[ Features Index | Santa Cruz Week | MetroActive Central | Archives ]

Hard-core Realty By Al Roberts www.unitedcountry.com THERE'S LOTS OF PORN ON the Internet, and not all of it means waiting for Pamela Lee Anderson to download. Nothing gets a Northern Californian's pulse pounding and sweat beading faster than the thought of how far a housing dollar will go almost anywhere else in the country. In most states, a Santa Cruz down payment would buy a decent 3/2 outright--now that's obscene. A national real estate-buying site called Unitedcountry.com tantalizes housing-poor Central Coasters with searchable visions of antebellum mansions, lakefront estates and 100-acre gentlemen's farms going for less than the price of a mobile home in Corralitos. The efficient search engine features a fine-tuning filter--by state, by acreage, by rooms, by price--that allows online home buyers to zoom in on their dream spreads. Wanna taste, mister? How about a Victorian farmhouse (with historic marker and multiple outbuildings) in Virginia for $184K? Or 2,438 square feet with heart-pine floors near the South Carolina coast for $89.5K? Or a 19th-century gabled mansion with pool and basketball court for $149K? (So what if it's in Missouri?) Stop drooling on the keyboard. [ Santa Cruz Week | MetroActive Central | Archives ]