Good Enough Homes & Destinations: What You Get For $200,000

The first house featured in the Gray Lady’s “Great Houses & Destinations: What You Get for $2 Million” round-up, in Vieques, Puerto Rico, can only be called Post-Apocalyptic Chic. It’s concrete and bunker-ish and comes complete with solar- and wind-powered facilities and rainwater recycling. I guess that will come in handy when the zombies come after us and cut off the water supply? That’s a little grim for a Friday.

If I were going to spend around $2 million, I would rather do it up Scarlett Johansson-style and get a deluxe pad in the Hamptons that assumes water will never run dry. (Scar Jo’s a mommy this morning, btw! She named her baby girl Rose Dorothy, which is adorably old-school, even norm core, of her. I hope they call the child “Dotty.”) Continuing in that more cheerful, let’s-not-think-about-climate-change vein, here’s what you get for $200,000 in this week’s installment of Good Enough Homes and Destinations.

A two-bedroom, two-bath townhouse with a Harley Davidson-themed family room (no, really) on Hemlock Lane (no, really) for $189,000, in Plymouth, MN, via Trulia. The current owners have specific taste — they favor mirrored walls and carpeting, in addition to motorcycles — but the house has lots of space, including a deck, and it’s in an area Movoto ranks as the #2 best suburb for education in the country.

Super cute four-bedroom, one-bath, 1700-sq-foot brick Tudor house in Wauwatosa, WI, for $199,900, via Trulia. This is another “best education in the nation” kind of suburb and, like Plymouth, it’s a serious bargain, much cheaper than equivalent places with great public schools like Bethesda, MD, Evanston, IL, or Newton, MA. There’s also like no crime! Possibly because it’s too cold for evildoers to leave their lairs. Whatevs. House comes with fireplace, built-ins, and good-sized windows.

Interesting tri-level, three-bedroom, three-bath contemporary in Papillion, NE, for $173,500, via Trulia. Vaulted ceilings, lots of space. Has a bit of an abandoned, gothic feeling, but with lots of potential and personality. Plus, you get to live in Papillion! Another low-cost, low-crime, good-schools kind of place, only with a house like this you won’t have to worry about losing yourself in suburban homogeneity.

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