By Bethany Costello

Ten years ago it might have been a two-bedroom, one-bath Cape with a price tag just under $100,000.

Five years ago it might have been a ranch style-home with two bedrooms and one-and-half bathrooms that listed for just over $100,000.

Today, it could be either of those, but it certainly doesnıt come with a price tag anywhere near $100,000.

They are called starter homes. Historically they have been smaller properties that appeal to first-time homebuyers. But in todayıs blistering real estate market, even these once affordable homes are hard to find, and even more difficult to afford.

³The term starter home is a euphemism for your first purchase,² said Sharon Steele, president of the Rhode Island Realtors Association, and head of the Providence-based real estate agency the Sharon Steele Group. ³Today it is still an entry level purchase but I donıt think it is as easily defined as it used to be.²

Thatıs because its price range is so varied. From the shores of South County to the streets of Providenceıs East Side the cost of a starter home can vary by as much as $100,000.

For example, in South County first time homebuyers can expect to pay between $160,000 and $170,000. On the East Side that price jumps closer to $200,000. In between in areas like Johnston, the average price is closer to $150,000.

Furthermore, depending on the area, your money will only buy so much. For example, real estate agent Joseph McCarthy said that a $159,000 starter home price would get a ranch with no garage and less than a half of an acre of land in Johnston.

³The land is so costly that the average starter home comes with between a 6,000- and 10,000-square-foot lot,² said McCarthy, a Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage DeWolfe agent. ³If you want more land you are certainly going to pay more.²

³Itıs pretty scary out there for first time homebuyers,² said Jane Larkin, a sales associate with Century 21 in Westerly. ³In South County the cost of what many considered a starter home has increased by at least $50,000 in the last few years.²

No one knows that better than Kathryn Tomaek. A history professor at Wheaton College, Tomaek had been renting on the East Side when she decided last August that she wanted to buy her own home.

The search, which she hoped would let her remain in the same neighborhood that she was renting in, brought her instead to a cottage in the Darlington section of Pawtucket.

³The house is very charming, very old, and in fact has been owned by the same family for 100 years,² she said. ³I like the age of the house, the charm of the house, and the block seems good. I would have loved to live on the East Side, but I am a single person living on one salary. It just wasnıt an option.²

And while finding her new home took only a month, Tomaek said it wasnıt an easy process.

³I lost a bid early on because the other bidder had 20 percent to put down,² she said. ³I thought that was very unfair and really frustrating. I had really allowed myself to fall in the love with that house.²

Unfair as it may seem, McCarthy said what happened to Tomaek isnıt uncommon.

³In todayıs market there is such limited housing that there is increased competition,² he said. ³There can be four or five bidders on the same property and the homeowners have to decide who has the best offer. Someone with $5,000 in cash to put down is certainly going to look better than someone with zero to put down.²

The result, Larkin, said is increased pressure on buyers.

³Todayıs first time home buyers need to be right on top of things,² she said. ³They have to look and make a decision immediately, and thatıs often hard. But houses on the market today get up to four and five showings in two days and they go. I tell my clients they need to be ready or they will definitely lose.²

Published 10/7/2002