[Virginia1]

Just to clarify.......I meant interest only loans, not no-interest loans on the other post. Gotta be careful on this forum, don't want any backlash

[AussieMale]

It's the UP where im kinda heading or there abouts.

I hearya loud n clear Mr Virginia1

[TurboState]

Originally Posted by Virginia1

I have to agree with Turbo. I live in a resort town that is full of new developments and a plethora of older waterfront homes. The tax assesments have been avg. about 20% a year for the last 4 years. So if you owned a house that was asessed at 265,000 last year, the asessement this year will be 321,710 increasing your taxes to $561.00. Mulitply that for the last 4 years and you are looking at approx. 150 more a month. Statistics say that approx. 30% of the loans were no-interest loans. Well the time is up and the mortgage will increase right along with the tax increases. I shake my head too and wonder how can people afford this. I think the lending industry really pushed these ARMs and no-interest loans, get a 400,000 dollar house for the low payment of 850 a month. I don't blame the lending industry I blame Joe Schmo. Trying to keep up with the Joneses and not planning or educating themselves about simple real estate choices. Not being satisfied with living in a smaller home. Heck how can one do everything else financially. College fund, car payments x 2, retirement, saving accounts that should match 6 months of your income for emergencys, food, entertainment, cell phone, cable, utilities etc. People just are not thinking, just because they advertise does not mean you have to buy it. I really hate to bring the Enron thing up, but if a company told me to put all my retirement eggs in one basket I would tell them to eat it. EVERYBODY knows, diversify, diversify. Same with real estate....I mean come on...... no-interest loans. And now the double whammy with the good folks of Michigan, the job market is diving and people are leaving, folks can't make the payments and fewer people buying houses. I will be moving up to Michigan in the next 6 months or so and I will not be buying a 400,000 house. It will be between 90,000 and 125,000 older home, which are made better then the ones they put up now. I know I wil own it for at least 5 years (hopefully Michigan will be better off ) and stay or sell it. Yes it may be a gamble for me and my fiance, but a relative low risk. If things bottom out, at least I can ask you if you like Fries with that and still make my home payments.

You can buy a fantastic home in Michigan for that price range now! You are right about older homes being better. My house is Circa 1947, and when we gutted and remodelled it, the contractor was bragging about how well it is built. The same contractor went and worked on my sisters house that was built in the early 90's, and he said it was falling apart. When he pried a board off the side, the ENTIRE WALL swayed!

As for the other stuff, people are just clueless on the proper ways to budget and live. They should have required classes the last year of high school on life-management skills because kids certainly aren't going to learn them from their parents!

By any measurment our family is well off, but this is mostly because I am incredibly good at running the home finances. We drive cars that are reliable, yet paid off to avoid ridiculously high car payments and car insurance. We have VOIP phone service (sunrocket) that costs me $199 every two years, saving $5,000 in phone costs over a few years. We shop for nice clothes at resale stores, I buy a bag of shirts for $10 instead of paying $30-50 per shirt like other people do. Yet we have everything we want, college funds, big savings and investments, and 50% of our retirement already completely paid for. (those were a few examples, plenty more are available)

People just don't "Get it". They drive expensive gas hogging cars. They buy $900 gas grills and go out to eat 5 days a week. They charge up their credit cards and buy expensive clothes. Then they cry and moan about the economy and how they have no money! Look, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if the economy is tough you need to make significant life changes to offset it. Some people were smart, they made smart changes well in advance of the crashing economy and can weather through it.

[zygnoda]

I have to agree.

[AussieMale]

Well said TurboSatae

Very true conditions change you need to change with it , but some people dont know how to adjust to change very well & keep the blinders on & think im ok ill keep my head in the sand & my ASS sticking up till things get better.

BTW ill have to get that info from you about the cost of VOIP n cheap ph calls after i settle in once we have made the move. Best price ive found to call Australia after i move is a calling card so far 1.5cents per min at this stage , so i guess viop should be cheaper.

Im out to keep the money in my pocket & not make the phone companies richer than they all ready are.

[desirecin]

Add to your property. Things that are appealing to your customers. A pool for one. Maybe a hot tub. Add a balcony or funished basement. You know you have to be appealing. Don't be picky on who you chose to buy, remember it will no longer be yours. If you choose to rent to own let me know I may be interested if the neighborhood is descent.Email me soon

[us2indaup]

In the 17 years since I moved away from the area south of Lansing where I grew up, new homes have sprung up like weeds in what I remember as cornfields. And I'm not talking about modest sensible modular homes, I'm talking about huge 3,000 sq. foot brick homes. Dozens of them. And people buy them who simply can't afford (or need) such large, luxurious homes. If you ask me, this is part of what drives the Real Estate market down, and Michigan's economy as a whole - people living beyond their means.
I see the same thing just south of where I now live, in the Wisconsin northwoods.
We're going to face the same dilemma soon, as we plan to list our house in the next few monthes. We paid $40,000 for it, it's paid off, we've put about $20,000 into improvements, but we'll be lucky if we get $45,000 for it in this area, and in this economy. If anyone wants a good, cheap, older home and is either self-employed, works out of their home, or doesn't mind working for minimum wage, The western U.P. is the place to go. Do a search on Realtor.com for homes in Gogebic or Ontonagon counties, you'll see what I mean.
P.S. we're planning to sell in order to move into the country, not to move out of the U.P.

[TurboState]

Also keep in mind, the days of suburban sprawl are coming to a close. Gas prices will only go up, and go up a lot as we reach peak-oil and no alternatives are found.

People living in the sticks and driving 1-2 hours to work just aren't viable these days. Worse, people living in the burb's in houses they can't afford, are QUICKLY drained of cash when they suddenly have to pay $3-$4 a gallon for gas! I see people practically giving away their homes out in the sticks these days so they can move closer to their work.

So combine their overextended home loans, high consumption lifestyles, gas hogging 40K SUV's, and long commutes with high gas prices. These people are living dead lives they can't sustain beyond a couple of years - and that is with massively increasing credit card debt!

Its all going to explode soon. Watch.

[michiganmoon]

A new federal report claims that Michigan was the only state that saw a loss in value to homes during 2006.

http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/...340.xml&coll=1

[TurboState]

Originally Posted by michiganmoon

A new federal report claims that Michigan was the only state that saw a loss in value to homes during 2006.

http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/...340.xml&coll=1

-0.44? In disneyland. More like a 10-20%+ drop in value. Homes on this street were 250K-300K, they aren't selling now, and most are priced UNDER 200k.

Feds numbers are way low and overly optimistic. Housing values nationwide have gone down and it doesn't take a genius to see it. Regardless of what the fed says.