I think that the property tax and home loan interest deductions significantly influence the better decision for most of the people on this site.
How Many Years of Life Does That House Cost?
101–110 of 350 posts
Re: How Many Years of Life Does That House Cost?
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
And of course the NYTimes calculator also factors in home prices appreciation. This is not really academic; it's fairly important. In cheaper housing markets with limited growth, it might be cheaper to rent because the expected cost of a major repair (and return on that investment) are both so low. Of course, you can't ever recognize the value of your house unless you sell it and move somewhere cheaper (or buy a 2nd…
I think this highlights how expensive living is and how little income is. If we're going to have a "free economy" without an end of life safety net (i.e. Social security) then it has to be possible to work a lifetime and retire on savings made. But most indicators show little to no saving for most people. It sure seems something is deeply wrong.
There are most certainly many things deeply wrong.
Most people have negative savings every year. They have more debt. If one has bought a house, then it is very easy to go into more debt every year, when house prices are rising. Then they fall.
Since the beginning of written history (the first written records are records of debts) there are stories and parables about the evil of debt and the need for debt jubilees. Also the idea that lending with interest is immoral is found through out time. Having such easy access to debt/credit from strangers seems not to work well over the long term for human societies.
I mean, is it a good thing that one can get a "Rocket Mortgage" where you can "Get Approved Fast. Get an approval to buy a home or refinance your mortgage in minutes."? [1]
Re: How Many Years of Life Does That House Cost?
#103This is an excellent post. I've always fantasized of leaving the bay area but haven't because of job and family.
Heads up, anyone else dreaming of this, check out Zapier, i hear they like to hire remotely!
Re: How Many Years of Life Does That House Cost?
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
And of course the NYTimes calculator also factors in home prices appreciation. This is not really academic; it's fairly important. In cheaper housing markets with limited growth, it might be cheaper to rent because the expected cost of a major repair (and return on that investment) are both so low. Of course, you can't ever recognize the value of your house unless you sell it and move somewhere cheaper (or buy a 2nd…
I think this highlights how expensive living is and how little income is. If we're going to have a "free economy" without an end of life safety net (i.e. Social security) then it has to be possible to work a lifetime and retire on savings made. But most indicators show little to no saving for most people. It sure seems something is deeply wrong.
Most people I know that don't have white collar jobs don't have any expectation they will ever be able to retire. I'd be very surprised if the majority of americans were in a position to be able to retire.
Re: How Many Years of Life Does That House Cost?
#105I like this concept a lot, but like most choropleth maps (i.e. maps that color-code a state or county for a given value), it's misleading because the this is really city-level, or even suburb-level data. I'm not sure what the bedt way to represent this data is; maybe a histogram of median property value of zip code vs population density?
Census tracts are good because they're high resolution and still spatial polygons but are more or less sized by population, having ~2-10k people in each (so population density is factored out).
Re: How Many Years of Life Does That House Cost?
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
how many years will it take to pay off your mortgage? thats done for you, about 15 or 30. how does other factors like food/transportation/taxes factor in? though not always, but they tend to go hand in hand no? the cost of real estate is factored into much of what we buy / spend money.
It is honestly worth your while to pay off your mortgage as soon as humanly possible.
This just isn't always the case, as others have said. Particularly with interest rates as low as they have been, it's often completely rational to pay off your mortgage as slow as you can.
Also, you might not want all your money tied up in your mortgage: Buying a second home, too much risk for your taste in real estate market, etc.
Re: How Many Years of Life Does That House Cost?
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
And of course the NYTimes calculator also factors in home prices appreciation. This is not really academic; it's fairly important. In cheaper housing markets with limited growth, it might be cheaper to rent because the expected cost of a major repair (and return on that investment) are both so low. Of course, you can't ever recognize the value of your house unless you sell it and move somewhere cheaper (or buy a 2nd…
I think this highlights how expensive living is and how little income is. If we're going to have a "free economy" without an end of life safety net (i.e. Social security) then it has to be possible to work a lifetime and retire on savings made. But most indicators show little to no saving for most people. It sure seems something is deeply wrong.
Maybe for SF. The article indicates that homes are quite affordable in much of the country.
Re: How Many Years of Life Does That House Cost?
#108The data was very interesting, but there wasn't anything meaningful mentioned that came out of the data, other than possibly where you should look to move to if you have flexibility. I personally bought a house in my early twenties. At the time it was roughly 2.5x my income. I've been there a few years and went through some changes to my employment, I now earn more making it easier. Over the course of ownership, in t…
>You don't need to sell your house for a profit (although we all would love to). Had you rented like @magic_beans wants you to, you might have lost 100% of that money and every year your rental price may go up, you might not be allowed to have pets, you can't make improvements you want; you can lose a lot of control with renting. For the record, my apartment is pet friendly, you're allowed to paint the apartment, I'v…
> ...a top quality gym, yoga studio, apartment owned cafe, etc.).
It's funny how different things are in different countries. I've read a few US rent-vs-buy articles and they often mention these uber cool apartment blocks. I think they're extremely rare and/or so expensive nobody's heard of them in the UK (outside of small, prestigious areas of London). Here, a majority of the flats are in blocks with just the accommodation or are converted houses in residential areas.
City centres with purpose-built modern apartments at the upper end of the market might have a gym, maybe a concierge and occasionally parking. :)
Re: How Many Years of Life Does That House Cost?
#109This is an awesome site, visually depicting how unaffordable housing has become in so many parts of the US. It's truly amazing how much the Fed (with perpetually low interest rates) and local restrictions on building (making it more expensive or impossible to build) have increased the cost of home ownership over the past 60 years. Anyone who's seriously considering purchasing a home should read The Housing Trap by Pa…
I cant help but notice in the OP visualization, the houston area is cheap - a year of work, and reputed to have little regulation - like zoning regs for flood watersheds, or regulatory oversight over chemicals stored in warehouses...
Cockroaches are rampant in larger apartment complexes. If you go to poorer or less well maintained places and restaurants, the things are literally crawling over everything - it's hard to believe it's America. Mosquito breeding areas in all the ubiquitous slow winding bayous and creeks. The one month or so of winter cold enough to freeze results in sleet not snow most of the time due to prevailing atmospheric conditions. The rest of the year feel the need to take a shower after spending 15 minutes outside due to humidity.
Re: How Many Years of Life Does That House Cost?
#110I liked the visualization and data, but I don't think it makes sense to compare home prices to wages w/o considering alternatives to home ownership. Home prices don't exit in a vacuum. That is, if a home is 10x the median salary, you can't really say "well, if I didn't buy a home I could work 10 years less." That's because the alternative to buying is renting, which is also expensive. So sure, a mortgage in SF is $6k…
He mentions a county in Texas as the most affordable — and yet Texas has relatively high property taxes (higher than California). So there's that.
And the more expensive homes will also be an income tap when you retire and sell the house (hint: anyone in the magenta can retire, sell and live out their lives anywhere in the green).