[lvmensch]

Originally Posted by Hal Roach

A solar system lease will certainly cloud the title. Rooftop solar is a bit of a dud.

Depends on the terms. There are places with 20 year paid up leases. I would think $15 electric bills would have some charm. Others may vary. But I see no big down side.

[Hal Roach]

About half look like Shiite, but yeah, if it is prepaid, that would make for a much easier transaction. There is a trend where the power companies are trying to stick it to solar users for not paying their fair share for infrastructure, same with the electric cars.

[lvmensch]

Originally Posted by Hal Roach

About half look like Shiite, but yeah, if it is prepaid, that would make for a much easier transaction. There is a trend where the power companies are trying to stick it to solar users for not paying their fair share for infrastructure, same with the electric cars.

And it is an interesting argument. I would think all should pay a fixed fee for the distribution system as well as a per KWH charge that includes the cost of making the electricity. But the tendency has always been to load it all mostly into the KWH fee.

[ragabnh]

I will tell little story here, I moved from San Jose California to Henderson in 1995 due to work transfer, the idea was to stay couple years max and move back to No Cal, obviously the weather around here is not as appealing as Silicon Valley. I was in the same boat as you are but did not own property anywhere, rented an apartment first year and my wife did not want to put up with any of the rental issues of ever changing community. We decided to buy and rent it when moving back, so we purchased a new home in Green Valley for $ 158k in 1996. Home was paid off in 2013 and is rental property now and we bought another house in Anthem in 2014. What I am saying is that we stayed in Nevada for the past 22 years which was not planned at all.

[anonymom31]

I'm curious how it panned out for you?

[SportyandMisty]

duplicate.

[Cubicle Dweller]

Originally Posted by anonymom31

I'm curious how it panned out for you?

I posted my update last week which is now buried in page two of the thread. We decided to rent for another year since I will likely consider switching jobs next year. If I land another remote job then I would likely buy in Vegas if an employer allows that option. I'm with Ragabnh about buying and I truly dislike renting since we can afford to buy, but the flexibility makes the most sense for us right now. I definitely want the next move to be one where we purchase and not have to move again for at least three years.

[Cubicle Dweller]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

So you can see that a major benefit of homeownership is that you "pay yourself rent" but this phantom income doesn't show up on a 1040. That is tax-free income.

Over a lifetime, this adds up. Housing prices will go up and down - but over a lifetime, adding this extra "tax-free" income to your worth is very significant.

Totally get that and I'm a huge proponent of owning. This is the first time in my life I've been a renter since my husband (then boyfriend) bought our previous house back east right after I finished college. That house served us well for over a decade - fortunately it was purchased before the bubble of the last decade, helped put us on firm financial footing and we made a decent profit when we sold. It was a big stretch for us at the time, but as our careers progressed and income increased the payments were very affordable.

I'm just hesitant to buy something right now in Vegas and have to turn around and sell it in 8-10 months because of a job change and if I have to move back to a high cost of living area then we'd have to sell quickly to be able to afford something. Inventory moves quickly, but realtor fees would be close to one year's rent that we're paying. I sold my last house FSBO, but dealing with the closing and somewhat demanding buyers was a stressful and time-intensive process and I don't want to go through that again any time soon.

When I looked at the numbers (and thanks to one of the posters that provided an insightful article from Fannie Mae), this doesn't seem like the worst time to buy in Vegas, but my guess is the days of dramatically appreciating prices year-over-year might be over. And of course that's just a guess - if I were good at such predictions I'd be a wealthy woman.

[SportyandMisty]

If you really think 8-10 months is probable, then clearly it isn't worth it.

Perhaps you could do a break-even analysis on rent vs. buy, adjusting for months renting -- so you can then see the exact number of months staying here where it makes sense to buy instead of rent, given your assumptions. It seems to be an exercise that someone could do in an Excel spreadsheet fairly quickly. Oh - don't forget to include the cost of breaking a lease to return to elsewhere in your calculation.