Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You have to look at your personal and individual situation as others have mentioned. You also have to follow basic common sense as well. You don't need a so called expert to tell you NOT to over leverage yourself and buy a property you can't afford. Also, it didn't take a genius to tell you NOT to pull out home equity and use your home as a virtual ATM card to spend it on frivolous stuff like vacations, expensive clothes, expensive cars, etc. (which lots of Americans did).
Renting makes sense for a LARGE percentage of people out there. Too many people got caught up in the "American dream" of owning a home but it's a nightmare now. I'm not saying real estate is a bad investment. It can be a good investment if you know what you are doing. But by and large, people should be buying a home as a place to live in.
I own lots of properties and it can be a pain to manage them. Even when you have a good property manager, it can be a hassle but you really have to look at your individual situation. These financial "experts" like to dispense advice like it's one size fits all when that is seldom the case.
Her advice doesn't make any sense. In order to rent, someone has to own that property.
Someone does. Her point is that at this moment if you are deciding to buy or rent, it may be better to rent. This housing price collapse is far from over. The property owner is the one in a spot with falling prices and millions of vacant units.
Someone does. Her point is that at this moment if you are deciding to buy or rent, it may be better to rent. This housing price collapse is far from over. The property owner is the one in a spot with falling prices and millions of vacant units.
It's clear that she's not well versed in macroeconomics.
Honestly -- about a year before the stuff hit the fan in the RE market, we had bozo financial gurus who were telling people to pull out ALL their equity and invest in the stock market, because RE equity was a waste.
Anyone listening to them ended up screwed on both sides. Stuck with a depreciating house and a jacked up payment getting ready for foreclosure AND losing a ton of money in the market.
And how is RE equity worth anything if you plan on sitting on it for 20+ years?
Someone will have to tell me how paying off your house early makes you richer. I'm sorry but I just never will get that. If you chased bad investments with no strategy well then yeah you would be in a tough spot, but I'd also tend to think this sort of person would be in a tough spot no matter what. As they say in the market, Joe Public always ends up buying high and selling low and it serves as no surprise he would be doing the same with his real estate "strategy" if you can call it that.
And how is RE equity worth anything if you plan on sitting on it for 20+ years?
Someone will have to tell me how paying off your house early makes you richer. I'm sorry but I just never will get that. If you chased bad investments with no strategy well then yeah you would be in a tough spot, but I'd also tend to think this sort of person would be in a tough spot no matter what. As they say in the market, Joe Public always ends up buying high and selling low and it serves as no surprise he would be doing the same with his real estate "strategy" if you can call it that.
Uh, because you would own some real estate, meaning dirt with shelter on it . . .
Uh, because you would own some real estate, meaning dirt with shelter on it . . .
Currently, your discounted present value of cash is worth more than the equity you would be buying in your house. If this was to change (ie the housing prices suddenly went up), you can buy that inflated equity at a discounted rate at any given time. Therefor, it makes no sense to pay off your house early, assuming you have good credit.
Uh, because you would own some real estate, meaning dirt with shelter on it . . .
If you have 5% equity in that dirt with shelter, do you control it? Do you get to decide what to do with it? Do you get to decide if gets a new deck or not? Do you get to decide if you want to rent it out to Aunt Jane and move to another state or not?
Now how does that differ if you own 100% of it? When you go to sell it, does the buyer say I'm going to give you an extra 10% for this house because you own it outright instead of having a mortgage on it?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
