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If you purchased your home for any other reason than a place to keep your ass warm and dry, you are a fucking moron.
Lemme say that again, THE ENTIRE POINT OF SHELTER IS TO KEEP YOU WARM AND DRY; IF YOU HAD ANOTHER REASON FOR GETTING SHELTER, YOU ARE A DAMNED FOOL!
Don't like that?
Tough shit.
If you accept that the reason you bought a house was to stay warm and dry, then the fluctuations of the real estate market stop mattering so much.
Your house triples in value? Are you warm and dry? Win!
That value suddenly drops back to what you originally paid for it?
ARE YOU STILL WARM AND DRY?
If yes, you win!
A house is a box to keep you and your stuff out of the elements and nothing more.
If you're thinking it's a vehicle to become rich, you're stupid.
Do I really need to cite the years where the market proves me right about this?
The "Value" of a safe warm dry shelter is important.
ReplyDeleteThe selling price Unfortunately sets the TAXMANS yearly Bonus from your shelter.
Plenty of older folks I know have been forced by ever rising house prices and thus Taxes to sell out or mortgage their PAID FOR home to pay those taxes.
Taxes, the RENT you pay your Feudal Lord for the "Right" that they don't send men with guns to evict you from "Your Home".
Yep. Our home of 28 years (self contracted) is a bit snug for 4 adults (two adult kids) but we can manage. Neighborhood is old, most originals are old and retired or renting out to students at the very nearby college campus. Taxes are reasonable and city park across the way keeps the night lit up. Not always good, but we have a safe area to walk after dark.
ReplyDeleteNever looked at a house as an investment. Even when you own outright, you still pay taxes and spend on maintenance of it. McMansion Life is a pipe dream. Nice to look at, but you are a slave to paying off the mortgage. Our home never had that - it was paid for the day we moved in, except for appliances which were paid off within the year.
jrg
That's true as far as that goes, but it can be useful to take account of different markets. I just sold a 2BR condo near Denver Colorado for 229K, and paid exactly the same for a 3BR 2car garage house is Small City New Mexico. And it's. paid. for.
ReplyDeleteMy mother used to flip houses back before she hit her head. Her take was that a house was like any other investment. When you invest, you take a chance that you might lose some or all of your money. And if you may need to relocate (your boss has transferred you to another city, or the bottom's fallen out of the local job market and you need to go where jobs are, or something like that) ownership, in a market that's gone bad, can be a real liability. We knew people who were frantic to get out of our town but couldn't because they couldn't get even enough out of selling their houses to pay what they still owed. Renting has its good points.
ReplyDeleteA house is a machine for living in but it's also the average person's most valuable asset so the price you can get for a house is important because it's
ReplyDeletenormally an appreciating asset unlike a car or boat. In my case a rapid rise in value means I get a stack of cash after selling to finance my next home and move.