Just The Facts

Residential Real Estate: How Much More Pain?

My parents paid $11,000 for their first home. And they're still alive. I don't have children, but I'm willing to bet that any child born today will also be able to buy their first home for $11,000 --- or thereabouts. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I am, for all of "your" sakes ....


;)

Residential Real Estate: How Much More Pain?

Heck, they're offering tiny little "McMansions" placed side-by-side with other "McMansion's" here in my current home town, for better than a quarter million dollars apiece. And people are buying them, even in today's market. Go figure.


It's like nobody any longer realizes exactly how much money a quarter million dollars is.


Or maybe a quarter million dollars isn't what it "used" to be. Can anyone say "bubble" ?!?!?! ....


/8^O

Residential Real Estate: How Much More Pain?

I'd have to think really hard to grasp all that was said in the original post, but I suspect that my own real personal "real-life" situation probably reinforces the author's point.


I'm looking to move from north Alabama to central Alabama, to get closer to family. I currently rent (for a long list of reasons which would justify a whole different article and discussion), and had hoped to continue doing the same. But upon searching, I discovered that it would cost me as much or more to rent in my new location than it would to buy --- my own land and a mobile home!


Home prices haven't yet dropped to the point that I would consider it prudent to buy, but rental rates have gone up so much that it no longer makes sense to rent either.


For 12 months' rent, I could buy my own land and plant a used mobile home on it, thereby providing a roof over my head and protection from the elements. Bought and paid for, with no future payments required (other than minimal maintenance and upkeep). And be perfectly good to go for the next 10 years or more, as long as "keeping up with the Jones's" wasn't an ambition of mine.


Real money and basic necessities, where 12 months = 10 years? We're living in a bubble, my friends. And the only reason it hasn't yet totally popped is because local communities are inclined to pass "zoning laws" to protect the bubble.


I wouldn't want to be a home owner in a "protected" area when the bubble finally bursts. And that's all I'll say ....


:)