If you're listening to WEDR-FM "99 Jamz" in Miami and hear that ad about the condo where they'll sell to you with a $500 down payment even if you've had credit problems in the past, don't buy the house there are already foreclosures all over this city.
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Investment Advice
14 Nov 2007 10:25 pm
Comments (5)
Here is a simple rule I followed when I bought my place that would have saved everyone a lot of problems with real estate: buy when it's cheaper to buy*, and rent when it's cheaper to rent. And don't be greedy. If you followed that rule, you wouldn't have bought in any hot market in the last couple of years. You also wouldn't be dogmatically opposed to buying anywhere now; you'd crunch the numbers.
*Taking into account the total cost of buying versus renting over the time you expect to live in the place, adjusting up for closing costs and down for tax savings from the real estate income deduction.
There are foreclosures all over every city and town in America, Matt. Where the fuck have you been? Most Americans were always better off not owning a home anyway. This isn't 'dogma', it's a simple fact.
The problem with 'buy when it's cheaper to buy, rent when it's cheaper to rent' is that most people will only ever live in one county, and most people will only ever buy one home. In all likelihood, if you have the sort of job that requires you to move all over the country, you can afford to do either without facing financial ruin unless you try and live well above your means. If you don't have that kind of job, you can't likely afford to 'buy where it's cheap', but you're likely to work where it's not.
Soullite, I think you mistook a when for a where.
most people will only ever buy one home
well, if their first one is foreclosed, maybe. otherwise, i think not.
MY: a one sentence post and it is improperly punctuated. keep up the "good" work!
Comments closed November 28, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
Miami is the worst market in the entire country.
The one thing that can rescue Miami at this point is an influx of European buyers cashing in on the weak dollar. But that just covers the higher-end condo towers on Miami Beach, Coral Gables and a few other higher end areas of Miami.
If you want to see devastation, go to places such as Homestead, where most of the condos were built for lower income, weaker credit consumers. The only, only hope there is that a continuing influx of latino immigrants raises the demand for housing to the point where the number of buyers moving into the area outstripts the reduction in the number of potential buyers already existing in Miami (i.e. - if populaton does not rise in Miami, no one will take up the slack for the lower % of buyers within the existing population).
It is a bloodbath down there. The only good news is this should give a sufficient break on development pressures on the Everglades ecosystem which has essentially been abused by the population down there.
Posted by Brad | November 14, 2007 10:57 PM