[UCGal]

I disagree, Scaredy. If you pay off your mortgage, and manage your stuff… you can own a home and have mobility. The key is setting up your home for reduced maintenance – xeriscape the yard, etc…

And stuff – you can always get rid of stuff.. that doesn’t matter whether you own or not. Regular garage sales are good for the soul and wallet.

Heck – that’s our retirement plan – travel for 8 months of the year, do the home upkeep on the breaks at home. We’ve been working the house and yard to be as low maintenance so we’ll be ready for this.

[UCGal]

I disagree, Scaredy. If you pay off your mortgage, and manage your stuff… you can own a home and have mobility. The key is setting up your home for reduced maintenance – xeriscape the yard, etc…

And stuff – you can always get rid of stuff.. that doesn’t matter whether you own or not. Regular garage sales are good for the soul and wallet.

Heck – that’s our retirement plan – travel for 8 months of the year, do the home upkeep on the breaks at home. We’ve been working the house and yard to be as low maintenance so we’ll be ready for this.

[UCGal]

I disagree, Scaredy. If you pay off your mortgage, and manage your stuff… you can own a home and have mobility. The key is setting up your home for reduced maintenance – xeriscape the yard, etc…

And stuff – you can always get rid of stuff.. that doesn’t matter whether you own or not. Regular garage sales are good for the soul and wallet.

Heck – that’s our retirement plan – travel for 8 months of the year, do the home upkeep on the breaks at home. We’ve been working the house and yard to be as low maintenance so we’ll be ready for this.

[UCGal]

Interesting.

But… to take a different view…

* This might encourage prices to go down.

* This might encourage people to wait to purchase till they have bigger down payments.

I did some calcs – if you buy a house with a loan for $600k, at 6% for 30 years, you’ll pay $695k in interest. This might make people stop and think about taking out that large of a loan if only $500k of that $695k was deductable. I doubt many people look at how much interest is paid on 30 year home loans, though…

I also wonder how serial refinancing plays into this. If folks who keep refinancing, extending the length of the loan (and therefore the amount of interest paid in the end) will hit this point, even with smaller principals.

Whatever happened to saving up a sizeable down payment and paying off the loan as quickly as possible.

It’s not that long ago that ALL interest was deductable. Car loan interest, credit card interest, etc. 1986, Reagan signed the bill that eliminated those deductions. People cried that the world would end when they eliminated these tax deductions. It didn’t.

(I feel like an old man yelling “Get off my lawn” at the kids… but I really don’t get how people can be comfortable with such large debt. I’m old school – carry zero balance on credit cards, cars are paid for, and mortgage is on an aggressive payoff schedule – so I’ll be debt free.)

[UCGal]

Interesting.

But… to take a different view…

* This might encourage prices to go down.

* This might encourage people to wait to purchase till they have bigger down payments.

I did some calcs – if you buy a house with a loan for $600k, at 6% for 30 years, you’ll pay $695k in interest. This might make people stop and think about taking out that large of a loan if only $500k of that $695k was deductable. I doubt many people look at how much interest is paid on 30 year home loans, though…

I also wonder how serial refinancing plays into this. If folks who keep refinancing, extending the length of the loan (and therefore the amount of interest paid in the end) will hit this point, even with smaller principals.

Whatever happened to saving up a sizeable down payment and paying off the loan as quickly as possible.

It’s not that long ago that ALL interest was deductable. Car loan interest, credit card interest, etc. 1986, Reagan signed the bill that eliminated those deductions. People cried that the world would end when they eliminated these tax deductions. It didn’t.

(I feel like an old man yelling “Get off my lawn” at the kids… but I really don’t get how people can be comfortable with such large debt. I’m old school – carry zero balance on credit cards, cars are paid for, and mortgage is on an aggressive payoff schedule – so I’ll be debt free.)

[UCGal]

Interesting.

But… to take a different view…

* This might encourage prices to go down.

* This might encourage people to wait to purchase till they have bigger down payments.

I did some calcs – if you buy a house with a loan for $600k, at 6% for 30 years, you’ll pay $695k in interest. This might make people stop and think about taking out that large of a loan if only $500k of that $695k was deductable. I doubt many people look at how much interest is paid on 30 year home loans, though…

I also wonder how serial refinancing plays into this. If folks who keep refinancing, extending the length of the loan (and therefore the amount of interest paid in the end) will hit this point, even with smaller principals.

Whatever happened to saving up a sizeable down payment and paying off the loan as quickly as possible.

It’s not that long ago that ALL interest was deductable. Car loan interest, credit card interest, etc. 1986, Reagan signed the bill that eliminated those deductions. People cried that the world would end when they eliminated these tax deductions. It didn’t.

(I feel like an old man yelling “Get off my lawn” at the kids… but I really don’t get how people can be comfortable with such large debt. I’m old school – carry zero balance on credit cards, cars are paid for, and mortgage is on an aggressive payoff schedule – so I’ll be debt free.)

[UCGal]

Interesting.

But… to take a different view…

* This might encourage prices to go down.

* This might encourage people to wait to purchase till they have bigger down payments.

I did some calcs – if you buy a house with a loan for $600k, at 6% for 30 years, you’ll pay $695k in interest. This might make people stop and think about taking out that large of a loan if only $500k of that $695k was deductable. I doubt many people look at how much interest is paid on 30 year home loans, though…

I also wonder how serial refinancing plays into this. If folks who keep refinancing, extending the length of the loan (and therefore the amount of interest paid in the end) will hit this point, even with smaller principals.

Whatever happened to saving up a sizeable down payment and paying off the loan as quickly as possible.

It’s not that long ago that ALL interest was deductable. Car loan interest, credit card interest, etc. 1986, Reagan signed the bill that eliminated those deductions. People cried that the world would end when they eliminated these tax deductions. It didn’t.

(I feel like an old man yelling “Get off my lawn” at the kids… but I really don’t get how people can be comfortable with such large debt. I’m old school – carry zero balance on credit cards, cars are paid for, and mortgage is on an aggressive payoff schedule – so I’ll be debt free.)

[UCGal]

Interesting.

But… to take a different view…

* This might encourage prices to go down.

* This might encourage people to wait to purchase till they have bigger down payments.

I did some calcs – if you buy a house with a loan for $600k, at 6% for 30 years, you’ll pay $695k in interest. This might make people stop and think about taking out that large of a loan if only $500k of that $695k was deductable. I doubt many people look at how much interest is paid on 30 year home loans, though…

I also wonder how serial refinancing plays into this. If folks who keep refinancing, extending the length of the loan (and therefore the amount of interest paid in the end) will hit this point, even with smaller principals.

Whatever happened to saving up a sizeable down payment and paying off the loan as quickly as possible.

It’s not that long ago that ALL interest was deductable. Car loan interest, credit card interest, etc. 1986, Reagan signed the bill that eliminated those deductions. People cried that the world would end when they eliminated these tax deductions. It didn’t.

(I feel like an old man yelling “Get off my lawn” at the kids… but I really don’t get how people can be comfortable with such large debt. I’m old school – carry zero balance on credit cards, cars are paid for, and mortgage is on an aggressive payoff schedule – so I’ll be debt free.)

[UCGal]

[quote=LAAFTERHOURS]Let me ask you this. There are areas of this country that havent taken a substantial hit. One of those is the suburbs of philadelphia/ main line area and im not sure if this includes the burbs of Philly in NJ.

Since 2004 prices are for the most part about where they were back then. This doesnt mean that they went substantially up and dropped off again.

Based on the earlier comments about 2015, does anyone think these places will see a dump in prices or do you think bc of the mostly non toxic loan types in these spots that they should slide by?[/quote]
That may be true in the burbs – but I have friends who bought a nice, historic, 3 story rowhouse 2 blocks from Rittenhouse square. They bought for $300k in 2001, it’s worth over $800k now. (Based on a similar home sale on their block, on Locust.) Philly, at least center city, is still pretty frothy.

But you’re right about the western burbs and mainline. I have a friend who rehabbed a house and sold at the peak, in Narberth in 2007. He retired off the profits.

[UCGal]

[quote=LAAFTERHOURS]Let me ask you this. There are areas of this country that havent taken a substantial hit. One of those is the suburbs of philadelphia/ main line area and im not sure if this includes the burbs of Philly in NJ.

Since 2004 prices are for the most part about where they were back then. This doesnt mean that they went substantially up and dropped off again.

Based on the earlier comments about 2015, does anyone think these places will see a dump in prices or do you think bc of the mostly non toxic loan types in these spots that they should slide by?[/quote]
That may be true in the burbs – but I have friends who bought a nice, historic, 3 story rowhouse 2 blocks from Rittenhouse square. They bought for $300k in 2001, it’s worth over $800k now. (Based on a similar home sale on their block, on Locust.) Philly, at least center city, is still pretty frothy.

But you’re right about the western burbs and mainline. I have a friend who rehabbed a house and sold at the peak, in Narberth in 2007. He retired off the profits.

[UCGal]

[quote=LAAFTERHOURS]Let me ask you this. There are areas of this country that havent taken a substantial hit. One of those is the suburbs of philadelphia/ main line area and im not sure if this includes the burbs of Philly in NJ.

Since 2004 prices are for the most part about where they were back then. This doesnt mean that they went substantially up and dropped off again.

Based on the earlier comments about 2015, does anyone think these places will see a dump in prices or do you think bc of the mostly non toxic loan types in these spots that they should slide by?[/quote]
That may be true in the burbs – but I have friends who bought a nice, historic, 3 story rowhouse 2 blocks from Rittenhouse square. They bought for $300k in 2001, it’s worth over $800k now. (Based on a similar home sale on their block, on Locust.) Philly, at least center city, is still pretty frothy.

But you’re right about the western burbs and mainline. I have a friend who rehabbed a house and sold at the peak, in Narberth in 2007. He retired off the profits.

[UCGal]

[quote=LAAFTERHOURS]Let me ask you this. There are areas of this country that havent taken a substantial hit. One of those is the suburbs of philadelphia/ main line area and im not sure if this includes the burbs of Philly in NJ.

Since 2004 prices are for the most part about where they were back then. This doesnt mean that they went substantially up and dropped off again.

Based on the earlier comments about 2015, does anyone think these places will see a dump in prices or do you think bc of the mostly non toxic loan types in these spots that they should slide by?[/quote]
That may be true in the burbs – but I have friends who bought a nice, historic, 3 story rowhouse 2 blocks from Rittenhouse square. They bought for $300k in 2001, it’s worth over $800k now. (Based on a similar home sale on their block, on Locust.) Philly, at least center city, is still pretty frothy.

But you’re right about the western burbs and mainline. I have a friend who rehabbed a house and sold at the peak, in Narberth in 2007. He retired off the profits.

[UCGal]

[quote=LAAFTERHOURS]Let me ask you this. There are areas of this country that havent taken a substantial hit. One of those is the suburbs of philadelphia/ main line area and im not sure if this includes the burbs of Philly in NJ.

Since 2004 prices are for the most part about where they were back then. This doesnt mean that they went substantially up and dropped off again.

Based on the earlier comments about 2015, does anyone think these places will see a dump in prices or do you think bc of the mostly non toxic loan types in these spots that they should slide by?[/quote]
That may be true in the burbs – but I have friends who bought a nice, historic, 3 story rowhouse 2 blocks from Rittenhouse square. They bought for $300k in 2001, it’s worth over $800k now. (Based on a similar home sale on their block, on Locust.) Philly, at least center city, is still pretty frothy.

But you’re right about the western burbs and mainline. I have a friend who rehabbed a house and sold at the peak, in Narberth in 2007. He retired off the profits.

[UCGal]

I have a friend who did grad school at Columbia. She moved once by subway!

Another friend has been semi-vagabond for much of his adult life. Every 4-5 years he relocates – selling all his possessions and only taking what he can take in his car. He is also great at living on the cheap. He claims it’s because he never upgraded his lifestyle with “stuff” after college – He can still live in a studio apartment – and tends to do just that… in great locations. San Diego, NYC, Cape Cod, Baja Mexico… Not needing a big place (to hold stuff) he can work for lower salaries and be more mobile.

[UCGal]

I have a friend who did grad school at Columbia. She moved once by subway!

Another friend has been semi-vagabond for much of his adult life. Every 4-5 years he relocates – selling all his possessions and only taking what he can take in his car. He is also great at living on the cheap. He claims it’s because he never upgraded his lifestyle with “stuff” after college – He can still live in a studio apartment – and tends to do just that… in great locations. San Diego, NYC, Cape Cod, Baja Mexico… Not needing a big place (to hold stuff) he can work for lower salaries and be more mobile.

[Author]

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