[quote=deadzone][quote=sdrealtor][quote=deadzone][quote=sdrealtor]
Considering 2nd or 3rd homes investors is patently false. They are the accoutrements of wealth[/quote]
accoutrement of wealth <--> Investment
as
tomayto <--> tomahto[/quote]
Again clueless. They are excessive expenditures and luxury items for those that can afford them.[/quote]
So my collection of gold jewelry is an excessive expenditure? Even though it is kept in safe deposit boxes, not displayed nor worn? I guess it could fall into either category depending on perspective.[/quote]
(Facepalm)
Seriously?
Gold, just like a house is dual purpose. It could be bought either as an investment (something bought with the consideration towards financial gain) OR something just for enjoyment (without consideration for financial gain).
If I buy a gold ring for significant other, it’s hardly that I’m thinking “well honey, I got this for you because I found this ring at the pawn shop and gold is right now only $1800/ounce, here you go.” It’s more like “here honey, I got my bonus, this is what you looking at you liked but didn’t buy because you thought it wasn’t a necessity. Or here sweetie, I got you this because you got straight A’s last quarter…”
Same thing goes for houses… Vacation houses, are the equivalent to these enjoyment gold purchases, for financially well off people. Vacation houses (2nd/3rd houses) are things that typically richer people buy for enjoyment because they can. Financial gain considerations, if any, is a lower priority. For example, my sibling bought a townhome in Lake Tahoe because they enjoy skiing every weekend. They can afford to purchase it outright. They took out a loan to buy it, since one of them got a employee sweetheart loan from the i-bank he works at, similar to what Mark Z got from his i-bank. They don’t care how much it cost, because they enjoy skiing and like the fact they don’t need to rent a place each weekend they go. As a second consideration, anytime they aren’t using the condo, they will try to rent it out, so that they can recoup some of the cost they are spending to enjoy the condo, but even if they are unable to rent out the condo, it won’t affect their decision to buy and keep it indefinitely. They do the same thing with select reserve wine where they buy several bottles of reserve wine, drink most of them, and sell some of them to reduce how much money they spent on buying to consume those bottles of wine.
Again, dz, why are you so combative on this minor distinction of whether a vacation home is or is not an “investment”? In the greater scheme of things, vacation homes does not fit your conviction that these are homes that will be sold in a firesale if there is a downturn in housing because they are typically owned by wealthy people who aren’t stretched thin and be inclined to sell because a stock market or real estate market corrects…Again, it’s probably hard to imagine because they are in a world completely different from yours where them buying a vacation home financially is as easy and insignificant to their total net worth as you buying 1 small piece of jewelry versus your entire net worth. Must every technicality be combatively debated just so support your conviction?
