Spring 2016 Real Estate Market - Boots on the Ground? (Boston: car insurance, condo)

[johngolf]

One of the cornerstone of my financial situation was my wife and I always had much less home than we could afford. As there were only the two of us size and schools meant little and we tended toward up market towns like Andover. We never considered our home our castle nor that would we be there for the long term. The longest we ever lived in a home was 10 years and that was in Andover.

For many years our annual income exceeded the cost of our home. When we were starting out and were making $50K we owned a $35K home. When we were making $150K we owned a $100K home. Our last home in MA cost us more than we were earning when we purchased it but we made a killing on the sale. We paid $190K and sold 8 years later (2001) for $475K. Again, thank you overpriced MA.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by johngolf

One of the cornerstone of my financial situation was my wife and I always had much less home than we could afford. As there were only the two of us size and schools meant little and we tended toward up market towns like Andover. We never considered our home our castle nor that would we be there for the long term. The longest we ever lived in a home was 10 years and that was in Andover.

For many years our annual income exceeded the cost of our home. When we were starting out and were making $50K we owned a $35K home. When we were making $150K we owned a $100K home. Our last home in MA cost us more than we were earning when we purchased it but we made a killing on the sale. We paid $190K and sold 8 years later (2001) for $475K. Again, thank you overpriced MA.

I don't think a DINK who rode the market to the top is really in a great position to dole out advice on how to afford Massachusetts in 2016. I mean it's great everything worked out for you and that your generation was able to run up a humongous national debt with few consequences, but do you need to gloat about it, too?

[Ninotchka P]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

I don't think a DINK who wrote the market to the top is really in a great position to dole out advice on how to afford Massachusetts in 2016. I mean it's great everything worked out for you and that your generation was able to run up a humongous national debt with few consequences, but do you need to gloat about it, too?

Love your post. However, everyone else needs to compete with people like these, who help to drive up the market.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

I don't think a DINK who rode the market to the top is really in a great position to dole out advice on how to afford Massachusetts in 2016. I mean it's great everything worked out for you and that your generation was able to run up a humongous national debt with few consequences, but do you need to gloat about it, too?

It's funny how anyone who show's the slightest bit of success gets shot down on these boards. Not just the MA board, but any of the other forums here.


I see it all the time on the financial boards and real estate. It seems as if doom and gloom is the status quo and if anyone chimes in with a story of positive success, they are instantly accused of gloating or being smug or being an outlier...and then we get back to more stories of doom and gloom. There's a thread in the economics board about the average middle class person not being able to come up with $400 if they need to.


Don't you want to know how people are able to afford $750K+ houses? Without resorting to that standard "debt up to the eyeballs if you drive anything other than a $1K beater car?" statements? I'm curious to know how other people are able to be successful..so that I can learn from them and do it myself.

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

It's funny how anyone who show's the slightest bit of success gets shot down on these boards. Not just the MA board, but any of the other forums here.


I see it all the time on the financial boards and real estate. It seems as if doom and gloom is the status quo and if anyone chimes in with a story of positive success, they are instantly accused of gloating or being smug or being an outlier...and then we get back to more stories of doom and gloom.


Don't you want to know how people are able to afford $750K+ houses? Without resorting to that standard "debt up to the eyeballs if you drive anything other than a $1K beater car?" statements? I'm curious to know how other people are able to be successful.

He was successful because:

1) Real estate was insanely cheap and he was able to capitalize on the very fast rise in real estate values every time he sold. His advice is practically useless for someone starting out today. Find me someone making less than $250k/year who can live in a house that costs less than their annual household income in MA today.

2) No kids, which makes his advice automatically useless to more than half the population.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by Dm84

He was successful because:

1) Real estate was insanely cheap and he was able to capitalize on the very fast rise in real estate values every time he sold. His advice is practically useless for someone starting out today. Find me someone making less than $250k/year who can live in a house that costs less than their annual household income in MA today.

2) No kids, which makes his advice automatically useless to more than half the population.

1.) I did the same thing starting 5 years ago. It can still be done.


2.) I didn't know advice had to be applicable to 100% of the population for it to be useful. I'm sure the childless people here appreciate having any advice geared towards them automatically dismissed.

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

Don't you want to know how people are able to afford $750K+ houses? Without resorting to that standard "debt up to the eyeballs if you drive anything other than a $1K beater car?" statements? I'm curious to know how other people are able to be successful..so that I can learn from them and do it myself.

This is more applicable to middle America than to the people who frequent the MA forum, but most people don't want to hear it because it will require *gasp* hard work!

[bohemka]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

It's funny how anyone who show's the slightest bit of success gets shot down on these boards. Not just the MA board, but any of the other forums here.


I see it all the time on the financial boards and real estate. It seems as if doom and gloom is the status quo and if anyone chimes in with a story of positive success, they are instantly accused of gloating or being smug or being an outlier...and then we get back to more stories of doom and gloom. There's a thread in the economics board about the average middle class person not being able to come up with $400 if they need to.


Don't you want to know how people are able to afford $750K+ houses? Without resorting to that standard "debt up to the eyeballs if you drive anything other than a $1K beater car?" statements? I'm curious to know how other people are able to be successful..so that I can learn from them and do it myself.

For what it's worth, it's only human nature to take umbrage with a poster who routinely mocks Massachusetts taxpayers for supplying the pension that's providing him with a very nice lifestyle. I've got no problem supporting the pensions of those who have worked in the public sector, so I'd rather he not continuously try to make me and my fellow Massachusetts tax payers feel like he and his wife pulled a fast one on us. If I worked in the public sector I'd be rather upset with how he keeps banging that drum, honestly. Thanking the Boston metro market for being "overpriced" — on a message board where people are actively searching for homes — is just an extra dig, compounded by the fact that he apparently made a killing thanks to his own property value increase.

I mean no offense to John at all. He's posted many things I've found interesting, but the pension/taxpayer thing and the tone in which it is delivered is an old, tired joke that I (and apparently many others) have read too many times.

But I agree with you that there are things to be learned:

1. Get a job that provides a nice pension.
2. Buy low.
3. Sell high.
4. Retire and move to a bigoted region of the country where real estate and the cost of living is low.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

It's funny how anyone who show's the slightest bit of success gets shot down on these boards. Not just the MA board, but any of the other forums here.


I see it all the time on the financial boards and real estate. It seems as if doom and gloom is the status quo and if anyone chimes in with a story of positive success, they are instantly accused of gloating or being smug or being an outlier...and then we get back to more stories of doom and gloom. There's a thread in the economics board about the average middle class person not being able to come up with $400 if they need to.


Don't you want to know how people are able to afford $750K+ houses? Without resorting to that standard "debt up to the eyeballs if you drive anything other than a $1K beater car?" statements? I'm curious to know how other people are able to be successful..so that I can learn from them and do it myself.

I've got nothing against John's success, but it's a bit tiresome to hear obvious advice reframed as profound wisdom and being born on second base reframed as hitting a double. I'm really sick of hearing "have a mortgage that's less than your annual gross income" as practical advice. Have you seen what kind of advice people get on this board when they look for a $150k place to live, especially with a family?

And, yes, I am interested in how someone affords a $750k house. That might include practical and useful information. Starting 30 years ago, making a lot of money, and not having kids certainly are good ways of doing this, but not particularly useful or actionable to the people who need to ask. Proferring such advice comes off more as "A modest proposal" than genuine advice.

So good for John and good for you. I mean that genuinely. I just want to counter the impression that it's just super easy to get by here and those who struggle necessarily have some character defect.

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by bohemka

But I agree with you that there are things to be learned:

1. Get a job that provides a nice pension.
2. Buy low.
3. Sell high.
4. Retire and move to a bigoted region of the country where real estate and the cost of living is low.

My wife and I are in our early to mid 30's and we've already checked off the first 3 items on your list twice. I do feel sorry for people in their 20's because they were born at the wrong time. I don't feel sorry for other 30-somethings who blew the first 10 years of their income on partying and now complain that they can't afford a house.