What you make as a nurse Vs. Cost of living

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Where I live RN's make between $23-34/hr, depending on expereince title ect. Here you can not buy a modest home (and even fixer-uppers)for under $300,000.....every one talks about how well nursing pays, but with the cost of here is terrible. What do you make an hour and what does an "average" home go for in your area.

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Must be the area you are living in. Family friend bought a brand new home in Florida for 250,000 two years ago. Really nice with a pool and a strange cage thing over it.
House values drastically change in 2 years. In 2 years the value of my California house more than doubled. I bought it in 2003 for $150,000 and it was worth over $300,000 in 2005.
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Specializes in Telemetry/Cardiac Floor.
I work PRN in Texas and make 32.00/hr. We have a nice 2500 sq. foot home with hardwood floor, gated community,etc. currently priced at around 200K. I would never in a million years pay the kind of $$$ California people pay for those shacks. I was shocked when I visited a friend near Marin County and she pointed, literally, to a shack (it was LEANING to one side) that had two bedrooms and two baths. She said it would sell easily for at least 500-600K.

I agree. That's ridiculous!!:smackingf

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Specializes in Surgical/Telemetry.
House values drastically change in 2 years. In 2 years the value of my California house more than doubled. I bought it in 2003 for $150,000 and it was worth over $300,000 in 2005.

Wow, that's great appreciation. In Oregon, our house has gone up from 200K a year and a half ago to about 280K now. Unfortunately, the market is slowing. We live far enough out of Portland to get a 3 bedroom new house at that price, prices closer to downtown are much more. I'm a new grad, and am not sure what the salary ranges are for experienced nurses. I'll make about $26/hour on weeknights, (25% weekend diff) which is slightly ower than what I was offered at other area hospitals (good benifits and mission tho!)

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Must be the area you are living in. Family friend bought a brand new home in Florida for 250,000 two years ago. Really nice with a pool and a strange cage thing over it.

I think the cage is to keep the birds and alligators out???

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I think the cage is to keep the birds and alligators out???
Don't forget the snakes! :uhoh3:
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I think the cage is to keep the birds and alligators out???

swamp, ergo cage

the most annoying swamp dwellers are the blood sucking mosquitoes.

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I think the cage is to keep the birds and alligators out???

swamp, ergo cage

the most annoying swamp dwellers are the blood sucking mosquitoes. I'm also living in Miami and going to the U of Miami. Am also planning to pack for San Francisco once I graduate next May. Miami SUCKS... rudest people in the country; I feel like I live in a Central American capital instead of a city in the most developed country in the world.

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by the way; I HAVE

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oops....

meant to say:

by the way; I HAVE lived in a central american capital before; so I know of what I speak

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new grad RNs here make about $19-21hr (base pay), with a couple years experience $22-24; years & years of experience is I think $30-35+. Average home price is $250,000, and it doesn't buy you much.

Prices have fallen a bit (not much) in the past few years, and there's been an explosion of condo conversions offering more affordable ($125-185k) options. A nice new Stepford Wives type home starts around $330.

I live in a trailer park. It's been cheaper than renting, and we're upgrading on our lot this summer to a new "manufactured home" (lol!) with 1200 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms for $96,000.

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Two years ago, we bought our house for 297,000. We are listing it at 440,000. Ask them what their house is worth now. And that's fine. If an area is going to be expensive, the salaries should balance that out. That's all Im saying. In Miami, that is not the case. In CAli, its a little more liveable.

I was just skimming the "most overvalued housing" communities list yesterday, and there were a lot of Florida communities listed- I think Cape Coral was #1 with the average home selling for more than twice its assessed value. Even just a few years ago, people in my area were still fleeing to Florida to buy nice homes on the beach for cheap. Amazing how things change so fast!

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Specializes in O.R., ED, M/S.

I make $43/hr after 30 years. My house which I bought 9 years ago for 140,000 is worth now about 400,000!!!! I couldn't even begin to afford something like that on my current salary. Thank goodness I have always owned my houses. I live in a very rural area of NorCal and houses still are WAAAYYY over priced!

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