very nice! Congrats!

 

Congrats!

It was like a weight off of the chest once you sign all of the papers and the hand you the key!

Atleast you're in yours....I'm shooting for Memorial Day weekend for my move....although the POD and all of the furniture I bought is coming on the 26th!

 

yeah it was a big relief lol. getting the keys and the "congratulations" from the title officer was a really cool moment.

 

Congrats. I've got my closing on 9/30. I can't wait to get out of my apartment.

 

well thanks, and welcome to AZ! good luck with your closing!

 

I was about to post up Congrats but saw the date the thread was originally created.

So instead I'll post Congrats on paying your last 3 mortgage payments.

 

I LOL'd

 

Thank you. I signed on the place 8/4. I'm surprised how quickly the past month has gone by. Usually time drags when you're excited about something.

 

if I could do it over again, I might have stayed a renter... but, I didn't say that.

 

It's a good thing you didn't say that because you did the right thing buying IMHO. At least now your money is going towards something that you can claim as your own.

 

Rent = money down the toilet.

 

When you figure CAF / HOAF + property tax + interest.. Rent doesn't seem too bad.

 

equity > no equity.

 

Rent for a 3BR apartment in my area is around $1,300/month. For a colonial style 3BR 2.5BA 2 car garage home...it will be $100 more per month. That figure includes everything...HOA fees, taxes, insurance, and interest. The difference in utility bills will be very slim. Equity >*

 

Not if you owe $500k on a home that's only worth $300k like my buddy does.

I bought recently but I ran through the numbers many times to make sure it was a sound decision + betting on the real estate market to improve in the next 10 years + hoping I'll have a steady job during this time as well.

 

^^^ I see your point, but I still feel it is better to own than rent.

In any case, let's not hijack srika's thread. If you guys want to continue this discussion, feel free to create a new thread. And since this is a discussion pertaining to investing, probably should go in that forum as well.

 

Yup. That tends to happen though when you spend $500k on a $300k house . One house I looked at was listed for $148k. It was worth about that. The current owner paid $288k for it in 2004. By no stretch of the imagination was that house ever REALLY worth $288k.

 

Any new pics Srika? Maybe through a telephoto lens..

 

Sorry for the thread hijack.

 

 

I agree, I do feel relatively good about it. But sometimes I have second thoughts. Especially when I hear some of my millionaire friends talk about how they're selling their place and renting And, all the articles I have read in recent news about how it's no longer the "American Dream" to own a home. It's just not what it was cracked up to be, anymore. That is a fact. The only thing that would save it, is if home prices came back up. And, with the total flood of new homes in the past several years, that's not very likely to happen, for a long ass time. It's like, the really successful people (remember I'm talking about millionaires here) are moving their beans to the renter's side. I know people in Cali who are doing the same. It's just annoying because I waited so damn long to finally buy, and when I do, the tide is shifting the other way. It makes me feel like I made the wrong decision.
Rent is not money down the toilet. You are paying less than a mortgage and home costs, you are paying for a roof over your head. You are paying convenience fees for not having to mow the lawn, or take care of the upkeep of your place, in terms of appliances, lights, etc. etc. You are not tied down to a mortgage and the issue of selling if you ever need to. You are free, you can pretty much up and leave whenever you want. Or stay the course of your lease and then leave, no questions asked. Don't have to deal with banks. Renting is a convenience, in many ways. You have to deal with a landlord but if you are a good tenant then you don't have to see them or even talk to them much. The last 4 years I rented at the place I was before buying, I probably talked to my landlord like 4 times. And it was because once I got my keys stolen, and then only when it was time to move out and I was working out the dates.
No, it doesn't. It's a heck of a smaller responsibility than owning. And again the common thought was when you rent, you are just throwing your money away. But you're not - you really are not. It's akin to a membership at a club. You have to pay a monthly cost to use services and conveniences. You ARE getting something out of it. You are paying for something.
used to be that way.
obviously this varies by city. sounds like you are making a good move there. it's much different in Chicago. Equity > * IF your property value doesn't go down.
I don't consider this hijacking, because this thread was dead. And, I think this is a valid discussion as far as buying a home, in 2010. It's good to talk about this.
I have a few here and there, let me see if I can get something.
np again I don't consider it a hijack, since nothing was going on in this thread.

 

Since the OP is cool with it I'll pop in my 2 cents.

I would be very leary of purchasing a home at this time.
I think we will be seeing some rather large drops in home values over the next year or two.

My advise to renters: Keep on renting for the next couple of years.

This market is not going to "recover" for quite some time.

 

I have a feeling there will be another home credit coming out soon.

 

yeah the thing that pushed me was the 8k credit. gave me a nice cushion.

 

The house of cards has been propped up with more cards.

Reality will eventually occur.....we have to take our medicine.

Keep in mind when the market fell in late '07 / early '08 there were a lot of upsidedown homeowners who made deals with the banks for 5 year interest only loans to help them out....those short term "fixes" are going to come due soon. Chances are strong that these people will have to walk away, thus depressing home values even more.

 

I thought about that. The thing that made me pull the trigger and buy now (instead of waiting until May or so) is the low interest rates.

 

That was my take on it until I started house shopping. Most of the homes for sale in my area are short-sale and foreclosures. I figured that I could get a steal, as every other news story is about how home prices are dropping x% each month.

There is one constant that I saw during my home search. GOOD/CLEAN houses are few and far between. Good/clean homes that are normal sales and priced appropriately sell FAST. The house I'm buying was on the market for eight days when I put in a offer. That was par for the course around here though. House that were on the market for more than a couple weeks were still listed for a reason (ex. price too high, shithole, septic not to code, etc.).

I looked at 15 houses. Of those, I would classify three of them as being habitable. No kidding...there are more shit houses out there than you can shake a stick at. While bank owned and short-sales will drive properties like that down, a CLEAN house is only going to go down so far. Given the average household income in my area (historical income to property cost ratio), I think many of the decent properties are about as low as they're going to get.

 

^^ Congrats on your new home purchase.

Be prepared for it's value to go down...and maybe by quite a shocking amount.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not pissing on your parade. I hope I am wrong...truly I do.

As a homeowner, I don't want to see my home value go down any further either, but the reality is, as I see it, they will continue to fall.

See you in 2013-2014 when things start to recover in the housing market.

 

Don't get me wrong...I'm realistic and expect that it will come down some. I'm just hopeful that it won't go WAY down. Like anyone that's bought recently...I'm not expecting a return on my investment anytime soon.

 

^^ That's a good attitude.

 

I hope things recover early 2013. I too expect home values to dump but we didn't overspend and we updated our tax appraisal with recent home purchases to get a tax break as well.

 

I was told I would get a good amount back on my tax refund in 2011, being a new home-owner. True or false?

 

^^ I assume you are talking about mortgage interest deduction?

 

I have no idea. me = I was gonna have an accountant take care of it.

 

Congrats, Rubes!

 

When did you purchase your home?

Hope you don't end up "paying" like these poor bastards.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/09/real...edit/index.htm

 

Thanks...........

 

yeah, I checked all that. I should be "OK". of course, the government can kinda do whatever the f it wants right...

 

TX property tax is one of the highest in the nation.. Our state property tax is 3% of the appraised value.

We cashed in on the 'refund' thank goodness. Put a portion of it into the principal but saved the majority of it for rainy days to come.

 

uh-oh.

Well, we bought in late 09 so hopefully won't be one of those very unfortunate people.