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a good rule is if you need to count the tax deduction to make things work then you can't afford the house . don't forget mortgage interest falls yearly making more and more of that payment on you solely. at the same time taxes and expenses can keep rising .
rising taxes and expenses can eventually be killer .
when we all bought homes in long island in the 1970's they were 30-35k .. my rent was a 150 bucks or so, so back then that mortgage was a lot of dough .
well today that house is paid off and taxes on these homes are 10-18k . the fact that you don't have a mortgage has added little to affordability today of staying on long island in retirement . that paid off mortgage does not even represent the utility bills today .
Granted, folks that bought homes on LI in the 70s when the costs were 30-35k were making less income & wages ...
Although the cost of a home (mortgage) as a % of income & wages compared to present day scenarios?
Not to mention back in the 70s, there was often only 1 wage earner in a typical family.
Today, most 2 parent family situations rely on both parents working. If there are children, the cost of childcare is a very big factor.
Working wages, even when doubled (when 2 are working), have not increased commensurate with the cost of homes.
There's an active 'Rent Is Too Damn High Party' in NY. Perhaps there should be a 'Working Wages Are Too Damn Low Party' as well.
a good rule is if you need to count the tax deduction to make things work then you can't afford the house . don't forget mortgage interest falls yearly making more and more of that payment on you solely. at the same time taxes and expenses can keep rising .
rising taxes and expenses can eventually be killer .
when we all bought homes in long island in the 1970's they were 30-35k .. my rent was a 150 bucks or so, so back then that mortgage was a lot of dough .
well today that house is paid off and taxes on these homes are 10-18k . the fact that you don't have a mortgage has added little to affordability today of staying on long island in retirement . that paid off mortgage does not even represent the utility bills today .
The thought about mortgage interest tax deductions is that you earn your way out to soften the blow. By the time you get close to the end and have no deduction left you are making double.
The thought about mortgage interest tax deductions is that you earn your way out to soften the blow. By the time you get close to the end and have no deduction left you are making double.
It’s all a shell game.
It's a bit 'disturbing' to consider the origins of the word 'mortgage' in this context:
Quote:
... "Word nerds will notice an eerie root word in 'mortgage' — 'mort,' or 'death,'" Weller writes. "The term comes from Old French, and Latin before that, to literally mean 'death pledge.'"
That may seem a little severe. After all, the home you've bought is somewhere you're going to live. That's a positive thing, right?
Only if you can afford it.
Quentin Fottrell Marketplace reports that an astounding half of Americans have trouble affording their housing. ...
The origins of the word 'mortgage' will make you think twice about buying a house
Granted, folks that bought homes on LI in the 70s when the costs were 30-35k were making less income & wages ...
Although the cost of a home (mortgage) as a % of income & wages compared to present day scenarios?
Not to mention back in the 70s, there was often only 1 wage earner in a typical family.
Today, most 2 parent family situations rely on both parents working. If there are children, the cost of childcare is a very big factor.
Working wages, even when doubled (when 2 are working), have not increased commensurate with the cost of homes.
There's an active 'Rent Is Too Damn High Party' in NY. Perhaps there should be a 'Working Wages Are Too Damn Low Party' as well.
back in the late 1970's almost all our friends as well as us , were two income earning couples . we knew very few stay at home moms . that seemed to be common in my parents generation .
i can't even say anymore how that compares as incomes in long island are all over the map along with house prices . wages are all over the place ... my son and daughter inlaw 's first jobs paid more then i just retired at 40 years later, he is an attorney and she is a cpa . my daughter is likely in the mean at about 80-90k for long island household income . our other son owns a car leasing business and makes very good money too . so i really can't generalize as there are high paying jobs in our tristate area as well.
most of us don't make more wages doing the same thing forever in the same capacity . we make more by doing more and advancing .
Tax cut? I didn't say it's a tax cut. Just saying it's not the end of the world like people are saying. I'm only paying less than $2k more. Not a big deal. Am I happy? No, but seriously, it's no big deal.
ummm, he ran on "tax cuts for the middle class" didn't he?!?
back in the late 1970's almost all our friends as well as us , were two income earning couples . we knew very few stay at home moms . that seemed to be common in my parents generation .
i can't even say anymore how that compares as incomes in long island are all over the map along with house prices . wages are all over the place ... my son and daughter inlaw 's first jobs paid more then i just retired at 40 years later, he is an attorney and she is a cpa . my daughter is likely in the mean at about 80-90k for long island household income . our other son owns a car leasing business and makes very good money too . so i really can't generalize as there are high paying jobs in our tristate area as well.
most of us don't make more wages doing the same thing forever in the same capacity . we make more by doing more and advancing .
I can agree with much of what I understand you to be saying.
'Generalizing' does not tend to be helpful for individual/family decision-making, it just isn't ~ folks consider their own specific circumstances in order to make the best possible decisions for themselves & their families.
The graph on the following indicates historical 'trends' & is not even solely LI, or even just NY, it's the US:
Quote:
While it is clear from the chart that the husband-as-sole-breadwinner stereotypical family of the 1960s was probably not the norm then, it is most certainly less so now. Mothers worked during the 1960s but fewer than half of all married couples during that era were dual-earners. Today, that number has risen to 66 percent, more than twice the number of sole-earner married couples. This means that a large share of married couple tax returns have two incomes and thus are now clustered in the upper income groups facing the highest marginal tax rates.
America Has Become a Nation of Dual-Income Working Couples
& basically all I'm saying is to consider the wages/income of homeowners on LI when the homes cost between 30-35k to the wages/incomes of homeowners today.
The home that cost 30-35k in the 70s costs how much today?
& basically all I'm saying is to consider the wages/income of homeowners on LI when the homes cost between 30-35k to the wages/incomes of homeowners today.
The home that cost 30-35k in the 70s costs how much today?
again it is hard to say . i held three gigs in the 1970's . i was an hvac tech , i ran my own business at night doing side work and i was a drummer .. i made more money on an inflation adjusted basis then .
we are all different . it becomes silly talking in terms of straw people and not our own life ..no one knows what anyone else has in general terms . there is and always was a big under ground economy with lots of unreported income .
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Especially for 'Word Nerds' (like me)
