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Plenty of houses available!

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Bubbler, Aug 24, 2010.

  1. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    With an the $8,000 tax credit I wouldn't be spread so thin. More money for remodeling, furniture, or just a safety fund.

    Playthrough is right, you don't get the $8,000 for closing. But you get it on your taxes. So lets say I bought a house at the end of 2010, I'd get that $8,000 back on my taxes (in addition to my return, because a single guy, making what I make, withholding what I withhold, yeah Uncle Sam's paying me each Spring). Anyway that $8k rebate could pay off my car. And like that, boom $300 in expenses gone per month, plus I'd save a bunch of interest, and still have a little left over for anything I need... painting a few rooms, buy an appliance, or get one of those DJ Roomba things I saw on Parks and Rec.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 1, 2015
  2. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    Furniture? Overrated.
     
  3. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    Close to putting my place up for sale as well, if for no other reason because I'm looking for more jobs out of state. Nerve-wracking indeed.
     
  4. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    I was dumb enough to buy multiple houses earlier in my career when two years in the same place seemed like forever. I put three up for sale within a year and a half of buying. The first one sold in one day and I actually made money. The other two, not so lucky. It took a few months each time and I took a bath because I had not paid off enough interest in the short time I had stayed there. Good luck to those of you who are trying to get out from under a mortgage for relocation purposes.
     
  5. crimsonace

    crimsonace Well-Known Member

    The other question ... does the $8K credit artificially drive up the price (e.g., because the $8K credit increases demand/buyers in the market, competition increases and prices go up $10-20K). Therefore, has the tax credit really helped, other than to make people feel good and artificially inflate the value of homes?

    I don't stand to benefit from it -- I'm already claiming other credits that cover my tax liability -- so it only stands to hurt me if I want to dive back into the market.
     
  6. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    I like your point about treating your house as a home, not as an investment, Pete.

    Not on board with those who see every house purchase as "investment." That's the thinking that fueled the bubble, the irrational belief that things would only go up, up, up. Then there's the costs of maintenance and repairs that renters never, ever will have. The home I've owned, on my watch, has required new furnace/AC, new chimney, new concrete walkway and front steps, new grading and landscaping around perimeter (for water-drainage purposes), a replacement tree in the front yard after the impressive old maple died and toppled, a new roof and a new fence. Then there were changes that we wanted to make but, let's face it, were needed to keep the joint updated overall, like two bathroom makeoves and a half-way kitchen remodel. Nothing fancy but it all adds up.

    Saw one great rent vs. buy calculator from New York Times Web site that estimates values for all sorts of variables, and it suggests 2% of purchase price as the annual maintenance/repair out-of-pocket costs. So plan to set aside $4K a year for a $200K house. Or make sure the tenants' monthly check is enough to cover that too.

    Given how flat or negative the market is these days, most of the rent vs. buy results favor renting right now by a wide margin. Most scenarios require 6-10 years to break even, since the appreciation on your house is so slight (if at all) that paying the realtor 6 percent commission when you sell will wipe out any gain -- and maybe erode your down payment.
     
  7. Tarheel316

    Tarheel316 Well-Known Member

    That's exactly why I bought my home.
     
  8. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Drive up the price? The $8K credit artificially props up the whole industry, and the stock market, and the entire U.S. economy. Which is why you see drops like 27 percent when it's off the books and it's on its way to becoming a permanent or at least long-term part of the tax code.
     
  9. MacDaddy

    MacDaddy Active Member

    Surprised this part isn't getting more attention. Be bought a bit over a year ago and the mortgage was an absolute nightmare, and we have good jobs, great credit and put money down. Friends of mine are going through the process now and have even better jobs -- one is an attorney -- and having similar headaches. I'm not saying the banks should go back to the old days of loaning money to anyone who walked in the door, but mortgages are extremely difficult to get right now.

    As for the $8K, after our house closed last August we filed a revised 1040 and had the check within a few weeks (the IRS even paid interest on the money from April 15 to when we received it). The vast majority of it went back into the house, mostly on furniture and appliances.
     
  10. Highway 101

    Highway 101 Active Member

    Inky and I have talked about our home-buying processes for about two years.

    The more I read, and the more I hear about bad experiences, I'm more and more thankful that I bought a very small place that I can afford as a bachelor.

    It's a cute old place that needed a couple grand extra to get up-to-date with the electrical, but other than that, it's a better house than anything for rent in a two-mile radius, half the price of rent, and just about every other property in the neighborhood is worth twice as much.

    Yes, lucky me.... for now. We'll see when it comes time to upgrade.
     
  11. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    Indeed. We're moving into a place that's about 3X the size of the condo we're in now. Gonna be lots of empty house for a while.

    And honestly.... kegerator > furniture.
     
  12. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    Funny you say that because I was thinking about typing in kegerator in my post. That is on my short list of things to buy.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 1, 2015
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