was sloped and undulating; hence the reason it went undeveloped I assume.

I do, but in reverse. We bought a 3+ acre lot that did have a home on it, but it was in such disrepair (and I mean no running water, no electricity, piles of trash, mountains of refuse...) we didn't know if it could be salvaged. Turns out, all that asbestos shingling had perfectly preserved an 1840 log home. So we restored it. We bought it for the land and the view, but lots of scrubbing and a talented contractor experienced with historic buildings and we now live in and love our knockdown :)

Here in my neighborhood my house is called a scrape! My home is now worth four times the value than when we bought it.

More so in the last three years, I have been watching houses my size torn down and rebuilt into much larger homes. I find it sad. My husband loves it!

It's sad to me because all the "affordable" housing in my town is disappearing. I have very few contemporaries on my street. Of course we like the idea of how much the house has appreciated, but that's only good if you are ready to sell.

Depending on where you live, yes you can recoup the kitchen and bathroom renovations. But I do agree that renovations should primarily be with your comfort and enjoyment in mind.