On Tue, 11 Jun 2013 23:40:29 -0400, Walter Bright
<[email protected]> wrote:
On 6/11/2013 6:54 PM, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
My profit on my first condo, which I bought in '99 and sold in '05 was
150% of
the *purchase price*. Minus the 6% commission :) Although, it was
only 3%
because a family friend who is a real estate agent did not charge me
her half.
And I only had about 5% equity of the purchase price invested when I
sold.
Consider that you rode the real estate boom using leverage. But that
lever works both ways, as many found out to their horror a few years
later. You can lose a lot more than 100% of your investment when you
lever.
Absolutely. But you can continue to live in an underwater-mortgage house
if you can pay for it. The problem is when you buy a house that is beyond
your means. Which a lot of people did.
I've ridden a couple booms successfully, too. I made the mistake of
thinking that was business acumen. It wasn't, as I got a very rude
comeuppance on the back slope of the boom.
I don't have enough history yet, but so far, my real estate moves have
been adequate, maybe a bit fortunate. It helps to have a friend in the
business :) I certainly don't profess to be a professional real-estate
investor. But I believe if I had chosen to rent, my current state would
be VASTLY different than it is now now, and that wasn't exactly because of
a bolt of lightning, it was an educated choice.
It also helps not to live on the west coast, where house prices can be
outrageous.
I live in the land of the Microsoft zillionaires. It's fun talking to
them about their wealth. Most of them realize that they're worth $20m
because lightning struck them, and behave prudently. A few delude
themselves into thinking they are wealthy because they are business
geniuses, and wind up getting reset to zero. Microsoft stock has been
flat for 13 years now, and it isn't going to happen again to them.
I don't mean to discourage anyone from shooting for the stars in
building their investments, I just want to point out that owning a home
is far from the sure path to wealth it is too often presented as. As
always, caveat emptor.
Home ownership for *living* in, is not for wealth. It's for living. You
compare it to renting. How much more/less does it cost to own vs. rent,
and you have to consider the mortgage tax deduction, the property tax
deduction, the equity you build, etc. It's not just a direct comparison
of payments. This is all I'm trying to say. It can cost more to live in
a house payment-wise, but you can be better off financially. It all
depends on how much more or less it is. And the variables are
tremendously varied across the country and even between two adjacent towns.
Home ownership for *investment* is a completely different ballgame.
There, you're comparing it to *not investing*, which costs you nothing :)
-Steve
