A debt perspective

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Really?

https://www.google.com/search?q=mn+r...hrome&ie=UTF-8

Property-tax ain't intere$t, the last I heard.

[freebeard]

In order to obtain that mortgage, one has to buy into the dominant paradigm.

It was established in the 1940s that a house should not cost more than a car.

https://bfi.org/about-fuller/big-ide...dymaxion-house

As AI kills all the office jobs, there will be acres of commercial floor-space going begging. Archigram addressed this in the 1960s. I can't find the relevant pic.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

If you miss several rent payments, you're out on the street. If your landlord decides to cash out or otherwise do something different, you're out on the street. If your landlord decides to not keep up on maintenance, you'd be better off heading out to the street.

Restructuring your payment to a mortgage and calling it "debt" doesn't make things worse for you- it's actually the opposite. Yes, you're paying the bank way more than the house's purchase price over 30 years, but what do you have to your name after 30 years of renting besides a shoe box full of receipts?

My grandmother only had a shoebox of receipts after paying for a house her whole life, the house was condemned and the county repo'd it.

In terms of renting it depends, I rented a studio apartment for $240 a month all utilities included for many years.

If was the only way I know of truly reducing your expenses and saving up for a real house.

And "owning" a real house just gives you the ability to pay $200+ a month in property tax, I do not see this really as being any different than renting, at least if you are intelligent enough to rent the right size at the right price.

Land and houses are setup as pure liabilities in this country, beyond enjoyment there really is no justification for any of it.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

Property-tax ain't intere$t, the last I heard.

It's about renters- not just property owners- getting some money back from the govt.

[Fat Charlie]

"Owning" a house gives you the ability to sell it too. Any property taxes are paid by the rent you pay anyway, so you're not going to save on taxes by filtering them through a middleman.

I've got a friend who hates paying property taxes too. The problem is that he just can't come up with any ideas for other ways his town could fund itself. He can't point to any obvious waste that his town could cut in spending- he likes having a police department, road crews and all that. He just wants it all without having to pay anything for it.

[freebeard]

...and a pony!

[johnnywheels]

Originally Posted by ME_Andy

From my perspective, debt for a home makes a lot of sense. Even if you buy a house when you're poor (like we did), the monthly payment will be just a bit more than renting. Give it a few years and soon 50% or so of your payment is building equity. At that point it's kind of like your monthly housing costs have been halved. Rent a room in that house and you're golden.

There are other times when debt makes sense. Like a cash-back credit card that you pay off monthly. And... I guess can't think of anymore.

I agree, I see debt as a necessary evil at times, everyone's situation and ability to handle that debt is different and sadly I think too many people aren't informed enough to be making big-purchase decisions.

[oil pan 4]

Having some debt is almost as bad as having some cancer.

[user removed]

US national debt.

1928-$28,000,000,000
1945-$250,000,000,000
1971-$1,000,000,000,000
Today-$19,000,000,000,000

The US used to use debt to fight wars. Now we use debt to buy votes and WE don't even get to choose whose votes we buy, we just get the bill that we can never pay.

If you can use debt to INCREASE your net worth then in my opinion, it could be worth it. I wanted to hock the house at 3% and buy 10,000 shares of Dominion Resources (utility company) that was paying 7% in March 2009 when the market was at $6500 (once in a lifetime opportunity). It was my retirement income plan. Today the dividends would be about 12+% and the stock would be worth over twice, maybe 3 times what we paid for it (haven't checked lately). Pay off the house and make $1000+ a month forever (not an annuity).

She wouldn't sign the note, so now she gets to pay most of the bills. She makes 4 times what I do due to gov't job with numerous benefits. If we split I get half of her retirement income and she gets half of the equity I built up in two houses. She would be better off if I was dead, so I keep my ammunition well hidden.

I just checked.
Dominion/ $72.07 dividend $2.80
March 2009 price $28.70
Our net worth would have passed 1 million dollars.

regards
mech

[oil pan 4]

Maybe we as a nation (not me) should be asking:
Why are you not considered successful you are middle class and have not amassed so much debt to the point where paying all off with in your life time is mathematically very unlikely if not impossible?