oil at 80 has got be close to being a steal.
Ridiculous. Might add "all you need to sell your house is a bank appraisal and certification that it's in superb condition in every way."
In fact, all you need to sell is a buyer and a meeting of minds with him.
Suggestion: pay off the mortgage, do a fsbo. Keep banks, appraisers, realtors out of your hair. Then think about moving to someplace where taxes are low.
Betcha dis guyz from Noo Joizey.
I am holding out for the passage of the ‘Sub-prime mortgage act of 2012’ before I pull the trigger, this way, I can load up on about 4 or 5 houses...
Housing is affordable but prices could continue to drop. Buying a house anyplace but Texas or a few other places could be risky. Housing prices are still 14 percent above the historical trend with a lot of excess inventory.
A) Add up all the cash out-of-pocket over the whole time you own the house (real estate taxes, repairs and maintenance, mortgage payments, downpayment, transaction costs, etc.) (If you had a 30-year mortgage with an interest rate of more than about 5.3%, you paid double the amount you borrowed back to the bank).
B) Add up all the cash in-pocket when you sell and the amount, if any, your income taxes (Federal and State) that were reduced over those 40 years because you had tax deductions based on the house. Not the amount of the deduction - the amount your Income Tax was lower than if you redid your Tax return without the deduction.
C) Subtract A) from B).
Depending on the individual house, if you look at the what kind of percentage annual return this represents, this may look great or terrible or anything in between.
Basically, Real Estate taxes typically represent something between 1% to 2% of the value of the house every year. That gives me a gut feel that I need the market price of the house to increase by that much every year just to break even. House taxes, for example, in NJ are in the $6,000 to $15,000 per year range for the typical range of house sizes. Is the market price of those houses going up that much every year ? Only during the boom. For a NJ house purchased 40 years ago for perhaps $30,000, the Real Estate taxes paid on that house would be well over $200,000, quite possibly over $300,000. Those taxes were paid, cash out of pocket. Subtract that from the gain on the sale of the house and then take the remaining gain and see what it annualizes at.
The NJEA (New Jersey Extortion Association) has made sure that municipal taxes ratchet up to relieve the rube, I mean, taxpayer of all their “extra” money. For the kids, you know.
Buy at a low rate even if you had the cash?
If I want to sell a stock or an ounce of gold or a mutual fund I can do it within minutes of making the decision. And I know exactly what the market price is. And I don't have to pay 5-6% of its sale price to some numbnutz to "show it" for me.
And a stock or a fund or an ounce of gold doesn't cost me thousands every year in property taxes, fees, utilities, maintenance and insurance.
Houses are never a long term money making investment unless (1) you can rent them out with reliable, positive cash flow, or (2) a bubble comes along after you've already bought.
Buy farmland. People gotta eat!
just stay away from home owner associations like the plague.
Strange, I got one that week for 4.125%. Of course, you have to be prepared to put 20% down and prove you don't need to borrow the money. ;o)