Jason I can give you one example of a current buyer. My Mother-in-law just bought a SFR in Carmel Mt. Ranch. All the advice she got from her son who is a CPA, her other son who is very frugal and even her mortgage broker could not stop the train. She was obsessed w/ owning. One reason seems to be psychological – she’d been renting Downtown for a year and felt she was throwing away money, I think it’s a generational thing, her generation bases a lot of self worth on owning. Another reason was her obsession with moving her tax basis. The place she’d sold before renting had a tax basis of 350K and she had until Feb. ’09 to move it so she was in full blown panic mode to buy because it was that or sign a 6 mo. long lease somewhere and have to pay rent and a mortgage if she bought in the Fall. She paid about 625K for a 1600sf place so the way I figure it she’s saving about 3k in property taxes a year. I’m afraid she’s going to lose that much and more over the next couple of years as things “adjust” but hey she’s now one less renter w/ whom I’ll have to compete for a rental home.
As to Myito:
Why does it seem the buyers are always trying to justify their purchases? Hey, if you want to buy you’ll get no argument from me. One less renter with whom to compete. You’ll be paying a nice property tax on that inflated price supporting our public services. I’m a renter and proud of it. It’s a personal choice to buy vs. rent. We’ve done the 3000 sf SFR w/ pool and granite and all that rot – was not our cup of tea! Too much dusting, too many expenses. We have a kid and love to travel so renting works for us and will for many years to come. My beef is with the rotten Realtors and Flippers – I hope they sink like stones during this “correction”. To the average Joe who wants to buy and put down roots, be my guest. For us, security is watching our money grow slowing in our 5% CD and knowing we can up and scoot at the first wiff of adventure. If security for buyers is having that deed right now and taking the risk of watching your home depreciate, while paying property taxes, repair costs, homeowners insurance, etc. have at it.
