Posted on 03/01/2012 6:02:37 AM PST by Haiku Guy
We live in a small town in Pa. Not much going for it except low crime, lots of churches, gun-friendly, and very low taxes. Our house is over 100 years old, over 2000sf, and the property tax is $350 a year.
If people would shop around more they’d find affordable homes. The trade-off is, they might not find the job they want, or keep the one they have. So they go on paying 10x, or 20x, what I pay in property tax, to keep the job they need to pay the tax...
The problem is that everything that people really want has been larded up with extraneous expenses, so they can’t afford it anymore. Willie Sutton used to say he robbed banks because that is where the money was. Nowadays, people run universities or charge property tax.
The result is that young people cannot afford to graduate without crushing death, get married, start a family or buy a house. Their decisions to forgo these things are perfectly rational, because the costs of doing all of these things is just so damn high.
crushing death = crushing debt
Damn You Autocorrect!
One thing you are forgetting is the cost of regulation that has ballooned over the last 40 years. The first thing you need to do before subdividing property is to have the government inspectors come in, do the A2survey, the Environmental impact study, the soil type engineering survey, and in some areas the school use impact study -- That's right, permits can be declined because the town determines that Property taxes on that house will not cover the school costs of the house.
it's to the point that in order to operate in certain areas that contractors and developers need to budget for "Unforeseen Incidentals" (AKA bribes) and all of these costs need to be included in the cost of the house.
Today, home ownership is no longer an investment. You can rent a condo for 1/3 of what it was 4 years ago.
We don’t own our homes or our property, we rent both from the tax man and insurance company.
All of these factors are passed on to renters but renters are accepting less and less, smaller and smaller to just stay even.
The home in the suburbs will eventually become a relic of the past for the most part. The collective block apartment will become the norm. Less is becoming the norm for young people. They have learned to live in a fish bowl much easier than we have.
Good one, but today a house that cost thirty thousand to build is called a mobile home. It cost 45 dollars a finished foot to build a home years ago. That is the big problem today, home prices have dropped but building materials has not.
Why buy a house when you know Obama is going to tax the hell out of you to support redistribution of wealth? FUBO!
Jobs for young people are increasingly rare in a Communist, post-industrial economy.
I don't know. Could he be a friend of John Galt?
doh!
The comments I read and heard at or near the trough of a housing cycle are as ridiculous as the comments I read and heard neaer the peak.
This trough may be the worst in my lifetime, but the comments aren’t really any different than I heard in 1996.
“Housing will never come back”.
“Prices will never rise again”.
“Housing will never be a good investment again”.
“Rent - buying is just throwing your money away.”
“Clinton destroyed housing.”
I heard all this back in 1996.
I agree that this housing bust is the worst since the Great Depression and is accompanied by the worst economy since the Great Depression. But there is no changing human nature, or economic cycles, including the booms and bust in real estate.
Mark my words, we’ll have a new housing boom no later than 2025.
Yes, I’ve read all the posts about demographics & etc. No, I don’t believe it. As long as their are couples there will be motivated home buyers. As long as they can get credit, they will buy homes. That is never going to change. All that changes is that the boom/bust cycle switches back in forth.
Right now we are in a trough, and we still haven’t hit bottom of the trough. We have to clear a lot of debt and foreclosures and excess inventory. New housing starts have to remain dead for several more years. At some point the slack in the inventory will be taken up and a new boom will begin.
It may take to 2030 to form, but mark my words, human nature and the boom/bust housing cycle will never change. So I am just loving it reading all of the doomage comments from all Freepers. It is music to my ears even more than it was in 1996, because at that time I guessed right, but now I actually KNOW better. There is always another housing boom and it is never more than a generation away.
You can’t stop natural cycles based on the greed and dreams and ambitions of people because you can’t change human nature.
Not really. I do this for a living; people I see are probably more qualified than before; they have cleaned up their credit.
We may hassle you more for more documentation; but it's not that hard to get qualified overall.
Why not just save a step and just find a woman you can't stand and buy her a house?
Fixed.
Not being argumentative but do you think you are not paying taxes when you are renting? Who is paying them? The home owner is “responsible” for them but believe me when you write that check every month you are “paying” for them. If you aren't you wont be renting that place for long because the state will come take the house or the owner will eventually go bankrupt...
People are not buying due to affordable monthly payments. It is the taxes that are driving the payments up.
It’s easier to move away from property taxes when you’re a renter - to another town or county or much further away.
Renters can play the market. Owners are largely stuck - especially these days.
Not my experience by a longshot. I went through a year and a half of the extra documentation two step and never closed. In the 90's, it would have been no problem.
If a good lender servicing your loan, and it is owned by Fannie or Freddie; you might qualify for the HARP program.
That definitely makes things easier. Or FHA or VA loans can be done on a streamline basis.
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