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News that really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone...sales, pending sales, and prices all up in March.
Click HEREfor the complete press release in PDF format, plus several pages of statistical charts.
Thanks for the numbers. There are always doubters that don't understand different markets do better than others. Many good neighborhoods have less than 2% of the homes on the market.
Downthrust, I have to say I agree with every point that you made. There is not one that I can argue with.
I think more baby boomers would have moved to Fl by now but they took a hit on their 401Ks and needed to work a little longer to try and scrimp and make that up. Now they have the problem that a huge amount of equity is gone from their homes. As much as people want to say that the northeast is doing well, it is not. prices have continued to drop. As an example a house that was 640K in early 2010 is now down to 500K on average. I use those numbers as that is probably an average of what a boomer would be living in, in NJ as they approach retirement. They cannot sell their houses for what they expected to or need to.
If the government did not change the way they calculate inflation and cost of living when Clinton was in office the number would be much higher. Thanks to him the elderly on SS do not get the cost of living they deserve.
Looking to buy a small ranch home (3 bedroom, 2 bath) in the nokomis beach area of Florida. of course realtors all say the housing market has hit bottom and now things are actually increasing in price.. Just wondering how true this is?
going back to the original post......way back.........i think if you like the area and like the house then go for it. this might not be the bottom but it is closer to it than when i and alot of others bought 4 years ago thinking the prices had crashed as far as they would. how is one to know.
in nj the taxes, property and income, have only one way to go. business continues to leave and so does the tax revenue from such. there are huge unfunded pensions from unions. healthcare costs like every where else are going to hit big on public employees.
in fl, at least in this area, property taxes are a fraction of what we paid in nj. there is no income tax.
utilities are also much less than nj.
car insurance is less.
toll roads are at a minimum and unlike nj there is a viable route around them.
there are a ton of things to do here. and best yet 95% of them are free.
people on this side of the state are much nicer, friendlier and down to earth than the east coast.
realtors are in the business of selling houses and will offer opinions that will suit their bottom line. as a buyer its our job to sift thru the bs.
As unfair as it may sound/be.. The rich have the money to run the businesses.. If you tax them more then they take their money elsewhere..overseas.
This is the standard Rove/Republican mantra, but with the exception of a very few years tax rates on the wealthy are lower now than they've ever been. It's one of the great mysteries of life that people swallow this corporate backed "high tax" argument hook line and sinker.
well lets see what happens... if obama gets relected and all these tax rates go back up.. you all just watch what happens to unemployment... I talk to MANY large businesses that I sell to.. they all are saying the same thing... if taxes go up.. they are moving their business overseas more and more. again, tax the rich more, you lose more jobs.. easy as that..
Quote:
Originally Posted by rimc
This is the standard Rove/Republican mantra, but with the exception of a very few years tax rates on the wealthy are lower now than they've ever been. It's one of the great mysteries of life that people swallow this corporate backed "high tax" argument hook line and sinker.
where did you move from in NJ? where are you now living in florida? how long down there and how do you like it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by gettinoutofjersey
Downthrust, I have to say I agree with every point that you made. There is not one that I can argue with.
I think more baby boomers would have moved to Fl by now but they took a hit on their 401Ks and needed to work a little longer to try and scrimp and make that up. Now they have the problem that a huge amount of equity is gone from their homes. As much as people want to say that the northeast is doing well, it is not. prices have continued to drop. As an example a house that was 640K in early 2010 is now down to 500K on average. I use those numbers as that is probably an average of what a boomer would be living in, in NJ as they approach retirement. They cannot sell their houses for what they expected to or need to.
If the government did not change the way they calculate inflation and cost of living when Clinton was in office the number would be much higher. Thanks to him the elderly on SS do not get the cost of living they deserve.
exactly.. seems that most realtors can NOT accept this is happening..
I understand their positions.. I actually feel bad for them.. this is their income... but I would rather they 'acknowledge' this fact that dispute it.
I talked to 2 realtors down in FL so far.. I told them both I wanted to wait to buy until after the election... they both basically laughed at me and said 'you are missing the boat, homes are going up, there is very low inventory'. I said.. "okay lets just see what happens when the banks start pushing out these REO's in the coming months".. again they basically just snarled at me like I was a looney.. well guess what.. when I bought my NJ home in 2005 the realtors all said the same thing "no way is housing going to drop, it's only going higher for a MUCH longer time". Yeah.. okay.. I will trust my knowledge of the financial system anytime over what a realtor tells me..
this is why I'm keeping this post open.. I want to revisit this post over the coming months and see how the positions of people are changing and what the 'reasons' for it are.. time will tell.
"As unfair as it may sound/be.. The rich have the money to run the businesses.."
Without growth, small businesses will fail. Big business is sitting on a pile of money, still paying their CEO's big bonuses, yet not hiring. So they should pay less taxes than the working man?
Why would businesses hire anyone if theres low demand for their product?? Without jobs, there is no consumer spending-no growth.
Lockheed has government contracts, they employ thousands of people. The answer is, more government projects, more spending on the Country, not less.
Your argument, proves mine.
I agree with farfromnuggin! We need big government projects to get people back to work. The Country needs it. We have too many unskilled workers, and too many over-educated, untrained workers. Too many people on food stamps and unemployment. Big business is not going to cure this. Large government projects will provide work and competition in this Country. It will provide training. The Country is in dire need of repair and people need the work. Our roads and bridges are crumbling. We are too dependent on big oil.
Private enterprise has most of its money in overseas accounts, depriving this Country of needed tax dollars...think Apple, money overseas using Chinese workers. They already have the tax cuts-why isn't their money in this Country?? Because they are allowed too. Big business doesn't play by the book. Big business is allowed to get away with this crap. So the Republican solution is to cut more services to the poor, working guy and keep tax cuts to the weathy. How does that compute?? How does that produce jobs?? They already have their tax cuts, Obama wants to end them and I think he should.
Back to Florida. The cost of living is still too high for most unemployed Americans. Canadians and Europeans are buying up these houses. Cost of living is going up here and services being cut. Food is expensive when you rely on unemployment, or work a job that pays less than $10.00 an hour and have a family to feed. Rents are rising, insurance is rising. I've never paid $400+ for car registration in NY. Taxes will rise as the State is losing money from foreclosures and unemployed. Retirees have lost so much of their 401's and now can't even get interest from the banks.
Florida is not immune from the events taking place in this economy. Its like a 'house of cards.' If jobs are not created, if money isn't spent on retraining and educating the work force, we're all in big trouble.
yeah I agree with some of your points.. but you fail to mention.. if taxes are cut or kept low and we TAX overseas business locations MUCH MORE.. then the work will COME BACK to the USA. right now big companies can outsource all their work and pay little taxes. why not just tax the hell out of the overseas revenue and tax LESS the domestic revenue.. you will see how fast lots of business comes back to the USA (i.e. manufacturing).
the problem is, the big business, big banks, are infliltrated into the government, they are one of the same. If you think Obama is not paid off by big business, big banks, give me a break. NO President, congressman, senator, etc. is there because they don't take bribes for campaign money.. they are ALL paid for politicians. The country will never be fixed until all the lobbying stops and these people are all booted out of office and a new government based on our constitutional values is formed. The chance of that happening in today's country... about 1 in a zillion.
remember, the government keeps printing more money to spend spend spend supporting people... that can only last for so long.. the second the world investors stop buying our treasuries/bonds, and interest rates go up.. forget it.. all the money will be spent paying our interest debt.. social services will be severely hurt. Right now the government is paying for all the social services by printing new money and LUCKILY people around the world are still buying our bonds to keep our interest rates low. well actually it's mainly our own FED that is the biggest buyer of our bonds.
If the dollar is dropped at the world reserve currency (and it's beginning to happen around the world right now, look at China, Russia, India, Iran).. well we have HUGE issues.. the interest rates will SOAR.. and this country will be toast!!!
oh and 'when' these interest rates go up.. not 'if'.. that is going to push housing values even lower.
Quote:
Originally Posted by macyny
"As unfair as it may sound/be.. The rich have the money to run the businesses.."
Without growth, small businesses will fail. Big business is sitting on a pile of money, still paying their CEO's big bonuses, yet not hiring. So they should pay less taxes than the working man?
Why would businesses hire anyone if theres low demand for their product?? Without jobs, there is no consumer spending-no growth.
Lockheed has government contracts, they employ thousands of people. The answer is, more government projects, more spending on the Country, not less.
Your argument, proves mine.
I agree with farfromnuggin! We need big government projects to get people back to work. The Country needs it. We have too many unskilled workers, and too many over-educated, untrained workers. Too many people on food stamps and unemployment. Big business is not going to cure this. Large government projects will provide work and competition in this Country. It will provide training. The Country is in dire need of repair and people need the work. Our roads and bridges are crumbling. We are too dependent on big oil.
Private enterprise has most of its money in overseas accounts, depriving this Country of needed tax dollars...think Apple, money overseas using Chinese workers. They already have the tax cuts-why isn't their money in this Country?? Because they are allowed too. Big business doesn't play by the book. Big business is allowed to get away with this crap. So the Republican solution is to cut more services to the poor, working guy and keep tax cuts to the weathy. How does that compute?? How does that produce jobs?? They already have their tax cuts, Obama wants to end them and I think he should.
Back to Florida. The cost of living is still too high for most unemployed Americans. Canadians and Europeans are buying up these houses. Cost of living is going up here and services being cut. Food is expensive when you rely on unemployment, or work a job that pays less than $10.00 an hour and have a family to feed. Rents are rising, insurance is rising. I've never paid $400+ for car registration in NY. Taxes will rise as the State is losing money from foreclosures and unemployed. Retirees have lost so much of their 401's and now can't even get interest from the banks.
Florida is not immune from the events taking place in this economy. Its like a 'house of cards.' If jobs are not created, if money isn't spent on retraining and educating the work force, we're all in big trouble.
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