Unfinished homes present a great way to save a lot of money and get yourself a new home in the process. If you buy an unfinished home, you can keep your monthly mortgage payment low and also lower your initial investment. You may also be able to buy a larger foundation size as well, which you can easily add on to and save money in the process.

Normally, unfinished starter homes leave the upstairs area unfinished. The question here, is just how much equity you want to put into an unfinished area. Sometimes though, an unfinished home may leave the roofing, framing, plumbing, or electrical aspects unfinished. Before you make a purchase, you should always decide how much money you have to finish what needs to be finished.

If the home you are looking at has plans for a garage, you can save thousands if you decide not to go with the garage. On the other hand, if there is another attached room that is planned to go onto the house, you can save just as much if you decide to forgo it. There are always ways that you can save money just by looking at the plans. Unfinished homes may have other planned on additions as well, in which you can save a lot of money just by leaving them out.
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The great American Dream has always revolved around owning a home. Sure, having the 2.3 kids, the cushy corporate job and the stylish car to drive to work everyday are part of the myth, too, but nothing quite summed up Americana quite like the white picket fence. But if recent economic numbers are any clue, this dream is becoming a nightmare for many in the US.

According to date released by the United States Census Bureau, an increasing number of homeowners are spending a larger and larger amount of their incomes on housing than in previous years. People in 49 out of 50 states reported an increase. The only state that didn’t, Alaska, spent the same amount. The report showed that people are spending around 21 percent on their housing needs, up from 19 percent in 1999.

This is a huge problem for first-time buyers who may now be priced out of housing markets all across the country. Economists point to rises in home prices in the last 7 years, as well as higher interest rates, coupled with stagnant wages over the same period.

While everyone seems to be in agreement that the housing “bubble” is either bursting, or getting ready to burst depending on where you live, housing prices are still up a remarkable 32 percent since the beginning of the decade.

Household incomes, on the other hand, haven’t done a very good job of keeping up. The same Census report showed that income has actually dropped, not risen, over the past 7 years, down 2.8 percent.

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