Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J. P. who wrote (11773)	7/25/2003 2:09:09 PM
From: Tradelite	Respond to of 306849

Everybody has to start somewhere in the homeownership game and it has always been conventional wisdom that "you should buy a home when you need one." Our family really stretched to buy the home we're in today. It wasn't a comfortable financial feeling for a long time. Postponing it would have gained nothing, however. Unlike some people who might regard today's real estate as an "overleveraged depreciating asset", I always tended to regard renting as a "constantly appreciating liability"--particularly around the time the landlord announced the annual rent increase, and the IRS came knocking with the annual income tax bill.

To: J. P. who wrote (11773)	7/25/2003 2:34:59 PM
From: Tradelite	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

<<If this were normal times where houses appreciated their 2-4 percent a year as WAS the norm>> << houses have been run up 20% and more per year for about 4-5 years now>> The first statement isn't a true reflection of what has occurred. There have been many stretches of time when housing prices stayed the same or declined. Then they've tended to go up in bursts. When the bean counters give statistics about housing prices over the past decades, they are using average appreciation per year, not actual appreciation each year. The second statement implies a belief that we have just seen the biggest and LAST burst of appreciation that will ever occur in our lifetime. If that idea is keeping people from buying homes right now, they probably never will buy. If prices start falling, they'll be afraid to buy, once again trying to time a market which can't be timed. If they think 7 or 8 percent interest is too much to pay, won't they be shocked if they eventually have to pay what I paid when I bought? That would be 9.25 percent. So they probably won't buy then, either. What a dilemma! And the only way to solve it is to buy when you need a home.