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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index

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To: Don Green who wrote (36026)7/22/2005 5:20:00 PM
From: GraceZRead Replies (1) of 306849
 
I have a sister who sold out five years ago to rent. The house she sold is now priced a little over twice what she sold it for. She rented a smaller place for three years, the rent was slightly more than her previous mortgage, but the overall expenses were, of course, a little lower in the rental because she never spent anything to fix it up.

She didn't make much interest income with the sale proceeds plus she spent some principle on rent (the important part about 'rent and invest the difference' is to actually get into something that has a better return than RE) so last year she decided to buy a more expensive crappier house in a lousy neighborhood with what money was left. Her landlady wanted her out because she was turning the rental over to her daughter to live in, they had to move, the kids had to change schools.

My sister's thinking was that the new neighborhood looked like it might be coming up (and RE now looked more attractive at higher prices). The neighborhood has been signifcantly improved over the last year by people moving in and fixing up older houses (or investors, who knows). She hates the house but it has gone up in price about 20% since she bought back in. All and all she is far worse off because she lost principle, lengthened her loan, increased her overall borrowing and worst of all, she now lives somewhere she doesn't even like.

The last time I visited she spoke bitterly about, "If I'd only held onto that house...." When she tried to blame it on her husband I looked at her funny because I know, and she knows I know, that it was all her idea to try to get out at the "top" of the RE market. She thought she was being smart and rational.
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