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1   HeadSet   2018 Mar 11, 9:08am  

A private owner occupied home is a consumption item just like a car. This is why I am glad to see the MID being phased out.
2   Patrick   2018 Mar 11, 10:51am  

Home must be where the heart is, because my Feb. 19 column on homeownership being a lousy investment annoyed readers mightily. I may as well have spit on motherhood, apple pie and the girl next door.

But my basic point remains true.

Readers’ biggest gripe: What about rent? Overwhelmingly, folks believe owning is cheaper than renting. And they believe that buying, via mortgage payments, transfers “wasted” rent into an investment. Wrong and mostly wrong.
3   Ceffer   2018 Mar 11, 12:02pm  

Pshaw. A home is not an investment, it's a speculation!
4   FortWayne   2018 Mar 11, 2:10pm  

Never saw it as investment. Just a roof over my head.
5   42c8   2018 Mar 11, 3:12pm  

in addition to providing a 300% return, my house has provided comfortable shelter for me and my family over 7 years... and in another 3 I'll never need to pay rent again.

I would have made more investing in bitcoin, I guess. But my home has been the best investment I ever made, especially because it was so leveraged (3.5% down)
6   JZ   2018 Mar 11, 3:47pm  

1. One has to dinstinguish wealth creation(investing) from wealth transfer(speculation, gambling). NOT many people can tell the difference because they think as long as Inhave more money, what’s the difference? The difference is the risk, the other possible outcome.
2. My house doubled as well from 2010 purchase. But this does NOT make house a “investment” for those poor souls in 2008. The point is, what works for one instance at a particular time does NOT justify it as a working strategy across all time and circumstances.
7   DryMap   2018 Mar 11, 5:05pm  

42c8 says
in addition to providing a 300% return, my house has provided comfortable shelter for me and my family over 7 years... and in another 3 I'll never need to pay rent again.

I would have made more investing in bitcoin, I guess. But my home has been the best investment I ever made, especially because it was so leveraged (3.5% down)


I don't get it.
(1) You only made a 3.5% downpayment and are paying off the house within 10 years from purchase?
(2) If (1) is correct, why is your return only 300%? Did your house appreciate only ~10% in these 7 years?

I can go on but let's stop here for now.
8   RWSGFY   2018 Mar 11, 5:23pm  

42c8 says
and in another 3 I'll never need to pay rent again.
.

Wrong: you'll always pay rent in form of property tax.
9   RWSGFY   2018 Mar 11, 7:08pm  

42c8 says
in addition to providing a 300% return, my house has provided comfortable shelter for me and my family over 7 years... and in another 3 I'll never need to pay rent again.

I would have made more investing in bitcoin, I guess. But my home has been the best investment I ever made, especially because it was so leveraged (3.5% down)


Soooo, if the plan was to pay off the mortgage in 10 years what was the point of putting down only 3.5% and incurring additional costs in form of PMI?
10   MrMagic   2018 Mar 11, 9:21pm  

Satoshi_Nakamoto says
42c8 says
in addition to providing a 300% return, my house has provided comfortable shelter for me and my family over 7 years... and in another 3 I'll never need to pay rent again.

I would have made more investing in bitcoin, I guess. But my home has been the best investment I ever made, especially because it was so leveraged (3.5% down)


Soooo, if the plan was to pay off the mortgage in 10 years what was the point of putting only 3.5% and incurring additional costs in form of PMI?


Not sure if you'll get a response from him. He has one post since Sept. 2016.
11   MrMagic   2018 Mar 11, 9:21pm  

tovarichpeter says
Your home is still not an investment


Finally, an accurate thread.

FortWayne says
Never saw it as investment. Just a roof over my head.


Exactly, it's the cost of shelter. Period.

Anything else is frosting on the cake, and it surely beats renting!
12   42c8   2018 Mar 11, 11:15pm  

In 2011, I was basically broke. 3.5% down equated to every penny my wife and I could scrape up; no 401ks or retirement plans, either. We were living in a 1920s era shithole fire-deathtrap in a f**ked up part of town.

We bought our 4 bedroom 2004 home in suburbia on 1/4 acre and our payments were $300 more per month. We finished school and got better jobs, and got better jobs again.

The subdivision finished construction on the second half when housing picked up again. Our 100k home is now over 350k, and we're on pace to pay it off in 3 years.

Here in NV property tax is about $1500 per year... that wont get you 1 month in a 1 bedroom apartment... its definitely not on the scale of 'rent'

I read this site every single day in 2011, before I bought. I checked the metrics on patricks classic post and the numbers checked out. Nothing would check out today; I'd be very skeptical buying now... but buying a home can be a good investment under the right circumstances
13   DryMap   2018 Mar 12, 6:16am  

42c8 says
Our 100k home is now over 350k,


Down payment 3.5k, appreciation $250K. 250/3.5 >> 300%
14   NDrLoR   2018 Mar 12, 8:44am  

FortWayne says
Never saw it as investment. Just a roof over my head
I don't think anyone did until after the hyperinflation of the 1970's. People forget what a traumatic event that was and how it changed thinking forever. I know inflation receded in subsequent years, but house prices were the most obvious recipients of those times and policies. The 1931 house where I lived in the garage apartment from 1967 to 1974 at 8122 Santa Clara Dr. in Dallas sold for $34K in 1973 ($197K in today's money), still needing $10K in roof and foundation repairs the elderly couple who had owned it since 1940 could not afford. The most expensive house in the neighborhood had sold for $45K a year earlier. By 1980 it had risen to $100K and in 1992 sold for $192K. Today it is valued at $829K in a neighborhood of like-priced beautiful homes. That house had probably not increased in value more than about 1% between 1963 and 1973, but with all the economic upheavals of the next 40 years, the sky was the limit. Taxes on it today are probably more than $10,000 a year. I rented for five more years, then bought my condo in 1981, sold it in 2005. The brand new small one bedroom apartment I moved in to in 1975 was $150 a month and $210 when I moved out at the end of 1980. Today it is $650 which is about what $210 was worth in 1980.

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