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Thread: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

  1. #26
    tampafldancer
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    wow mr hyde~~!!! good 4 you too!

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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Hyde
    CO, I sold a house in Lauderdale last summer for literally twice what I paid for it 5 years before. I was shocked at what the market was bearing. I don't see how young first time buyers are able to get into the market.
    Florida had been in somewhat of a special situation in that "first time" Florida home buyers were likely to be 60ish retirees from northern states with flush bank accounts and retirement funds, rather than 20ish young people just starting out.

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    God/dess Casual Observer's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    ^ That's the thing I found shocking; the mortgage company that loaned to the couple that bought my house didn't seem at all put off by the fact they were 22 and not exactly upwardly mobile.

    Like I said, I'm nervous. I'm almost hoping to get this 3-year contract job in Santa Monica so I can wait out the storm.
    Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.

    William F. Buckley, Jr.

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    Veteran Member livenudegirlsunite's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Quote Originally Posted by Casual Observer
    ^ That's the thing I found shocking; the mortgage company that loaned to the couple that bought my house didn't seem at all put off by the fact they were 22 and not exactly upwardly mobile.
    I think it's really sad how the corporate aristocracy is taking advantage of so many young people. Those loan sharks are nothing but a bunch of crooks taking advantage of very niave people who are so easily brainwashed. It really is a shame.
    Thank you for this post Melonie. I remember how bad things were in So. Cal. back in the early 1990's when the first king of corporate laissez-faire was still in office. No jobs --and real estate plummeted.
    I was friends with a guy who worked for a super fancy real estate firm in LA. Things got really bad. A lot of people lost a lot of money.
    Most people prefer to believe their leaders are just and fair even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which they live is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. - M Rivero

  5. #30
    God/dess Emily's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Quote Originally Posted by Adina
    Funny, I've considered the last three years to be more of a seller's market than a buyer's market.
    I dunno....I did pretty well in this market!

    I bought a house 3 yrs ago for $64,000 (it's not glamourous, but you know how it is for a first house) and now it's under contract for $110,000.

    I'm using the money I made to move up into something a lot nicer.

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    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Heh, you all should see housing prices in Baltimore Some stuff that's ridiculously low, to the point that even if I did lose my 20% down payment over the next few years, I don't think I'd mind! LOL

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

  7. #32
    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    I dunno....I did pretty well in this market!

    I bought a house 3 yrs ago for $64,000 (it's not glamourous, but you know how it is for a first house) and now it's under contract for $110,000.

    I'm using the money I made to move up into something a lot nicer.
    That's fantastic, Emily. However, keep in the back of your mind Newton's law that 'what goes up, must come down' --- sooner or later.

    I remember how bad things were in So. Cal. back in the early 1990's when the first king of corporate laissez-faire was still in office. No jobs --and real estate plummeted.
    I was friends with a guy who worked for a super fancy real estate firm in LA. Things got really bad. A lot of people lost a lot of money.
    Well, that's the risk if a real estate market starts to deflate. The 'decent' house which is currently selling for $400,000 could quickly depreciate to $300,000 or less. Again this doesn't matter so much if your intention is to buy and hold the house and live in it as your primary residence. That being the case, everything goes in cycles such that if you can keep up with the property taxes and mortgage payments for the next 10-15 years you'll very probably wind up being in the 'black' again. However, if something happens that forces you to bail on the house before then (like the job market going to hell, no contact ordinances taking effect and killing club earnings potential etc.), taking a major loss is distinctly possible.

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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    You are right mellonie that pretty soon only the really rich are going to be able to be first trime home buyers. With the average home price in my area being around 170,000 versus 100,000 three years ago, it leaves many people unable to qualify. It now costs around 250,000 to build anything decent versus 150,000 of a few years back. But again it depends on your area. I n california my smallest house would go for arounf 400,000.So out there you need to make three times as much to purchase a home.

  9. #34
    God/dess Lena's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Huh. I think the bubble popped a long time ago here. You can get a decent house in an un-ritzy but nice enough area here for 30-40k, 20 if you really watch. So if I buy a house for 30k and five years later can only sell it for 20k (can't imagine it going any lower than that) but in the meantime have been making a 500/m rental income I'm still ahead by 20k. Simplistic, but true, I think.

    Lena



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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Damn lena were are you located? If I were you I would buy tons of rental properties. At that price your morgage would be less than what you are paying for rent. You could live for free. I think it would be more worth your money to buy. Your 500 apartment rent is only doing the landlord any good. With property that cheap you should definitely buy. Make your money work for you.

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    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Similar prices here Lena. Decent "attached houses" in the city go for @ 20k. Even seen some "detached houses" in that range. I haven't looked outside city limits but I can only imagine what's available. Hell, you can pick up a whole ROW of boarded up, repairable houses in livable neighborhoods for $10k, rehab them for a reasonable amt and rent them. I am definitely in the market to buy here

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

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    God/dess Casual Observer's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Damn.

    $20K won't buy you a postage stamp here.

    LOL
    Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.

    William F. Buckley, Jr.

  13. #38
    God/dess Lena's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    I'm near Pittsburgh, Michele, and I do own my home.

    B, I am in the market, but taking my time. My goal is to have enough rental properties to pay my basic bills before I start grad school. I think with four or five houses with 200/m mortgages that rent for 4-600/m, I should be comfy enough through grad school. Then when I get done with grad school I can sell a couple properties and use the money to buy the perfect land and build the perfect house, and get a real job that pays lots of $$$ and then let the extra rental income become a retirement plan.

    But then, I am the queen of good plans that I never follow through on. :-(

    Lena



  14. #39
    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    I'm with ya Lena. I actually have a really good friend I'm considering partnering with on the RE stuff. We're discussing forming a company together, but even if she decides to back out I'm still on it. Would be nice to pool resources though. Heh, a stripper RE investment club

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

  15. #40
    God/dess Lena's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    I'd thought about that at one point too, but it seems like other people always screw stuff up...



  16. #41
    Veteran Member OPEN's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    OMG ,,,, I had no idea prices were still that low anywhere!!! I am a builder of new homes NW of Boston and havent sold one for less than 600k in a while. But even second hand "fixer uppers" within a 20 mile radius of here are all over 300k. The closer to Boston you get it gets worse. Alot of builders are buying up crappy older homes for 600k and tearing them down to use as lots. Lots where I am can still be purchased for 250k-300k. But as a developer I cant pay those retail prices so I buy large raw pieces and build up the roadways etc. myself. Well thats my two cents, and I hope you girls do well in the RE game.

  17. #42
    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Um, Lena something tells me we shoulda kept it quiet on the prices around us

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

  18. #43
    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Agreed, with property prices that cheap you can't afford NOT to take the chance on a very profitable 'slum lord' business. This is even more true if you can manage to obtain a 'grant' and/or HUD money to subsidize the initial investment. As a 'woman owned business' you should have a fairly good chance of approval. Now if only you can talk the local gov't into cutting a deal for a property tax abatement for a few years LOL.

    I don't know what happened in your area to nuke the property values - it certainly isn't typical of most of the country - yet. Regardless, you're exactly in the right place to make a tidy profit 'picking up the pieces'. Just be glad that you didn't buy into any of these properties 3-5 years ago when they were selling for $100k !

  19. #44
    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Well I had no idea grants or HUD were even available for this. Where does one find info on that?

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

  20. #45
    Veteran Member DJ_WuLf's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Uhhhh HUD ....the department of HOUSING and URBAN Development. Thier job is to hand out money. Check to see if the property is in an enterprise zone. Talk to the SBA about low (or no) interest rate loans. Talk to your local Urban Development council about tax abatement.

    RE in many Urban or Downtown areas of major cities is very depressed in value but usually there is a good reason. NOBODY WANTS TO LIVE THERE! I know in St Lous and Kansas City you can get city condemned property (with houses and apt buildings) for FREE (for cleaning it up to code). Still nobody takes it. Im sure this same situation exists and is MUCH Worse in larger and older East Coast cities like Balt. and DC.
    14 years working in Strip Clubs. "What a long strange trip it's been"

  21. #46
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Hi from the wifi network at abq airport.

    I agree with Emily.

    Real estate is almost never a bad long-term investment. Melonie was saying the same thing about short term rates a year ago and 125 basis points on fed funds. Mortgage rates have gone up 3/8 of a percentage point. The housing bubble will break as a long period of stagnation not making it a great pure investment as an investment for 3-5 years but providing a stable place to live and build equity. Except at the most bloated in high-end homes over a million, land is not a bad investment. If you are looking to turn it over in 3 years, forget it. Five-10 years you will do okay. RE has too high transaction costs for anything but speculation for less than a 4-5 year time frame.

    I bought my house in Boston 14 years ago and have a compound annual return of 9%. If you want to get into real estate as a pure play buy raw undeveloped land and avoid the Northeast and Southern Calif.

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    Veteran Member DJ_WuLf's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Hi from the wifi network at McDonalds parking lot.

    Land is $50 an acre in Wyoming and parts of Montana. Wanna buy some? I know there is land in Wyoming that even coyotes won't live on.
    14 years working in Strip Clubs. "What a long strange trip it's been"

  23. #48
    God/dess Emily's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    plus, unlike stocks, when/if values start to drop, people are less likely to sell on a whim

  24. #49
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Dammit Emily! Every time I read your posts I want to steal your puppy! And I don't even like dogs!

    Baltimore is weird - there's nice houses in yuppie/private-college neighborhoods, and literally around the corner there's loads of boarded up houses. I mean a half block away. Drive down any city street and see a change from nice to ghetto in 5 minutes or less. There are neighborhoods where houses value at half mil, literally right next to a shithole where half the block is boarded up. At the same time lots of revitalization with DC workers moving in for the cheaper housing and rehabbing - where it follows that the shitholes next door will also soon be taken up by incoming DCers to live next to their friends. Baltimore isn't like KC or STL where NO ONE lives downtown. There is still a vital downtown and alot of push to keep improving as such - and to rehab existing buildings rather than build new.

    At the cheapass prices I'm seeing, I can't imagine it wouldn't be worth the investment to buy and collect $4-500/month rents while the market cycles through. At $20k, 20% down a 15-yr mortgage runs @ $140. Doesn't seem like such a bad deal to me.

    But as always Wulf, the negativity is surely appreciated.

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

  25. #50
    God/dess Lena's Avatar
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    Default Re: Home Ownership may no longer be the best investment ...

    Hmmm... so form a business as a woman and go for HUD money. I don't think the houses that I'm looking at qualify for HUD money tho... where do you find these things out?



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