House-buying thread - Why is everyone involved in this process so deeply stupid?

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > House-buying thread - Why is everyone involved in this process so deeply stupid?

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gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

CobiWann posted:

Can anyone point me to a "Congratulations, I Just Bought A House...Now What The gently caress Do I Do" resource?

I close on June 18th. Fredericksburg, VA, end unit, 1-car garage, 3 story, 3 bed, 2 bath, about a mile off of I-95, great neighborhood, $189k. My folks have bought and sold way more property than I ever have and I have a great friend-recommended realtor, so both of them have held my hand and guided me through the looking/bidding/contracting phases. All that's left to go horribly, horribly wrong is the appraisal and closing.

So, I will be a homeowner soon, but the question is, what the heck's next?
I'm talking in terms of "well you need to get the heating system serviced" or "make sure you put in fresh light bulbs" or "time to sell a kidney for an emergency fund."

Two little things:
1) homeowners insurance;
2) replace furnace filters regularly - I'd probably have an HVAC come in and clean it as well.

Leperflesh posted:

Second, your girlfriend does have the option of simply stopping making payments and wait for foreclosure. Essentially she can choose to trade destroyed credit for potentially thousands of dollars in savings. This is only a good option if she does not need good credit (no intention of trying to buy a home in the next 8 years, or get a good car loan, etc.). Given that the place is vacant, so she's not going to have to deal with eviction, that might not be a terrible plan.

Note that Nevada is a recrouse state (I'm pretty sure). They could both foreclose, and then get a judgment for the deficiency (i.e., $60k). That is an unsecured debt, so bankruptcy would be an option.

# ¿ May 12, 2010 19:34

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 09:32

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

necrobobsledder posted:

And now I can give a big, fat middle finger to Bank of America for making this so drat hard as I ride off a whole $90k lighter in the pocket for my troubles (my calculated cost of owning this abortion of a property).

I'm sure that they aren't exactly happy with you either.

# ¿ May 26, 2010 15:51

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

peengers posted:

Benefits: no mortgage insurance, up to 3.5% concessions, 3.5% down.

If you can only put 3.5% down, should you really be buying a house?

Best regards,
Disaffected Homeowner

# ¿ Jun 29, 2010 23:54

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Arzakon posted:

This is only true in non-recourse states (AK, AZ, CA, CT, FL, ID, MN, NC, ND, TX, UT, WA) where you can walk away and not have the bank come after you for the difference.

Exactly right.

And really, I'm not incredibly anti-buying or anything, I just think that you should be in a very stable financial situation before considering it. If you can only afford to put 3.5% down, you probably aren't in that position. I could see some exceptions for low but fixed and really stable incomes or something like that.

I bought myself about five years ago, and I regret it quite a bit. I have seen stagnant to no appreciation, and a bunch of repair costs. I am looking to sell and start renting actually.

skipdogg posted:

Why should it be a last resort?

I don't think it should be a "last resort" or anything. It is certainly an option in recourse states. I just see a pretty flippant attitude towards this quite a bit in internet discussions - I think people may be underestimating the damage to your credit. You are basically not going to be able borrow anything significant (at least on decent terms) for years.

gvibes fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Jun 30, 2010

# ¿ Jun 30, 2010 21:22

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

People who don't hire a lawyer for their real estate closings are idiots. There, I said it.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2010 15:53

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Arkane posted:

As someone who didn't hire a lawyer (not common to hire one in the state where I am purchasing), I just did a brief search on the subject, and it doesn't seem to be quite as black and white as you are suggesting. Especially considering the fact that many contracts are cut and dry nowadays.

What - besides peace of mind - does the lawyer bring to the table that justifies the cost? Would it be redundant if you had a competent real estate broker?

If there are abnormal circumstances (foreclosure, etc.) then I could see the cost being justified.

A lawyer brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in an esoteric and specialized area of the law. For instance, how would you know whether the deed you are transferred at closing is what you paid for? You would have no clue. A lawyer also brings malpractice insurance if the purchaser finds out that something got hosed up.

A broker is supposed to represent your interests, but they only get paid if the deal closes. That's a substantial misalignment of interests. An attorney gets paid regardless.

I am a lawyer, consider myself moderately intelligent and fluent in English, and would never even consider doing a real estate deal without a RE lawyer.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2010 20:47

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Leperflesh posted:

Since I'm not a lawyer, I am unprepared to argue the specific merits of having a lawyer, with an actual lawyer. On the other hand, I would not pay much attention to, say, the arguments of an insurance salesman on the necessity of buying life insurance, either. Or at least, I'd take them as a potentially highly-biased source and assume that they're going to take an extreme position.

Given how unrelated my practice is to real estate law, it would be like disregarding a seller of reinsurance's statement about the need for car insurance, but whatever floats your boat.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2010 20:30

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

illcendiary posted:

I don't see a reason not to buy.

I think that's looking at it backwards. What's his reason to buy? If he's getting a 3 BR/2 ba, he is going to be paying taxes/utilies/etc. on a lot of stuff he doesn't need. That's wasted money there. What would interest on his mortgage and property taxes be? Maybe 1400-1500 a month? What kind of rental can he get for that much in the area he wants to live in? Sounds like he won't actually need a bigger place for quite some time. I am betting he can rent a decent 1 BR for 1400-1500+utilities a month. I would do that, and just keep on saving.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2010 15:41

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Leperflesh posted:

Condos are depreciating assets. You don't own the actual land, just part of a building. The land is the only part of real estate that isn't destroyed by fire, flood, neglect, termites, or simply the inexorable crush of time.

Do you have any evidence to support your assertion that, over time, condos are depreciating assets? I couldn't find much in terms of comparisons, but case-shiller does condo indices too, and condo values seem to track home values pretty well, at least in the one comparision chart I found:
http://blog.lucidrealty.com/2010/01/31/chicago-case-shiller-index-for-condominiums-vs-houses/

This is limited to Chicago in the last 15 years though. Condos are actually doing better than SFHes during that time frame.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2010 17:19

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

That's all fine and good, but most people care about the market value, not some intrinsic value that isn't reflected in the market value.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2010 22:13

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Maybe you should get on your feet financially before borrowing a massive amount of money to buy a house.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2010 23:01

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Phummus posted:

but I also don't know how much longer we can have 4 (and sometimes 6) people in a 900 sq ft apartment with 1 bathroom and 2 bedrooms. Its pretty cramped. On that side of things, my rent right now is $865.

Then rent a bigger apartment, or a house.

Where are you getting the money for the down payment here?

# ¿ Aug 5, 2010 19:57

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Phummus posted:

Proceeds from selling my former abode.

Ah. From this:

quote:

used all the profits to pay off old debt.

it kind of sounded like you didn't have any money left from the sale.

Personally, I think it's a bad time to buy, regardless of financial situation. Tax assessments are meaningless. Inventories are massive. No one has jobs to afford to buy, stifling demand. Rent. Save. By later. You'll be better off in the long run. JMO.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2010 20:54

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Seventyfour posted:

It might be a bad time to buy for him, but otherwise your description makes it sounds like an incredible time to buy. Why do massive inventories and low demand make it a bad time to buy???

Because it indicates (to me) that prices will continue to drop.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2010 21:08

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

The Canadian housing market still looks really overvalued to me, compared to historical trends.

gvibes fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Aug 17, 2010

# ¿ Aug 17, 2010 15:58

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

SSH IT ZOMBIE posted:

A cool situation cropped up, a relative's friend's wife's mother had to go to a nursing home, they want to sell the house asap. It's appraised at 66, I can get it for 50. (housing is really cheap in rochester, ny)

It's in a decent area, has a garage, unfinished attic and basement, built in 1949. Went to go look at it. It's well maintained, clean, looks like mostly drywall, where there is plaster, it's not cracked at all. New carpet, good looking hardwoods under the carpet. No water in the basement, etc.

Will need a roof in a few years, and has fuses. It's only 800 sq ft.

I made an offer, they accepted, going through the mortgage approval process now.

As it stands, the mortgage is actually going to be cheaper than what I'm paying for rent.

How much are real estate taxes?

sanchez posted:

Around here (Howard County, MD), single family homes are dropping down into the 300-350k range. The median income for a family in this county is 100-110k. Does this mean they're officially no longer overpriced?

According to Case Shiller, looks like DC home prices are still above where they should be historically.
http://blog.redfin.com/washingtondc/files/2010/04/Case-Shiller-Redfin-Markets_2010-02.png

# ¿ Sep 3, 2010 15:51

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

SlapActionJackson posted:

Silly man, TARP funds aren't for lending; they're for recapitalizing reckless banks.

I'm shocked that anyone ever pretended otherwise.

# ¿ Sep 8, 2010 19:43

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

FISHMANPET posted:

Also, condos will have association fees. In one building I was looking at association fees were way more than what a mortgage payment would be. (And they don't allow pets? What the hell is that poo poo?)

Eh, I live in a condo building that allows pets, and I think the pet thing is understandable. There is just always that rear end in a top hat owner whose dog shits in the elevator or whatever, and doesn't clean it up.

There is one floor that has a disproportionate number of dogs, and the carpet just gets trashed.

I know that this is more bad owner than bad dog, but some times it's difficult to catch the owner.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2010 19:33

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

I have recently started looking at "starter" homes in good school districts.

I just don't comprehend how young families can afford these places.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2010 19:08

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

necrobobsledder posted:

BTW, with HOA dues that low for condos, I suspect the place is being run horribly with nowhere near enough reserves to cover emergency repairs or even periodic ones. My HOA dues at the place I had started in 2004 around $40 including water and garbage / sewer and is now at $330 / mo for various reasons that weren't foreseen. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not get an extra $300 / mo bill tacked on to my expenses only a few years down the road.

Did you buy new construction? Seems like they typically set fees too low to start to get suckers in.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2010 02:21

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Walk away.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2010 19:42

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Ledneh posted:

I've been reviewing the OP and I'm still quite thoroughly lost on how to determine if now is a 'good' time to buy a home, by which I guess I mean 'is the house value going to plummet again'. This is my first shot at buying a home so this is all new and scary to me

I am preapproved for $130k on a 3.5% down FHA loan, and there are plenty of options for that price in the form of single-family homes and condos that I like in the neighborhood I'm searching (Las Vegas, NV, far south part of town / east of the interstate). I have the down payment and worst-case closing costs for $130k ready, and the rainy-day fund and such, so immediate money's not an issue. I just don't know, despite the OP's assistance, what exactly to look for to determine if it really is a good time to buy a home or not. Can anyone offer advice, or even regurgitate the OP in a form a slow, stupid child like me could understand?

Thanks.

Housing prices are probably continuing to drop.

There may of course be local variations, though I would be terrified of buying anything in Vegas.

See, e.g.,
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/dr-doom-predicts-another-1-trillion-in-housing-losses/?src=twt&twt=nytimesdealbook
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-09/homes-in-u-s-poised-to-lose-1-7-trillion-in-value-this-year-zillow-says.html
http://www.standardandpoors.com/ser...lobnocache=true
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-house-prices-tumble-in-october-2010-12-28

# ¿ Dec 29, 2010 23:37

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

slap me silly posted:

Heh, were you here for the Cornholio saga? Trust me, your escapade will soon be forgotten. A house purchase depends on your whole financial situation - how much of a stretch is the 3.5% down payment? How much of your paycheck will be committed to the loan?

Whoo - don't listen to your lending guy who probably has a vested interest in selling you a mortgage. Run the numbers yourself, and remember that the amount of interest you'll pay each month on a 3.5% down mortgage will be pretty high even if the rate is low.

Oh wait, I missed that he is only putting 3.5% down. I thought that he was paying 3.5% and putting 20% down.

If you can't afford to put 3.5% down, I would suggest not buying. You probably aren't going to miss out on any appreciation or anything, so there is no rush.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2010 00:27

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

necrobobsledder posted:

You won't be negotiating with the owner / landlord, you'll be negotiating with their lender. The good news is that in some areas, lenders know that the market is basically trashed and they're lucky to get almost any offer on a place and will let it go for some ridiculously low price.

Why won't he be negotiating with the owner? Did he say it was a short sale?

# ¿ Jan 10, 2011 21:37

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

jerkstore77 posted:

This might be too generic a question, but is it ever a good idea to sell a house and go back to renting? I seem to remember hearing advice along the lines of: once you own a home you don't want to go back to renting or else it'll be difficult to own again in the future. Not sure how valid a statement that is.

My current situation is that my 1 bedroom condo that I own is getting to be way too small for my fiance and I. We can't afford to buy what we want, but could afford to rent something. I'd have to sell my place to do this since if I rented it out, there's no way I'd cover both the mortgage payments and HOA fees. Then there's the whole timing thing of having to both sell my place and find a place to rent at the same time to not be paying both rent and a mortgage. Oh God...

I don't know, but I'm planning on selling my condo and renting for a bit soon. Owning sucks.

You have to be disciplined about savings, as you aren't going to forced to dump equity into the house. Other than, I don't see that there would be any issue, other than potentially missing out on some appreciation (lol right).

# ¿ Jan 10, 2011 21:38

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Leperflesh posted:

There is a tax consequence. If you sell the home you live in, I believe you can roll profits you made on that house into the price of the next house you buy, and not have to pay capital gains taxes on those profits.

I am not sure about that though, so you should consult an accountant.

Yeah, that too, but I figure most people selling these days will not see any gains.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2011 23:08

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

jerkstore77 posted:

A family friend who is dying of cancer is trying to sell her house valued at $525,000 and is willing to go as low as $400,000 to sell it quick and because we know her so well. It's in a good area but not in a place we ideally want to live so we'd probably be turning it around in about 1-2 years and re-selling it. My only concern would be what happens to the value of the house in that short a period of time.

Would I have to be absolutely retarded not to take this offer up?

What makes this house worth $525,000?

# ¿ Jan 14, 2011 01:01

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

If you owe money on a motorcycle, you probably should not be buying a house.

If you want to get your own place, rent. If home prices are that low, rentals should be pretty low as well.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2011 01:08

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Chainclaw posted:

I've been getting pressure to look into buying a house from my parents because "it's a good time to buy." But I am constantly hearing contradictory reports, and can't really decipher the http://www.standardandpoors.com/home/en/us linked in the first post. Housing tracker seems to show that prices are the lowest now that they've been since 2006 (which is as far back as it goes) http://www.housingtracker.net/asking-prices/seattle-washington/

Values nationally are about at mid-2003 levels according to the latest case-shiller report, but they probably have another 20-25% downside before they reach historical values.

greasyhands posted:

I think it's an ok time to buy a house, but houses are nowhere near historical lows by any metric.

Correct (at least the last part).

# ¿ Jan 17, 2011 17:37

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Lyesh posted:

Yes, but they are upfront costs that are included in rent. When people talk about "throwing away money" on rent, they typically just compare rent to mortgage payments and forget all of the other costs that skipdogg mentioned. Closing costs are also NOT something that are usually included in rent and they are substantial unless you actually stay in one place for 10 years or so.

Know what else is throwing money away? Paying interest on a huge-rear end loan.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2011 17:37

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Do never buy.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2011 03:17

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

razz posted:

Boyfriend works for the government. He's secure. I'm gettiny my master's degree in biology and can get a job where he has one. I am secure.

Unless you are very very sure that you can get a job upon graduation, I would not buy while you are still in school.

Too much uncertainty.

Do never buy.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2011 18:25

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

razz posted:

Haha, we haven't even seen the house yet. It's just an idea we are kicking around, it's not like I am all OMG BUY NOW. And you never know where you are going to be in 3 years so there's really no use in saying "well this horrible thing could happen in the future so I better not make any big decisions now" because yeah, that's life.

Also, at that age, inspection is going to be very important. Furnace and roof, for instance.

Also, what are property taxes?

# ¿ Jan 20, 2011 20:47

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Did I actually inspire a thread title with my accurate and timely advice? Sweet.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2011 06:38

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Dbhjed posted:

Also the furniture is interest free for 4 years and it will be paid off long before that.

Wait wait wait - you had to borrow money to buy furniture, and you are thinking of buying a home?

:lol:

Dbhjed posted:

So in closing since I am getting tired of beating a dead horse:

- have 20% plus at LEAST 10K extra for out of the blue crap
- renting isn't the end of the world (lack of freedom < hey it isn't my problem)
- Suck it up and deal with crap until you have foot to stand on
- Relationships don't work well in the beginning
- People hate Rochester
- A house should be the last thing on what to do in life list
- Moving 32 times in your life time is an awesome idea (I am at 21 right now)
- 23 year olds don't even think of a house

Dude, we're just trying to help you out. Many people in this thread have made the mistake of buying, and we're trying to keep you from making the same mistake. Check out the "biggest financial mistake" thread. Like half the people there said that buying a place was the biggest mistake. I bought with zero down, while making about three times what you make, and I still think it was the biggest mistake of my life.

Dead Pressed posted:

I just want to say that I understand where you guys are coming from, but its REALLY disheartening/HARD to read as I'm (somewhat) in the same boat as Db. In May I graduate one Saturday, get married the next, and then I'm moving to Lafayette, LA to start my full time job (64k) at one of the world's largest privately owned companies.

Our plan was to rent for 6 months, figure out where we wanted to be in the area (and IF we wanted to be there long term) and buy a house. To hear you guys talk its like the end of the world for a 20 something to buy a house.

Anyways, long story short: I built a budget sheet based off of Ramsey and my salary only. (Note, here-http://filebox.vt.edu/users/pbauden/SA/budge.png) My to-be wife should earn anywhere from 30-80k depending on what non-profit/government/private firm she joins. We were thinking we could structure everything off my salary, use her's to pay back my student loans (60k, OOS student loans for a very specific engineering degree) and that way we wouldn't be overstretched when we decide we do want to have kids (which, if we do that, the loans should easily be paid off by then we're waiting 5 years minimum).

As of NOW we have 30k set aside for a house (which will be larger when we actually get married and move in 4 months, and further still in a year when our 6 month lease would run out), on which we were thinking about spending ~150k. We could get that house, which would offer a minimum of 3br/2 baths in nicer areas for that price and even with a 15 year mortgage the payments would be less than a 2br/2ba apartment in the area; WHICH, to clarify, would be ~1100/month out of a 5,333 gross monthly paycheck on my own accord, alone. With those terms, I just don't understand why we SHOULDN'T buy as long as we like the area.

I could always get transfered or whatever, but there's no less likely chance that'll happen at 35 than 25, and I really just don't see the point in waiting if we LIKE the area and can find a house that will FIT us for the foreseeable future and by the time we PLAN on expanding our family to need a larger house, we'd have a fair->most portion paid off. :/

::Other notes:
-Wedding is already paid in full.
-We've definitely considered using the 'down payment' to pay off my student debt, but if we like the area.....we just have a hard time arguing ourselves out of this idea.
-The relationship not working out isn't likely to be an issue anytime soon. Long term relationship, we've both lived together for 2 years and done a long distance thing for 2 years and we're kicking very strong.
-Call me an idiot. I know. :/

I would wait longer than six months. I would personally give it a couple years.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2011 16:51

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Sundae posted:

My family is still trying to get me to buy a house. It's absolutely not happening, but I can't help but laugh at the ways they're trying to push it. I am firmly in the camp of do never buy.

They started with all the typical 'throwing your money away' arguments, which don't work on me in the slightest. Then, after that, I got an e-mail saying "okay so you want numbers, well look at your area! How can you not buy with the market like this!!!" and the graph below, courtesy of Zillow:

That's the 5 year horizon; a bit inaccurate being Zillow and all, but okay it's believable. Still... that's just five years. I clicked the ten year button and mailed the picture below back to my mother along with my four-digit bank balance and my five digit student loan balance.

This brought on an angry rant about how I'm doing such a disservice to my future children by not investing in their future by buying a house now while I'm young. (I'm 28 and about to blow most of that bank balance on a wedding as it is, since neither of our families are helping pay for it.)

I'm really getting the impression that some people are just completely immune to thinking rationally, and I'm a little worried that I seem to be related to so many of them.

See if you can find a chart back to 1997 or 1998, when things started blowing up nationally.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2011 18:29

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Dik Hz posted:

I just want to point out that renting a house will always cost more than buying the same house in the long term on average.

Where do you get that idea from?

# ¿ Jan 31, 2011 19:22

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

Pain of Mind posted:

My girlfriend and I have been together for 3 years, and both she and my parents are convinced we need to get a house because prices are starting to rise again (citation: my mom). This would be in San Francisco bay area, probably in either the city or peninsula because I don't want to live in the east or south bay. My mom says that since this is San Francisco, there are still enough jobs and that the location is desirable enough where the price will not get much lower. I don't know enough about the housing market to know whether she is correct or not, but I am sceptical. Currently we are renting a 2 bed 2 bath condo for 2000 a month but it is small and sucks. I am 28, she is 25. We would not get a house unless we are married.

On to numbers: We have a combined income of about $170,000, I have no debt, about 65k in a 401k and 65k in cash in the bank, she has sizable student loans, about 8,000 in retirement (mostly roth IRA I think), and I have no idea how much she has in the bank, probably around 5,000-15,000 I would guess. My parents also have enough money to help out if it was needed.

Would it make sense to look into a house? Is there any articles or graphs that I can use to show my mom why it would be a good idea to wait (or a good idea to buy now now now!) Many of my girlfriends friends own houses but she is from a rural area where the houses that cost them $50,000 would probably cost us $850,000.

SF prices are dropping presently as of the latest case-shiller numbers - http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2010/12/october_caseshiller_san_francisco_msa_value_slide_accel.html

How would an acceptable place in an acceptable area cost you?

e: NM, November case-shiller numbers are out - SF is still dropping - http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/case-shiller-home-price-indices-through-november-2010-3992

# ¿ Feb 1, 2011 21:48

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

greasyhands posted:

People who are looking at the carnage from the past decade and saying "DO NEVER BUY" are the same people who were saying "equities are over" when the s&p was at 600. Housing is a basic human need- it will always be around and it will always be in demand.

"in demand" for one half of what you paid for it, in some areas.

I don't literally mean do never buy - I mean don't buy in an overpriced market (most of them), don't buy if you're broke (most of the people who post here about buying), and don't buy if you have a lot of uncertainty ahead of you (young, unmarried, etc.).

# ¿ Feb 4, 2011 16:28

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 09:32

gvibes: Jan 18, 2010; Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)

UrbanFarmer posted:

It's in a rural area of Florida that has a TON of foreclosures. I mean crazy amounts. The asking price DOES seem like a steal (especially compared to the Miami suburbs where we first looked), but then as I went around to other houses, they're all pretty comparable. Simply put, prices have dropped like a lead covered rock.

FYI, Florida prices are still quite high compared to their historical values. For instance, in the Tampa and Miami metropolitan areas, prices are still like 35-45% above 2000 levels (http://www.thebasispoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/CaseShillerIndicesNov2010.jpg - 100 level = price in 2000), and the runup started even before 2000. I think Florida housing prices still have a lot of downward trending to do.

That said, if you guys really want a house, it sounds like you certainly have the finances to suffer a drop in value of $80k-100k or so without losing your poo poo, so if you are fine with that sort of loss, go ahead.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2011 18:56

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > House-buying thread - Why is everyone involved in this process so deeply stupid?

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