Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

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Clint
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by Clint »

I live in an area where the cost of a home is increasing by more than 15 percent a year. Now that there has been all the structural damage on the Gulf Coast, there is going to be a huge rebuilding effort. I’m thinking the cost of building materials is going to skyrocket because of demand. It is clear there is going to be displacement do to the habitability of NO. That makes me think the cost of a home anyplace in the US is going to go up even faster.

As it is right now Lower middle income families are able to purchase a home. How much higher can the prices go before they are priced out of the market? Are we going to see the size and quality of the typical home reduced? Will there be even more homeless people now?
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lady cop
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by lady cop »

the house i built in 1974 is now worth three quarters of a million dollars. only i don't own it anymore. i built it for $47,000. ask me how much i want to kill myself.
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Lon
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by Lon »

You are right Clint, and it's already started. Some of the financial data that was reported in different news sources from around the county today, seem to indicate that home prices are up every where. So much for some of the pre Katrina reports of "The Housing Bubble Bust".

Common stock in companies dealing with construction materials is also up and will continue to go up, irrespective of what the rest of the market does.
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Accountable
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by Accountable »

Creative financing fueled the housing boom at least in part. Many people are overextended because less-than-honest advisors convinced them to buy now before the prices went up, but it was also before they could really afford it. They will soon go bankrupt or sell their homes before they've built enough equity to buy something else. I think that will be the next sky-is-falling story.



Prices cannot go up indefinitely because buyers won't purchase. Home prices will level off, not drop, because of the scenario I described. Building supplies will become more expensive, but builders will have to cut their profit margin or they won't be able to sell. New home prices will have to rise anyway, which will make the resale housing market more attractive.



New home builders aren't stupid; they will adjust to the market. Watch newer housing become smaller. Condos will be increasingly popular. Refurbishing demand will boom. The economy will continue to climb.
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actionfigurestepho
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by actionfigurestepho »

Let's do my math:

Cost of meds after I get my transplant transplant $2,000/month

Cost of The Boyfriend's insulin $300/month

Average mortgage $600-$800/month

Yeah. Not buying a house as long as we stay in the US.
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Accountable
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by Accountable »

Sounds like you're not buying a home without moving to Tailand, or the Philipines. :(



Sorry if this knocks the thread off-subject, but any new news on the kidney?
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actionfigurestepho
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by actionfigurestepho »

It takes a ridiculously long time to get a transplant. In the meantime they expect you to live on dialysis which is hell, and they charge you $36,000 a month. Skip is getting his serious of arterial mapping done some time in November. After that they should be able to tell us whether he needs one more day of testing (which of course they'd schedule 8 weeks later) or whether or not we can go ahead and schedule surgery. Given that it's the holidays, I'm expecting it to happen sometime around December or January.

Now to get back on topic, I suppose someone could always will me a home, but as The Boy and I are thinking of moving to a country with better healthcare and more jobs, it probably won't matter. We're thinking of moving to the UK and buying a flat intstead. Then we won't have to buy a lawnmower. Of course, I'm sure flats are pretty much just as expensive, but we won't have the medical bills to contend with then.
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Accountable
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by Accountable »

You might want to check out the tax situation first.
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Lon
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by Lon »

actionfigurestepho wrote: It takes a ridiculously long time to get a transplant. In the meantime they expect you to live on dialysis which is hell, and they charge you $36,000 a month. Skip is getting his serious of arterial mapping done some time in November. After that they should be able to tell us whether he needs one more day of testing (which of course they'd schedule 8 weeks later) or whether or not we can go ahead and schedule surgery. Given that it's the holidays, I'm expecting it to happen sometime around December or January.

Now to get back on topic, I suppose someone could always will me a home, but as The Boy and I are thinking of moving to a country with better healthcare and more jobs, it probably won't matter. We're thinking of moving to the UK and buying a flat intstead. Then we won't have to buy a lawnmower. Of course, I'm sure flats are pretty much just as expensive, but we won't have the medical bills to contend with then.


I can't speak for the UK, but it's not that simple to up and move to New Zealand for example, and stay there, particularly if there is existing health problems. They are not willing to bear the cost of treatment for foreigners that come in solely for that purpose. Housing and rental prices have gone to the moon in New Zealand as well.
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actionfigurestepho
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by actionfigurestepho »

Siiiigh. I suppose I'm going to have to get used to being poor my whole life and getting treated like dirt because it's already screwed my credit. Land of opportunity for all, as long as you don't have the poor taste to get sick at a young age. Not that I am bitter! That's entirely another thread. Of course, I don't just want to move for the healthcare, although that was a consideration. There are a lot more job opportunities out there for The Boy, given his field. As I'm working towards a nice business degree, I'm sure I'll have more job options as well.
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Bez
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by Bez »

Th housing situation is much the same here in the UK. First time buyers (youngsters) are really struggling to get on the property ladder. There are all kinds of schemes to allegedly help house buyers, but you've got to be Einstein to understand them. We had the scandal of endowment mortgages here a while ago.....basically the endowment was NOT going to pay off the mortgage at the end of the term. We changed to a repayment mortgage but it cost us...

Landlords are the only people that are benefitting from property ownership nowadays. ...and boy ..... are they benefitting.

A lot of Brits move to Spain and France where housing is cheaper...but how long will that last ??
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actionfigurestepho
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by actionfigurestepho »

If everyone stopped buying houses for just a year, I wonder if that would drive prices back down. That would be kind of neat---a boycott on the mortgage industry!
gmc
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by gmc »

posted by actionfigurestepho

Let's do my math:

Cost of meds after I get my transplant transplant $2,000/month

Cost of The Boyfriend's insulin $300/month

Average mortgage $600-$800/month


Crikey! I'll think I'll stick with the NHS my tax bill is nothing like that. At least you don't have to worry about the cost of being ill here.

Now to get back on topic, I suppose someone could always will me a home, but as The Boy and I are thinking of moving to a country with better healthcare and more jobs, it probably won't matter. We're thinking of moving to the UK and buying a flat intstead. Then we won't have to buy a lawnmower. Of course, I'm sure flats are pretty much just as expensive, but we won't have the medical bills to contend with then.


That's all we need, another sponging immigrant taling advantage of our welfare state:sneaky:

posted by bez

Th housing situation is much the same here in the UK. First time buyers (youngsters) are really struggling to get on the property ladder. There are all kinds of schemes to allegedly help house buyers, but you've got to be Einstein to understand them. We had the scandal of endowment mortgages here a while ago.....basically the endowment was NOT going to pay off the mortgage at the end of the term. We changed to a repayment mortgage but it cost us...

Landlords are the only people that are benefitting from property ownership nowadays. ...and boy ..... are they benefitting.


depends where you want to live. stay away from the south east of England, nutters in London will pay £100,000 for a shed.

Stick around for the next scandal, people who were told to get rid of their endowments but shouldn't have and haven't yet twigged that they will be paying their mortgage for longer than they needed to.

There's a tremendous market in second hand endowments
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Bez
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Who Will Be Able to Afford a Home?

Post by Bez »

gmc wrote:



posted by bez





depends where you want to live. stay away from the south east of England, nutters in London will pay £100,000 for a shed.



Stick around for the next scandal, people who were told to get rid of their endowments but shouldn't have and haven't yet twigged that they will be paying their mortgage for longer than they needed to.



There's a tremendous market in second hand endowments


We did the maths...there was NO way our endowment was going to pay off our mortgage.

I live on the south coast...you're right...my daughter lives in Hove...a maisonette...poky, old, high maintenance....recently valued at 225K.
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