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Posted on 04/20/2011 8:43:37 AM PDT by library user
~ EXCERPT ~
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 51% now believe buying a home is a family’s best investment. That’s down from 55% in March and from 73% in February 2009.
Only once before - in August of last year - has the belief in home ownership been this low.
Twenty-five percent (25%) of adults do not think a home is the best investment for families, while another 23% are not sure.
Just 11% of all Americans say now is a good time for someone in their area to sell their house, showing little change over the past several months. Seventy-two percent (72%) say now is not a good time to sell in the area where they live. Seventeen percent (17%) are undecided.
(Excerpt) Read more at rasmussenreports.com ...
Now, if you could pick up and move to TX or some other more vibrant state, then getting a job may be easier.
But renters can move to new states a lot more easily than "home owners". So, owning a house is not much of an investment, and it can be a real ball-and-chain if you need to make changes in your life.
Sarcasm can be extremely hard to read in a post. What IS your point?
The only thing worth investing in right now is food, medicine, guns and lots of ammo.
LLS
I’ll never forget the first time I heard the word “flipped” applied to a house. It stunned me that people would actually buy a home with no intent whatsoever to live in it.
Housing’s “Greater Fool” ploy died the day that banksters refused to become bag holders.
My renters have paid for all 7 of my houses, plus my personnal home, no house payments now on any of them.
Got to live & pay somewhere, may as well OWN it. The investment part is not how much you make on it, it is a matter of living rent free, getting it paid for and coasting into retirement and old age,and leaving something to your children. That is the investment, but no trying to fix stupid, just take advantage of it. Invest in rentals.
If you buy a house reasonable for your means and needs, don’t pay top dollar at the top of an economic cycle, and don’t finance more than 20 years, it is still an economically sound decision. If you buy and pay it off expediently, you eventually are able to quit paying rent.
Too many people buy or build far more house than they need, finance it for 30 years, and become a slave to their home. High dollar homes also subject you to more ownership risk from price declines. Buy what you need, pay for it, and be done with it.
I used to agree with you, but I’m starting to question our mutual “old school” values. Inflation will squeeze the life out of “mom and pop” landlords. Inflation will effectively reduce a $1,000 per month rental income to $100 and cause maintenance costs to skyrocket.
We live in an immoral world that goes out of its way to torment virtuous people.
I have ALWAYS thought that people who buy a house as an “investment” were pretty D!MN STUPID. Ya buy a house so that you, your family AND your stuff have a place to hang out, THAT’S IT, NO MORE!
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Hilarious.
Yet another example of erroneou binary thinking. A house is the roof over your head, while, AT THE SAME TIME, an investment. Maybe a good one, maybe a bad one. It’s not an either/or situation by any stretch of the imagination.
And I have to say, someone who buys a home without any thought to the nature of the investment is pretty D!MN STUPID.
True, but nobody treats a home purchase the same as a car purchase where you know that a quarter of the value is gone as soon as the car leaves the lot.
I hope they do get rid of the mortgage deduction and just lower rates across the board.
Frankly, I would go with Gold and Silver if I could. In fact, I am beginning to wish that I had the means to become an ex-patriate. The Hussein Clown Posse is destroying the country.
Owning property is still the BEST advantage anyone has.
"Old school values" ???? Those values are what has established America, and are what we are all fighting for, at least I am. Old school values equals WISDOM over Stupidity.
As for me and mine, Home ownership is always preached, it's working for them. Your on your own, and we will always depend of that kind of thinking to be able to continue to Rent our homes out.
Please remember all real estate is local. The RE market in northern Virginia, Washington, DC area MAY have already bottomed. However, it may not bottom out in Detroit for years. Phoenix may be a good investment right now based on demographics. Western North Dakota has been going up because of its oil based economy. Charlotte may have already bottomed out but Raleigh may still go lower. NH will bottom out before RI & CT.
Keep in mind that people are generally moving south and west. They are also moving to where the jobs are in the lower tax states like NH over MA.
Buy low, sell high.
Since prices have come down so much it probably is a good investment now if you can negotiate a good price.
I am beginning to wish that I had the means to become an ex-patriate.It's rather painful to restructure one's when life to survive an immoral society. Especially if one has a large extended family. I imagine it's slightly similar to the conundrum faced by German Jews before the genocide started.
But owning a home is still the best way to make sure that you always have a roof over your head. If you just figure out what that is worth TO YOU, and pay only that much, then it really doesn’t matter what the housing market does.
It is an “investment”, but not to make money, but an investment in future lodging. Just as you might buy other capital assets now because they seem inexpensive, so you have them over the long haul.
At this point, I kind of wish I was organized enough to buy long-term food items because that’s another way to take money you have saved now and ensure that inflation doesn’t kill you later. Plus, while government could likely figure otu a way to steal your money later, it is unlikely that government is going to figure out to round up people’s stocks of food, clothing, and other basic materials.
long-term food items because that’s another way to take money you have saved now and ensure that inflation doesn’t kill you laterMormons typically excel at keeping a year's worth of food on hand. The Alpha Strategy also does a fair job of exploring food and consumables as a form of savings.
“Owning your own home is still the best investment because it’s rent-free living in a nice, spacious, known location once it’s paid off.”
It’s not rent free when you have to pay property taxes every year.
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