Economy cashing in.

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Slim
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Economy cashing in.

Postby Slim » Fri Mar 27, 2009 10:04 am

Ahhh, yes. Isn't living in a recession great?

I've been gone a while since I was busy buying a house. (I still will probably be gone a lot, since I have a life now.) I probably would have just moved into an apartment and saved up my money for a bigger down payment, but with all the incentives right now, I knew this was too good to pass up.

First I would have gotten the $7500 interest-free loan, but thanks to the new stimulus package, I'll be getting the $8000 refundable credit. Oh, Yeah!! Too bad I didn't get a new home though-- Utah is giving $6000 (I believe) to any homebuyer buying a home that hasn't ever been lived in. But I did get an awesome 4.75% interest rate.

If you are able, this is the year to buy a house.

Another thing I was exited about was remember that $600 economic stimulus we got last year? I only got $300 since I was just working lawn care at the time. But, it turns out that it is actually supposed to be based off 2008 taxes. Now I make enough money to get the other $300. W00t! Make sure you don't overlook that line.
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Postby Wil » Fri Mar 27, 2009 10:48 am

Not sure if this is TMI or what, but who cares.

We're foreclosing on our other house (lol other house, makes us sound rich or something). That'll be fun. But, hey, about two months ago we called the bank with the loan and said "We're having trouble can you do anything?" and they basically told us to screw off. But on this house we're currently going through a "loan modification" as the bank this loan is under is with the (as I understand it) the group of banks that were given money. Chances are they will slice some of the principle off the top and also lower the interest rate. We're looking at between six hundred and a thousand dollars a month less, most likely.

Which is good, because we're currently putting out between two and five hundred more than we bring in. But that's before we've done some of the money-saving things I've figured out, such as cutting down our cell bill, cutting a few things off of other bills and perhaps paying a credit card off, and not paying for insurance/HOA/water/sewer at the other house. So, hopefully in the next few months we'll be bringing in between five hundred and a thousand more than we put out every month. Hopefully.

Also, because we lost so much last year (house cost us $28,000, we only could rent it out for a few months and make $9,000)... we're getting one hell of an IRS refund. About $200 more than my father actually paid in taxes. Pretty close to a one with four zeros after it.

Things ain't so bad, I suppose.

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Postby mr_thebrain » Fri Mar 27, 2009 11:54 am

we bought a house in june last year, so we qualified for the 7500 interest free loan. and i'm proud to say we took it. it took a bit to convince my wife to do it (cuz she thought there was a catch, and she's really hard to explain things to) but in the end she wanted it too.

most of it goes to savings. some to paying off credit cards. easy trade interest for none, right? and i convinced her to let me have 500 for stocks cuz really, if you have the money, get into stocks before they start going up again.

so i'm a bit excited about that. everything else blows so might as well enjoy the enjoyable as much as possible.

and my boss wants to cut my pay by almost 3 dollars an hour. it took a lot not to tell him to stick it in his ear. i did tell him that if i take that cut, i lose my house. but until i find a new job, i need to keep the one i have, even if the income is way less. so hopefully we don't have to dip into savings to help cover my lost wages.
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Re: Economy cashing in.

Postby Oliver Dale » Fri Mar 27, 2009 12:18 pm

If you are able, this is the year to buy a house.
I would amend that statement to read: "...this is the year to buy a house for the first time." For the rest of us shlubs, who already have houses, this doesn't help us at all while, at the same time, it increases our national debt responsibility. I just hope Keynes was right.

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Re: Economy cashing in.

Postby zeroguy » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:15 pm

I've been gone a while since I was busy buying a house. (I still will probably be gone a lot, since I have a life now.)
Hmm, watch out pweb, I think we may have just gotten told.
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Postby Oliver Dale » Fri Mar 27, 2009 11:22 pm

Yes, Zero, I was sensing that too.

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Re: Economy cashing in.

Postby powerfulcheese04 » Sun Mar 29, 2009 5:31 pm

I've been gone a while since I was busy buying a house. (I still will probably be gone a lot, since I have a life now.)
Hmm, watch out pweb, I think we may have just gotten told.
No kidding. Just because people choose to spend varying amounts of their free time on a message board, as part of a long standing community, doesn't imply they "don't have lives" or to take it further "are losers".

(Granted, I'm not around as much as I used to be. But I would argue this shows that I have even less of a life than I ever have because I don't even have the free tim to be regularly active on message boards..)
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Postby Syphon the Sun » Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:36 am

HAHA, YOU'RE ALL DWEEBS!!!
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ECONOMY GETS STINKY

Postby buckshot » Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:21 am

I 'm starting to feel it here in East Washington , A lot of the rich transplants that moved here (in the last decade or so) and built their mansions on 10 ac. lots, are going under, or at least hurting now. I farm and operate a feed mill and i see a lot less $ from those costomers. The first thing to go is usually the fancy horses ( that never get ridden but all must have) the sad part is all the farms that got broken up so these folks could build here. :?

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Postby elfprince13 » Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:51 am

I'm really glad our area is still relatively intact farm-wise. The area my dad grew up in went from a rural orchard town of 400 people to suburban hell in the last 30 years. on the other hand, I live in one of the poorest counties in the country, and people are definitely feeling the pinch, especially heating wise. thank God summer is on the way....
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Postby locke » Thu Apr 02, 2009 12:42 pm

commercial real estate hasn't yet collapsed and there's still a lot of fun going down with subprimes in residential real estate. I imagine prices will keep falling. If commercial real estate winds up not being too massive of a May/June debacle, we'll probably hit bottom real-estate-wise in October or November, and start to climb out of it as people start buying in March 2010 looking to move into new areas over the summer so as not to disrupt their families during the school year. next summer will likely be a frenzy of buying on the residential level, but the best prices, I bet, will be from those people who get in during October or January, when the market is still mostly cold.

I probably won't be buying a house, 3x income would not get me to the median house price for Los Angeles County (having fallen to a less outrageous 250,000, down from 450,000 plus a year or two ago), however the area of Los Angeles I live has a higher median house price, and even if I could luck into something that was 3x income, I don't have a large enough down payment saved up, additionally anything at the level I'm looking at would be (I imagine) single bedroom, less than 1000 sq ft and need in probably 33% or 50% the value of the home in work. Since many of my friends work in Art department or have crewed house flipping shows I know we could do most of the work ourselves of redoing floors, walls, exterior etc, but it just doesn't make sense, in theory, to me, to buy a house that I'd just have to sell as soon as I wanted to start a family. :-p

Plus a house is just more debt, and in a lot of ways would prevent me from taking the career risks I need to be able to take in the next 24 months.

otoh, if Sheila Bair is made treasury secretary, I'd be sorely tempted to buy a house, as that would mean we'd actually have a roadmap out of the current morass, with buddy-buddy-with-wall-street-cats Geithner remains treasury secretary, we may eventually crawl and stagger, half-dead, from this mess, but it won't be nearly as rapidly as if we had a really competant reformer that means buisness (like Bair) in the position.
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Postby Ela » Thu Apr 02, 2009 12:58 pm

We are stuck in our (fortunately) paid off house for the time being, as it's definitely not a good time to sell a house.


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