What is Digg?113 Comments
- morningmatters, on 12/18/2007, -3/+52For most people there are always "affordable" homes, they are just REALLY REALLY far from your work, or located in the ghetto...
- allaboutdatiki, on 12/18/2007, -3/+44The housing industry has been angling for a good kick in the balls for years. The heck with those "developers" that come in and wreck towns with their massive projects and illegal workers.
- Gabberwok, on 12/18/2007, -2/+23The best advice is to rent for the near future. Prices will keep falling, and you don't want to buy at the edge of a precipice...
- NJank, on 12/18/2007, -0/+18you still can. I'm a 30 year old gov't employee. 3 kids. Wife stays home. 4BR house a bit outside Baltimore. 40 minute commute to just north of DC. Expensive area. You just have to go back to the way 'it used to work'. I.e., save up for a down-payment. Live cheap. (I just bought myself the first new suit in 7 years.) Don't go out to eat much. Plan your at home meals. Take advantage of libraries. Don't pay $15/month for each and every online game you think you like. Don't pay the extra $75/month for HD, or even more than the basic package. etc. etc. No gov't assistance. It ain't the easiest, but it can happen. And you don't need to be making 6-figures either.
- noahhoward, on 12/18/2007, -1/+15When you don't need to be a dual income family to make it work? What happened to the day when a home could be bought on one persons salary?
- d3dm, on 12/18/2007, -0/+13Sounds like I have a year or two to work on getting my real estate license, then I can quit this lousy software job and go make some big bucks!
On second thought, I might need a haircut and a clean shirt though... oh forget it. A man has to have principles! - skidooer, on 12/18/2007, -0/+13An average house around here is in the $170,000 range. Problem is that the average income is $25,000.
- vornan19, on 12/18/2007, -0/+13I agree completely.
About two years ago I was looking to buy a home. I had/have very little money saved. The Realtors I was working with were great initially. They told about a loan I qualified for that did not require a traditional down payment. Well we looked and looked but it was hard to find a house in my price range. We rested for about six months then started looking again. Now the houses where about 10 grand above what I could comfortably pay. The Realtor pushed real hard saying the increased monthly amount was nothing compared to having a house. I pushed back and dropped the whole thing.
That was the smartest thing I have done for a long time. See, if I had taken the house I would have been close to maxed on what I could pay a month and only two months after I gave up, my car need some repairs that while not costly in themselves would have kept me from making a Mortgage payment. Then I could see the whole thing snowball on me and bingo! We've all heard the stories. - Narrator, on 12/18/2007, -0/+13Traditionally home prices were 3x median income. So if the median household income in the U.S Was 48k in 2006 then the median house price should be 144k so a 45% drop from the top ($262600). More in bubble areas.
- senatorkevin, on 12/18/2007, -7/+17I love tricking my friends with this little question. (Most are born in the early 80s for context and think real estate ALWAYS goes straight up)
Q: How long would it take for your average home in southern california to appreciate 5 percent if you bought in `89.
A: 7 Years (`89 was the top, `96 is when prices recovered) - shakestheclown, on 12/18/2007, -2/+11Trick question!
African swallows are non-migratory. - yunus, on 12/18/2007, -3/+11Did you read the article, or are you just bitter cause you bought at the peak hoping to buy low sell high but realize now you got it backwards?
- funkytaco, on 12/18/2007, -3/+11I just bought a 2 bedroom 900 square foot home inside the Atlanta perimeter for $65,000. I'm a bachelor so this is great. It's the hardest, most time consuming thing I've ever done (figuiring out plumbing, cutting out carpeting, sanding hardwood floors, installing insulation in the attic, killing rats beforehand, painting), but it is so rewarding. I had $20,000 in equity before I even worked on anything. I'm 3 miles away from where I want to live.
I'm not so sure "keep renting for now" as a blanket statement is the best advice. See if buying a home will work for you as well. - silentphoenix, on 12/18/2007, -0/+8or maybe when they're built of straw or sticks
- geometry, on 12/18/2007, -0/+8Well put. It's not that it can't be done it just that you have to give up some of the "stuff" that everybody feels they need.
- jasonkolb, on 12/18/2007, -1/+8Housing prices have deviated way too far from the median income in the past few years (according to history). If you think that history no longer applies then housing prices may hit bottom soon. If you do think it applies we probably have a good 30-40% to go yet.
- sfacets, on 12/18/2007, -1/+7@ morningmatters: "or located in the ghetto" - good to know that a high crime rate has it's advantages as well lol
- lburgguy, on 12/18/2007, -0/+6Plus now that it is harder for people to "cheat" on their mortgage apps there are fewer buyers, hence prices go down.
- NJank, on 12/18/2007, -0/+5it's a good comment. people expect (not hope, wish or want... expect) real estate (primary home, not speculative, investment, vacation, etc.) to be a sound investment. I.e., be a nice, conservative place to plunk a few hundred K over the next handful of years. Selling a home in 5-10 years 'should get you a net profit', blah blah.
But, if you bought at a peak, it could take 5 years to get back to your initial investment value. That's not exactly a great APR. - catalysis, on 12/18/2007, -0/+5What they don't tell you is that it's haunted and the only way to get the discount is to spend 3 nights there with your family.
- langzaiguy, on 12/18/2007, -0/+4I actually agreed with your comment and did not mean to give offense. It was just in the format of a riddle and I was trying to be funny (and failed).
- dupswapdrop, on 12/18/2007, -1/+5Hey you want use your money to pay for someones house go ahead and rent.
- diversionmary, on 12/18/2007, -0/+4What the photos cleverly hide is that the house is made of rape and anguish. It's a common trick sellers use. Creative composition hides the wall of dicks.
- yaddayaddayoda, on 12/18/2007, -0/+4Good job! Buy low, sell high, and don't think that you are going to double or triple your money in 60 days. The phrase is, "Get rich slowly."
We bought the last house in our area for under $100K. It was in sore need of repairs, needing $10K worth of roof repairs immediately before we could even get a bank loan. Doing the same kinds of repairs that you are working on, I believe I have about $140K into the house and property and it's worth $170-$180K 3 years later. But I don't have plans to sell... it's a solid 75 year old house that is better built than any McMansion is today. - obxjdt, on 12/18/2007, -1/+5I don't think these pinheads get it.... In the last 10-15 years the cost of housing has gone up 400% while the average wage has only gone up by 50-100%. Either the wages need to come up, or the cost of housing needs to come down. I'd like it to meet somewhere in the middle. Give me a 200% pay raise, and bring housing down 200%....Everyone makes out that way. I get a bigger paycheck to buy a house with, more houses sell because more people can afford them.
Of course that might cause a problem with inflation, so a 200% pay raise won't work. That means housing cost needs to come down about 300%. I'm a carpenter, and can build one hell of a house for $100,000. But I can't buy much for $100,000. Nothing where I live, but a 1/4-1/2 acer of land. The house I rent for $1,150 a month is 3 bdr, 2 bath and appraised for $270,000 on about 1/2 acer. That's just not right. 10-15 years ago it would have been around $75,000 if that much.
My job depends on people buying houses, but it ain't gonna' happen till the prices are reasonable. I know I'm not going to pay $270,000 for this little place, and know body else will either. - strongsad, on 12/18/2007, -0/+4If you live in the Bay Area, CA, there's nothing to do but wait unless you make 150K+... 500K will get you a 1200sqft bungalow from the 30's in the ghetto, 750K means you live in a nicer area, but share schools with kids from the ghetto.
- inactive, on 12/18/2007, -0/+3WEll...actual facts don't back you up. Rents are going up.
- senatorkevin, on 12/18/2007, -2/+5Uh, no. I just said it was a trick question as most people assume the answer is 1 year or less.
- noahhoward, on 12/18/2007, -2/+5What does not artificially inflating the cost of a house have to do with you financing anything?
- mjrmjr65, on 12/18/2007, -3/+6It's *insanely* relevant when the average person probably has it in their head that real estate is *always* going to go up 10%+ per year. senatorkevins question illustrates a time and a place in pretty recent history when things were drastically different than they were the first half of this decade. Real estate does not always go up.
- mjrmjr65, on 12/18/2007, -0/+3Do you posit that there is no relation between home prices and median household incomes? That is what your comment seems to imply.
- inactive, on 12/18/2007, -0/+3Are you calling my realtor a liar?
- eryximachus, on 12/18/2007, -1/+4You heard wrong. Failed condo projects are going rental, and repossessed homes are purchased by investors who rent them out.
- inactive, on 12/18/2007, -1/+4Lets all hold out until they are 40% cheaper, then lets buy in
- eryximachus, on 12/18/2007, -0/+3I don't know about that. You'll be hard pressed to find a house anywhere in the Bronx for less than $500,000 that doesn't require a gut renovation.
- scaaven2, on 12/18/2007, -1/+4dugg down for usage of *insanely*
- yaddayaddayoda, on 12/18/2007, -1/+4Sorry, Joe. I disagree. The reason prices are so terribly *high* around here is because the speculators bought everything for a 50 mile radius during the boom. They were lined up 20 deep to purchase homes that hadn't even been built yet. They even got into bidding wars! If a house was desirable, people would bid against each other bringing the price UP!
- ngmcs8203, on 12/18/2007, -2/+5Paying my own mortgages or pay someone else's mortgage... How does paying somebody else's mortgage qualify as sound advice if you can afford to own your own home?
We currently have 3 homes with renters covering our mortgages. All we have to do is pay the HOA dues, insurance and 24k in taxes. So ~$2250 a month to own 3 properties (this doesn't include our insurance on the homes). All three properties appreciated enough in value so that we could afford the house we currently live in. I don't expect any of them climbing rapidly over the next 2-5 years, but in time, they will afford us to buy another property.
I do however wish we had waited roughly 6 months to buy this house. Bargaining would have been much easier. But we are currently happy with all of our properties and aren't looking to unload any time in the near future.
So please, explain to me how renting would be better for those of us that can afford to own? - Ebulating, on 12/18/2007, -0/+3I have a friend who did just that. I have no idea what he was thinking buying a house when he was 21.
- inactive, on 12/18/2007, -3/+6That's funny. I just read several articles about how rents were starting to skyrocket. Makes sense too. Fewer houses being bought means more people that need to rent. Increased demand means increase prices.
- dupswapdrop, on 12/18/2007, -1/+3In real money adjusted for real inflation we are still in 1980. gas in 1980 was what 60 cents a gallon?
- eryximachus, on 12/18/2007, -0/+2Worse than that, he doesn't understand how interest rates and lending standards affect loan payments. People don't buy houses in cash.
- noahhoward, on 12/18/2007, -0/+2House needs a ton of work and according to the statistics while everything else looks fine rape is inexplicably 1.64 times the national average. At that price I'd venture a guess the neighbours weren't too great.
- pcpimpster, on 12/18/2007, -1/+3Nice, Glad i got this in the city remodeled colonial home in my early twenties and will be primed for a "suburb" home when the bottom falls out. I always thought housing was overpriced. My salary appears to be only going up/ - I'm set.
- eryximachus, on 12/18/2007, -0/+2No nation in history has devalued its currency into prosperity. Why should the US be any different?
- BobSutan, on 12/18/2007, -1/+3Rent is going down? I'll believe it when I see it. Right now rents are skyrocketing in MD because nobody wants to buy!
- annenk38, on 12/18/2007, -0/+2The housing market will stabilize when the cost of buying on a mortgage will fall in line with cost of renting. According to New York Times, "To restore a historically normal ratio of housing prices to rents or incomes, average home prices would have to fall about 30 percent from their current levels." Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/opinion/14krugma ...
Here is my(slightly oversimplified) analysis: if the non-principal portion of your mortgage payment is larger than the cost of renting, it makes no sense to buy, unless the home value appreciates fast enough to offset the difference. You can build equity faster by renting and putting away what would have been the principal portion of your payment into savings. - inactive, on 12/18/2007, -0/+2Reading is for pussies.
- inactive, on 12/18/2007, -0/+2It's difficult work, but the end result makes it worth it. Enjoy not having a wife complain that the house is in a constant state of renovation while you can.
- dupswapdrop, on 12/18/2007, -1/+3The problem is not housing prices it's that wages are still stuck at 1980's levels for most people. Of course most of us on digg are in that top 1% that have all the money.
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