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 Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: re3 who wrote (54387)	2/21/2006 1:05:17 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

-how much of the 1.9 trillion is in property ? A lot of it. A big part of the flipping market is investors buying up inherited property with a large amount of deferred maintenance and multiple non-local descendants who just want the money from a quick sale. -and what are people really inheriting ? A lot of property being passed on are financial assets, but closely held family owned businesses as well and income producing land. -how did "row houses" downtown go from being something that newcomers bought and financed from working-man's wages (and left, running away from, when they found out about something called "the suburbs") to valuable yuppie desired dreams worth a half a million a throw ? Cities hold the poor but they also have some of the highest paid jobs. I know people who wouldn't be caught dead in a new house or the burbs. I've lived through several cycles where old row houses became Yuppie paradise and then reverted to slums, so I'll see it when I believe it that the Eastern and rust belt cities are recovering from their long decline. -have you seen the movie Angela's Ashes ? I wonder what the laneway properties shown in the movie (Limerick, Ireland i think) would be worth today ? The property boom has been worldwide in scope. -lastly, hmm, there are people who bought homes in lower end working class neighbourhoods. prices went up 15 - 20 x from their original price...these retired people can't really afford a decent apartment upon retirement (except of course that they have their house thankfully to live in) , and people living in apartments can't afford those houses from their own incomes. something doesn't add up here, don't you think ? The reason people buy their homes aside from the fact that there is something reassuring about controlling the place you live in is that when you buy you have some measure of protection against the long run inflation we have been subject to over our lifetimes. People complain that rents are so much cheaper than houses (they weren't when I bought my investment properties, it was opposite) but what would you pay for a 30 year fixed payment lease on a rental house (and then when that's up all you pay are taxes and insurance)? The old lady who rents one of my houses is a few years away from not being able to afford the rent. Had she bought it when she first wanted to she'd be able to live for free now (three bedrooms and two can be rented out) and she'd have 200k in equity instead of me. She paid the whole damned mortgage over the period she has rented the house from me. Her only recourse in a few years will be state subsidized housing. I tried to help her buy it years ago, but she was too scared that she wouldn't be able to keep up the repairs and whatnot. She paid for them over the years, her and her roommates, I didn't.