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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pgerassi who wrote (115203)	6/9/2000 3:57:00 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1571808

OT I begun by looking at the statement that buying a home was only $100 than renting. I thought that he fell into the common traps of not including higher utility payments, property taxes (both included in some rents (well heat, garbage, sewer, and water in my area plus prop. tax)), maintenance costs (anything that breaks in a house you pay for, with renting they pay for), and special easements (read they upgrade the road in front of house, you pay extra taxes based on frontage). Since on a house of $100,000, prop taxes are $1000 (assume 10 mil due to your area (Rochester, MN)), $200 for water/sewer, $1200 in heat (gas), figure $1200 per year for mowing, painting, etc., figure durables at another $600 per year (assume fairly new house, older ones cost more), and summing it up is $4200 per year in "extras". That is $350 per month. At a real difference of $450 per month, it does not begin to look as good. Pete, You are talking to the wrong guy. I have done very well investing in housing...in fact the money I invest in the stock market came from my housing investments. I should disclose, of course, that my background is real estate development so that that probably gives me an edge over someone just buying a home within which to live. ted

To: pgerassi who wrote (115203)	6/9/2000 4:06:00 PM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571808

Pete, OT It seems like you are comparing renting an apartment with buying a single family house. You can rent houses, and you will most likely pay all the fees (except taxes and insurance), or you can buy an apartment. So let's way we compare apples with apples, or buying a house vs. renting one. You think you can save money by renting, rather than buying. But why would your landlord (the owner of the house) rent it to you for less than it costs to purchase it? There is some gain, or some benefit that your counterparty needs to derive from your transaction. Do you think that the transaction is one sided: you win he loses? Joe

To: pgerassi who wrote (115203)	6/9/2000 4:09:00 PM
From: chic_hearne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571808

OT Re: Since on a house of $100,000, prop taxes are $1000 Pete, You're getting a hell of a deal for Wisconsin under these numbers. I own a house valued roughly the same as my mom and my property taxes are under $1000 and hers are $4500 (in Madison). Forget about looking at all the numbers compared to each other and just look at how much of a waste of money both are. Next to a car, I'd say a house is the next worse way to spend your money. It all depends how you set it up though. I have 2 roommates paying $500 each, so that pretty much covers the mortgage, taxes, and insurance. The base causes are that the system is set up to "nickle and dime" the homeowner to death. I'm finding this out. All my friends that I graduated with bought new cars and bought houses for themselves (maybe significant other, but no roommates to help with the cost). All of them are more broke than when we were in college. I'm set up with roommates paying my mortgage and I'm driving a car with no payments that I've had for 6 years that has 170,000 miles. I hear I made it through school and I deserve better. Morons I say. Instead, I put $12K in AMD and now I'm sitting on about $200K. I'll take that over driving a nice car or having my own house. It's a concept called "delayed gratification". Most people can't grasp this concept. chic

To: pgerassi who wrote (115203)	6/9/2000 5:52:00 PM
From: hmaly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571808

pergrassi Re..<<<<<After all the conservative calcs favoring buying a home, the house accumulates about $26,000 (10,000 down, 1.02^5 * 100,000 + 6000) and the investment about 34,000. The investor gets about $8,000 more. If you subtract the up front costs of the loan (1%-2% in points, the commissions paid to the agent, etc), you would lose an additional $3000 minimum. <<<<<<<<<< Aren't you forgetting several things? For one you typical house is 1500 to 1700 sq. ft whereas the common apartment is approx. 800 sq ft. with minimum storage with no garage.. My wife works all day inside, so whe really enjoys planting flowers etc; she would go nuts cooped up inside all weekend. Secondly you have to live with their color scheme which is usually white and you have very little privacy as opposed to a house. Hey, I make money so I can enjoy life, and I will never subject my family or myself to apartment living with all of its restrictions. Sometimes earning money is secondary to enjoying life. If you add up all of the benefits of owning a house, there is no other option.