2007/11/05 22:01
Surreal Estate
When we moved to Florida, Sed and I were planning to buy a house. Of course, I didn't have a job lined up at the time, so the amount they were willing to lend us was pretty pitiful. It still could have gotten us a place, but we weren't willing to live in the neighborhood affectionately known as "Crime Hills." So we found a rental.
I still wish we'd been able to buy, but when I see how many realtor signs have apparently become permanent installations, it helps make me feel better about not owning. In our neighborhood of about 50 houses, five or six of them are for sale. At least two have been on the market since I started my new job. Then today, Avery and I extended our walk and saw something around fifteen for-sale signs in the neighborhood across the street. There's a place between here and my former office that's had the same sign in front of it for nearly two years.
Like it or not (and believe me, I like it), we're going to have to move away from Florida in a year and a half. If we owned this joint, we'd have to deal with the hassle of realtors, a fickle buyer's market, and the annoyance of not getting our investment back so we could get a better place in New Mexico, and probably have to do it all long-distance. As it stands, we hit the end of our lease, thank our landlord for being so cool, and skedaddle on our merry way.
She might not have such a hard time of disposal, actually -- this neighborhood could go either way. Being so close to a major university, it has a lot of rental houses. In fact, over half the houses on our street are rentals. But given the sheer number of signs out now (and topping that off with the six or seven rental properties on offer), this market might just be saturated. Better to not have to deal with it.
Even so, I'm counting down to the time when I don't have to take care of someone else's house anymore. It'll sure be nice to make improvements to a place and actually see the return on investment for myself.
I still wish we'd been able to buy, but when I see how many realtor signs have apparently become permanent installations, it helps make me feel better about not owning. In our neighborhood of about 50 houses, five or six of them are for sale. At least two have been on the market since I started my new job. Then today, Avery and I extended our walk and saw something around fifteen for-sale signs in the neighborhood across the street. There's a place between here and my former office that's had the same sign in front of it for nearly two years.
Like it or not (and believe me, I like it), we're going to have to move away from Florida in a year and a half. If we owned this joint, we'd have to deal with the hassle of realtors, a fickle buyer's market, and the annoyance of not getting our investment back so we could get a better place in New Mexico, and probably have to do it all long-distance. As it stands, we hit the end of our lease, thank our landlord for being so cool, and skedaddle on our merry way.
She might not have such a hard time of disposal, actually -- this neighborhood could go either way. Being so close to a major university, it has a lot of rental houses. In fact, over half the houses on our street are rentals. But given the sheer number of signs out now (and topping that off with the six or seven rental properties on offer), this market might just be saturated. Better to not have to deal with it.
Even so, I'm counting down to the time when I don't have to take care of someone else's house anymore. It'll sure be nice to make improvements to a place and actually see the return on investment for myself.
Florida and California and Detroit (yes, not MI, just Detroit) are among the worst in the country with the subprime mortgage meltdown. Too many people attempting to buy houses by taking out loans that had really low interest that shot up after a few years and that they couldn't actually afford. Too bad. They should've thought about the long-term picture.
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