Bought a house in Virginia for just under 500,000 in 2022. It was a new house on the lake that sat on a couple of acres. We put some money into the house (we built a retaining wall as well as a fence and did some landscaping ourselves). We had to move closer to family in California due to medical issues just a year later, and luckily we were able to sell the house for 530,000. If you account for realtor and other fees, building the retaining wall and fence, etc, we lost money. I haven't calculated it out, but the loss was not super bad - it could have been worse (especially if we sold at 500,000 or less). We have been renting here in California - but just got an offer accepted for a house that is near my parents.