Home buying thread

Caligula_The_Cat said:

I’m sure the plan is to pass a chunk of the taxes onto tourists in the form of a sales tax. Meatball knows you can’t just cut all that revenue without replacing it.

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Im quite content with having an obnoxiously high sales tax. Hell - 80% of the shit in the grocery store should have a regular sales tax and not a food & drug tax (or lack thereof). I'd be annoyed that I'm paying $4-5 bucks for a White Monster, rather than the $2.50 they cost now... but energy drinks and similar shit arent exactly something I HAVE TO have.

Or in other words, that bothers me a whole lot less than the House I own and worked hard to own is still taxed every year. Where it could all of a sudden go from a county tax, to being included within the city because of redistricting - and all of a sudden, in my old age - I cant afford to eat AND pay the taxes on my vehicles and House. Or if I had a medical problem right fucking now - that if I was in deep rehabilitation for a year+ that I would struggle to keep my house and vehicles because of taxes?

Just... fuck taxes. Fuck paying for all these fucking social programs that were setup to help "the few" in real need, but end up fucking "helping" thousands of people, turning red owned and red supported taxes turn their own fucking city blue.

/rant

Sanrith Descartes said:

Let's look at it objectively. They is zero, less than zero, chance this doesn't get the 60% of the vote to pass if it makes the ballot. The fight will be every county in court to keep it off the ballot.

If it makes the ballot it passes. So the question becomes how do all the counties compensate for the massive loss of revenue to fund schools, firefighters and shit. It will have to be sales taxes, but those all require referendums to implememt.

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Increasing sales tax and abolishing real estate tax AND personal property tax wont effect counties much at all. The rentals I have in Campbell county Virginia come up at something like $0.45 cents per $100 in assessed value. It would ultimately save my renters $50-$100 bucks in rent a month.

Looking at local budgets, the cities would have the hardest time with sales tax and thats probably where the majority of the pushback would come from. County tax here would have to go up from 1% to 4% to balance the budget of current expenses. City on the other hand would have to go from 1% up to 8% to balance the budget. City and county sales tax overlap. So inside the city, you would be paying 4% from county, 8% from city, 4.3% from state (16.3%). Effectively DOUBLE of what you would be charged just to buy your shit outside of city limits. So in order to not bleed out over the next few years, the city would have to make some low sympathy choices and bring the sales tax down significantly.

Or in other words - if real estate tax abolishment gained any massive following with meaningful results - this would be another "Great Reform" across the US.

If you had $150k cash but weren't ready to buy a home, would you buy something anyways to get into the market?

I feel bad throwing away $36k/year towards rent but I know that home ownership isn't necessarily cheaper either.

Right now two places I'm considering are L.A. or NYC.. and in NYC I'd get a shitter place however it would be easier to rent out.

Otherwise I could buy a place in Dallas and rent it out but there's that whole 20% down rule for rental properties.

Lanx said:

don't you live in nyc now?

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No, I've been traveling

ToeMissile said:

Also, need more context. Type and size of the home/property, neighborhood, etc. I'm not really familiar w/ NYC but I'm in Southern CA; guessing the greater LA region is going to have a much larger variety.

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I am just looking for 1bd/bath.
Just wondering if its worth getting into the market to have something. I feel exposed holding onto cash/stocks.

I'd avoid playing the landlord game if you want to avoid financial risk, that can blow up in your face badly if you get a bad renter and if you only have one property you can't spread the financial risk around.

If you're not ready to settle in a particular place I'd just keep the money it invested for now. Don't underestimate the value of having a liquid reserve, plenty of people don't have a reserve and end up in dire straits within a month or two of losing employment.

tugofpeace said:

If you had $150k cash but weren't ready to buy a home, would you buy something anyways to get into the market?

I feel bad throwing away $36k/year towards rent but I know that home ownership isn't necessarily cheaper either.

Right now two places I'm considering are L.A. or NYC.. and in NYC I'd get a shitter place however it would be easier to rent out.

Otherwise I could buy a place in Dallas and rent it out but there's that whole 20% down rule for rental properties.

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Absolutely not, especially not with today's mortgage rates.

Shit, put it in CD's if it's money you need in the short term but it's burning a hole in your pocket.

Homes are generally not the greatest investments. They "work" because you need a place to live anyway, so you're taking that rent money and leveraging it. But it lags the stock market pretty dramatically. And in order to even look decent, you need to hold it for longer than just a few years.

All you'd be doing is making an investment into something that's not that great, missing all the advantages of home ownership.