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Homeowners! Some questions...

lostmind said:
Yah, I've been checking out home prices across the USA. Wow, in some places you can buy a brand new house under $75k in a decent area. WTH?
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Home prices vary wildly across the US, but then so do salaries for the same job. Prices and salaries here are much lower than the national average. I'm sure some of it is driven by demand, and some by taxes. We don't pay near the property taxes that someone in New York would pay.



I see people driving cars on a daily basis worth more then that. Insane.
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To waste that much money on a car? Yeah, I agree.



I couldn't imagine the freedom not paying a mortgage would afford me. Seems I've been paying $2500+/month since 2001/2002 when I bought my first home.
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My mortgage payment is less than a quarter of yours. but I expect my house is smaller, and that your income is substantially larger than mine.
 
My first house cost me only $290k. My minimum mortgage payment on that was $1500 but I doubled it up because I was single and able to scrimp and save quite well back then. Plus I made halfway decent money.

Then I got married, we sold that place and moved up the hill. Now we pay maybe $100/month more on our mortgage then we have too.

Thing is, I could move anywhere in the world with internet and make what I do now. It's interesting to dream about moving somewhere that would afford me a better lifestyle. Unfortunately I don't think that would ever happen as both my wife and I have all our family here in BC...

While I do make ok money, I pay close to 50% in income taxes, so in the end, my net take home is pretty lame. I always dream about paying off the mortgage, but that isn't happening unless I win the lotto either.
 
You know, we're not considering interest rates in mortgage payments. I have a very low fixed interest rate mortgage. When I refinanced in 2004, my monthly payment dropped by around $150.
 
millworkman said:
Wasnt just dubya,
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Oh yeah, his cronies were very busy lining their pockets, but it was Dubya who lead a home ownership initiative.

but thats a different board and topic.
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Oh yeah, I forgot, we can snark and snipe at liberals and their causes all we want and make inappropriate demands for pictures of women's bodies; but anything vaguely conservative is sacrosanct.

Silly me!


Homes in the us do seem alot cheaper than other places around the world RB, watching house hunters international opens my wife's eyes all the time.
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There's a TV show about house hunting? *boggle*


I always thought it was because we have so much available land, but I see that home prices in Australia are high, too, so I guess I'll throw that theory out.

I wonder if some of it is that impact fees are built into home ownership in other countries, whereas it's a continuous topic here in the US? In one of the fastest growing parts of town, there was a great set to between homeowners who had lived there for 20 and 30 years and developers over impact fees. The homeowners felt like it wasn't fair to raise their property taxes to pay for new schools and infrastructure that the new developments needed, and developers were whining that impact fees would make the new homes too expensive.
 
I run a website hosting company. My wife is a CA, which is the equivalent of a CPA in the USA.

Pam, Canada has got to have tons of free land in relation to how many people we have. But even in the hinterlands home prices are still much higher then in much of the USA.

We pay property tax, not an impact fee. As my home is higher in value then some others I pay a higher tax, even though my new home is more efficient, uses less water, is small so we have less people living in it, so we use less sewage, power, etc. Oh and I also get to pay a bare land strata fee every month because we are a new development, which covers our garbage, road maintenance and snow removal.
 
Oh, I pay property taxes, road fees, school fees and bonds, and for garbage pick up. I pay the city for water used at a higher rate because I am outside the city limits, and I pay them a hydrant fee, but I have a septic system, so no sewage fees. I also pay a property tax on my car, and a road fee is added to that. It's fees in addition to that that established home owners are objecting to, they think the developers should take more of a hit, and I agree with them.
 
If I had paid market I would be up 60% or more since 2000. Up here foreclosures are higher than normal, but nothing earth shattering. If you bought your place during the bubble you are probably selling under what you paid by 10 or 15%. It varies town by town. Some towns near The City will never see a substantial decrease.

As for the political blame game, I think it is a little too easy to blame a single person or even a party for an idea they had to get people invested in America's future, when so many others (of ALL walks of life) knowingly sold loans to people who couldn't afford them. That just defies common sense, and free market principles rely on people making decisions that will keep them in business, not bankrupt them... hard to foresee that level of mass economic suicide. Top it off with inept rating agencies, do-nothing execs, and... you get the idea. It's a new generation of entitled yuppies. This is not a group that has 'national' interests even cross their minds. I have heard a lot of people saying we need more regulation and rules etc. and unfortunately, that may be true if so many people can be so greedy and short sighted. Just my two cents from Wild Man M.B.A.
 
Folks, lets try and leave politics out of this...

To me, this subject can be discussed without bringing in politics...who is to blame...everyone that went into debt buying a house to the top people in the mortgage game. Bank deregulation has killed us in my opinion and my mother said that 12 years ago. As a retired VP of a large Florida Bank Group, she knew what she was talking about. IMO it was a grand idea for those that still believed in the goodness of the everyday man, when in all actuality, those with the money saw a goat tied to a stake in the middle of the Indian jungle but no hunters around for reprisal.
 
kinda like bait out there for the crooks to see a way to make a quick buck off the innocent...you lamb to the slaughter, etc.
 
AlabamaJack said:
Folks, lets try and leave politics out of this...

To me, this subject can be discussed without bringing in politics...who is to blame...everyone that went into debt buying a house to the top people in the mortgage game. Bank deregulation has killed us in my opinion and my mother said that 12 years ago. As a retired VP of a large Florida Bank Group, she knew what she was talking about. IMO it was a grand idea for those that still believed in the goodness of the everyday man, when in all actuality, those with the money saw a goat tied to a stake in the middle of the Indian jungle but no hunters around for reprisal.
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So, you're not taking your own advice about the politics, huh?
 
I don't see how my post is political Pam? Please elaborate...
 
Pam said:
I always thought it was because we have so much available land, but I see that home prices in Australia are high, too, so I guess I'll throw that theory out.

I wonder if some of it is that impact fees are built into home ownership in other countries, whereas it's a continuous topic here in the US? In one of the fastest growing parts of town, there was a great set to between homeowners who had lived there for 20 and 30 years and developers over impact fees. The homeowners felt like it wasn't fair to raise their property taxes to pay for new schools and infrastructure that the new developments needed, and developers were whining that impact fees would make the new homes too expensive.
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Same here, but developers are forced to put aside land for parks, schools etc, but generally, only the bare minimum. Open land is usually a table drain or flood plain that is unuseable for housing.

Wild Man Matt said:
That just defies common sense, and free market principles rely on people making decisions that will keep them in business, not bankrupt them... hard to foresee that level of mass economic suicide. Top it off with inept rating agencies, do-nothing execs, and... you get the idea. It's a new generation of entitled yuppies. This is not a group that has 'national' interests even cross their minds. I have heard a lot of people saying we need more regulation and rules etc. and unfortunately, that may be true if so many people can be so greedy and short sighted. Just my two cents from Wild Man M.B.A.
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Yup.

AlabamaJack said:
IMO it was a grand idea for those that still believed in the goodness of the everyday man, when in all actuality, those with the money saw a goat tied to a stake in the middle of the Indian jungle but no hunters around for reprisal.
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LOL!!

Pam said:
Developers overloaded the market with cheaply constructed homes, and realtors convinced buyers that pre-owned homes came with potentially expensive repairs. I looked at some of those new houses, and I swear, it felt like if you pushed on one wall, the whole house would lean. I've been in trailers that felt more substantial.
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I've seen plenty of those here too, don't worry!

Pam said:
You know, we're not considering interest rates in mortgage payments. I have a very low fixed interest rate mortgage. When I refinanced in 2004, my monthly payment dropped by around $150.
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Yes, interest rates... Mine just dropped to its lowest in about 3yrs, now at 6.63%

Also impacting on house prices in this country is a tax deduction for property investment. This was done so as to encourage the amount of rental stock on the market in the 1980's, and hasn't changed. Quite a large number of retirees I would think own a couple of investment properties here in Aus.

BTW it is still difficult to find rental houses/units in some places.
 
AlabamaJack said:
I don't see how my post is political Pam? Please elaborate...
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"My opinion is Just Good Sense, but everyone who disagrees is being political and needs to drop it"
 
ring sting said:
Also impacting on house prices in this country is a tax deduction for property investment. This was done so as to encourage the amount of rental stock on the market in the 1980's, and hasn't changed. Quite a large number of retirees I would think own a couple of investment properties here in Aus.

BTW it is still difficult to find rental houses/units in some places.
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Rental prices are outrageous around here. So many of the people I work with live way out of town and have long commutes into work because they can't afford an apartment downtown. A two bedroom apartment goes for $1000 around here, and the pay scales for blue collar workers is no where near enough to afford that. I don't know how the students around the university manage.


Edit: $1000/month, in case I wasn't clear.
 
Pam said:
Rental prices are outrageous around here.... I don't know how the students around the university manage.
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Er, cash crops? They grow chillis under all those lights, right?

House rental here is about $350p.w. for a 3br home with yard.

MEDIAN - not average - weekly wage is approx 400-700p.w. after tax.

So for a family, it's a struggle if there's not at least 1.5 incomes in the home.
 
My mortgage rate is 4%.

Lamb tastes great!

Political discussions are fun, but I am not very well versed in USA politics. I do think AJ has a point, the problems do not seem to be caused solely by 1 party/figurehead, but many greedy people from all walks because sadly people are greedy.

Rental costs at $350/month? Sheesh, if you are making $400 a week, that's $1600 a month, so rent is ~22% of your take home only. That's CHEAP! Most homeowners I know pay 50%+ to housing.
 
My folks bought the place Im in right now 11 years ago for $240'000, before the bubble went boom, it was meant to be around $1m, now I would guess $8-900'000. Their farm did much better (although its not like this place did badly), $600'000 in 1986, offer of $4.5m was turned down last year, holding out for another few years to make some real money out of it, according to my old man.

If I had to buy a house, the outside paint scheme would be whatever the packaging instructions were for that particular fridge.
 
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