I can address the commute issue..and there is NO indecisiveness on my part with respect to this issue.
I have lived 10 minutes from work, and lived 1.25 hours from work…. for 6 months I had a 1.25-1.5 hour commute EACH way. I transferred jobs, and was selling my house..and had to commute until the house sold… I will NEVER move and take on a longer commute if I can avoid it. I had to do it for a temporary work situation….but to move THAT far from work…and willingly take on a 2-3 hour “chunk” of my life being wasted every day…for a larger house is just stupid. I now once again live 10 min from home. I can go home at lunch to see my wife and kids. I get home before it’s dark outside and can see the kids, go for walks, and not be stuck in traffic.
life is short. wasting it behind the wheel in traffic…sucks.
now if I could only be so decisive about this housing thing… 🙂
I do need to learn more about RE. I never professed to know it all…in fact…I know very little. and have no problem admitting it. I have bought/sold ONE house. I lived in it…I’ve never owned an investment property. I’m a smart and educated guy, but never was much of a dollars/cents person. I came to piggington to learn more and educate myself. heck…what i read here is what got me to NOT buy when I first moved..and rent. which already saved me from losing a LOT of money. the house i now rent would have sold for close to $500k in 2005….now they are probably listing at more like $400k….with more drops in store i’m sure.
i am only 34. i have never lived through any of the other RE downcycles. my parents bought in the late 70s and never moved. they do recall pricing dropped in the late 80s…but b/c they had already built so much equity…whatever drop their was – was only paper losses to them. so i never grew up with stories of “when we were your age we bought this house then lost it all…” type of stuff. i have heard those stories however from friends/coworkers who are older and bought right before the last downturn.
makes you nervous. makes you thinkg that if in th elate 80s..prices in fact fell THAT much… why wouldn’t they do it now.
but there are so many variables at play…and i know so little about them…i jsut hear X from one person, Y rom another, and Z from the enxt person. and X, Y, and Z are all educatd sources.
prices ahve fallen a lot here. i can certainly say that I have noticed more houses for sale, and many o them you can tell are just sitting for sale..and sitting. the nouse across teh street was listed at $470k. then another one a few houses down listed at like $450 or so..then they dropped their price to $399k…. even at $399k it’s just sitting there. you would think someone would SNAP it up…but no one is. and it’s not trashed or anything..it’s one of the normal “granite” “upgraded cabinets”, upgraded flooring, etc etc.. houses up here. it’s VERY nice inside. brand new…priced to sell….but there it sits…still for sale… guess it’s not priced to sell after all….
