Letters to the Editor
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This letter isn't likely to get an "editor's choice" selection
but here is goes anyway.
ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!
I can laugh, because I've been renting all along through the mania. I recognized about 4 years ago, that if the mortgage for a new home is about twice that of renting the same home, then buying a home has no investment merit.
I hadn't considered squatting until now. Thanks Tom, I'll have to think that possibility over.
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laugh it up nimrod!
"ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!
I can laugh, because I've been renting all along through the mania. I recognized about 4 years ago, that if the mortgage for a new home is about twice that of renting the same home, then buying a home has no investment merit."
Go ahead, laugh. My mortgage is lower than your rent. So while you pay more to make someone else rich, I pay less to make myself rich. And your rent is only going to go up, and my mortgage is going to stay the same, no matter what. So while my home may not be a get rich "ponzi" scheme, it's still a nice place to live.
So don't rule out squatting just yet mister cool, your rent is about to rise. I hope you don't mind spending all that money you saved on someone else's mortgage.
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who in their right mind would pay a $4000 mortgage
on a 2 bedroom one bath termite ridden house, when you could rent the same house for half that amount?
crazarkianicsonovski, it was clear to me that real estate wasn't go up forever 4 years ago, and now it clear to everyone now. No one is getting rich with real estate where I live now.
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I'm with Kuhnigget on this
There's a limit to this "experts told us" excuse. "Expert advice" in no way removes the responsibility of due diligence from the buyer. The basics of finance do not change because an "expert" assures you there are exceptions. The risks associated with low-interest housing loans and the volatile real estate market are well-known: along with all the hype the media presented about this "boom" were also dire predictions that it was in fact a "bubble" that would soon burst. Buyers chose to ignore the warnings and focus on the exceptions.
There are always exceptions, but exceptions are, you know, exceptional. Far too many people bought into this idea; each of them knew the perils, knew that "getting rich quick" is always fraught with peril, that owning can be risky. More importantly, they understood that, if the rates did rise, they would be unable to afford the deal. They all knew the risks, and all of them were thinking, "I'll be the exception."
Many of them no doubt recalled the recent "dot-com boom," which turned out to be a bubble that burst. They noted that while a lot of people lost money when the bubble popped, many others made millions by getting out at just the right time, or by somehow avoiding the pitfalls which confounded others. Imagining that they too would be exceptions if/when the housing bubble burst, they dove right in, hoping to get rich without hard work and effort (you know, like President Bush did).
Americans are plagued by "exceptionalist thinking." So many Americans, coddled by a lifetime of relative privilege and wealth, think they are exceptions to the rules which govern the rest of the world. This mentality reveals itself throughout the strata of American life: from our President ignoring laws and treaties, all the way down to the "little guy," thinking he will somehow beat the system and get rich quick. It is a plague and a poison, and I suspect the only way we'll ever be rid of it is to suffer through the very things to which we as a nation seem to think we are immune. (You know, like terrorism, widespread poverty, a second-rate economy, no production base, low GDP, tyrannical government, etc.)