That's the way the beach houses here are built. The entire first floor is usually a garage (well really a carport since nothing is enclosed) underneath the house. Usually the only enclosed space on the first floor is the laundryroom or a small storage room. That was also how most military housing in Panama was built as well when I was there. It also worked to lift the floors of the house up so you caught the ocean breeze...



>Wow. On the River (Mississippi, here we just call it "The River") there are a lot of cabins and trailers, and most of them are jacked up on stilts. Some of them are 40-50 foot into the air because the water gets so high sometimes.
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>>In 1976 or 77 I lived in Rogue River, OR. Absolutely beautiful and the best fishing you could imagine. We had our own worm farm in the backyard. The only problem was there was a water line 1" from the ceiling in the house due to the many floods over the years...
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>>>>>>>>>>Come to NYC and you will seldomly find bellow 90K.
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>>>>>>>>>What's the cost of living in NYC in relation to what might be considered a 'larger city' in Iowa.
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>>>>>>>>Well, NYC is one of the most expensive cities in USA if we don't consider CA, where I believe the cost of living is higher. I don't know Iowa, but renting an apt. in Columbus, OH was 3 times cheaper than similar (and worse) apt. in NYC.
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>>>>>>>In Iowa, I was renting a 3 bedroom older house for 375 a month + utils in college. In Cedar Falls, which is a larger city, I could probably rent a decent apartment for 800-900 a month.
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>>>>>>>As far as buying, you can find a newer (built 2000+) ranch style 3-4 bedroom house with 2 stall garage and nice sized backyard for around 145K-170K.
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>>>>>>I paid $3200/month ren for a 1br loft in lower Manhattan NY - but the location was awsome.
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>>>>>Wow! That is almost double my mortgage payment.
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>>>>Yeah it was outragous. I didn't do it very long and probably wouldn't do it again - but I wanted to see what all the NYC hype was about. It was a good experience but unless yer really into urban style living it'd get old pretty fast. Me....naaa - I'll stick with the beach!
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>>>And I'll stick to the river.