Housing - Do you rent or own?

hallux said:
I never said they were low, just lower than elsewhere in the area. As I noted though, where I am now is perfect for me cost-wise so I'm in no hurry to find a house to buy. I just wish gas prices aligned with the national average instead of being 10-15 cents higher. Unfortunately, I don't have the education needed to get a stable, permanent job at Global Foundries as it's right around the corner from me.
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Yeah I know, you didn't say they were low. I was saying they are lower than surrounding areas, but still much higher than other states taxes.

I applied for a job at Global Foundries early on, but I ended up getting a pretty decent job and they contacted me a little too late. I really didn't want that commute anyway.

Good luck with the job hunt. You might want to take a temp job and get some night or online college in. Maybe get some CompTia certifications.
 
Despite being born and raised in Southern CA, I can't believe the taxes many NY'ers pay. I was looking at a place the other day where the owners pay $25,000 a year in taxes on house that was less than $400k at time of purchase. :eek:
 
jessica. said:
Despite being born and raised in Southern CA, I can't believe the taxes many NY'ers pay. I was looking at a place the other day where the owners pay $25,000 a year in taxes on house that was less than $400k at time of purchase. :eek:
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School budget increase seem to always pass. If you don't vote YES then you're against children getting an education. You can't look at the salaries the staff gets paid (or overpaid), or why they need the increases.

They always push the fact that if we don't pass the increase we'll have to shut down the music department and the sports programs.
 
ericrwalker said:
School budget increase seem to always pass. If you don't vote YES then you're against children getting an education. You can't look at the salaries the staff gets paid (or overpaid), or why they need the increases.

They always push the fact that if we don't pass the increase we'll have to shut down the music department and the sports programs.
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If I had to pay that much in taxes on a house that as a Note on it of a mere $400k, I would say shut everything down and let me keep my money.
 
jessica. said:
If I had to pay that much in taxes on a house that as a Note on it of a mere $400k, I would say shut everything down and let me keep my money.
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I look around at all the foreclosures and I know why. Taxes and the cost of living go up faster than salary increases.

I paid slightly under $200k for my house, just a couple of years ago. I think the house could sell for $250k easy, and if it was in a nicer neighborhood it would be worth a lot more. My street is a nice, dead end street but the area around me is only an "okay" area.

I love my house, but I am not sure I want to deal with these taxes forever. I might rent it or sell it in the future.
 
ericrwalker said:
I look around at all the foreclosures and I know why. Taxes and the cost of living go up faster than salary increases.

I paid slightly under $200k for my house, just a couple of years ago. I think the house could sell for $250k easy, and if it was in a nicer neighborhood it would be worth a lot more. My street is a nice, dead end street but the area around me is only an "okay" area.

I love my house, but I am not sure I want to deal with these taxes forever. I might rent it or sell it in the future.
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When I retire in less than a year and a half, I'm seriously thinking about selling my house and moving out of New York. It's too expensive here.
 
Mr. McMac said:
When I retire in less than a year and a half, I'm seriously thinking about selling my house and moving out of New York. It's too expensive here.
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When I bought my play we worked out a deal with the city to keep my taxes low for the first 5 years, as part of a project to fix the place up.

It was the worse house the the street, it's now by far the nicest house on the street.

Well the property taxes are still low, but suddenly after the second year of living in it, my school taxes jumped up from $900+ a year to almost $3500.

supposedly the deal was only for property side of the taxes, not the school taxes.

When I opened up last tax bill (due twice a year) and expected to to pay ($450) and saw I owed over $1,600 I ended up paying it 3 months late (lucky there is only a 1% late fee a month).

My wife is from Japan, and she wants to move back just for a few years or our child and the one on the way gets to experience Japan and see her family. she keeps telling me we should move to Texas, Arizona, or New Hampshire when we get back.

I am thinking NH because it's only a few hour drive from most of my family.
 
AhmedFaisal said:
Rent. The problem in the US is even if you own your place outright, you are still ****ed if your property appreciates too much in value because then you end up getting taxed out of your home. Unless you live in a state like California where your taxes stay at the price you bought the house for...
...
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In theory, that isn't supposed to happen if your home is appreciates at the same rate as everyone else in that taxing authority. The municipality sets it's budget, and divides up that number among the value of the all the homes, and sets the tax rate accordingly. In theory. Where you get messed up is if your property is in an area that appreciates faster than everywhere else. Or if your property keeps its value while everyone else's depreciates.

Vancouver, BC had a serious issue with this.... a neighbourhood of single family dwellings suddenly became the 'in' place to be. The problem was that it was full of pensioned widows living in modest homes, and the people moving in were knocking down the modest homes and building super homes. That particular neighbourhood started to go through the problem you were describing because it was appreciating way way more than the rest of the city.

Luckily Vancouver is a fairly progressive city, so for certain categories of people (pensioners for example) they allowed property taxes to be deferred for as long as that person owned the home. When it was sold the taxes could then be paid up. At that point, if the person lived long enough, they might just give the City the property - or the City sometimes turned around and bought the property using the deferred taxes to make up the bulk of the purchase price. Vancouver City Hall owns a lot of property in the City.

The other thing they did was have their Charter amended by the Province to cap the property taxes increases for a properties, on a rolling average. Which also works out well. It was nice living in city that could afford to treat it's citizens with a bit more humanity than is often the case. It's not perfect, of course. But it is a well run city.
 
ericrwalker said:
Good luck with the job hunt. You might want to take a temp job and get some night or online college in. Maybe get some CompTia certifications.
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I'm not actively looking, I have a stable job, just not making quite enough on my own to buy a house and drive a decent vehicle. If I didn't have a car payment I'd be in a house. If a job offer comes my way, I may be all over it but I'm alright where I am now. I actually had a chance at GF but it was a temp-to-perm with no assurances I'd become permanent. As it turns out a buddy of mine that was working there in a similar role at that time is now looking again because of the way the state is making them handle contractors (1 year on, 3 months off unless they get hired direct).

CompTia? Have A+ and Net+, as well as being certified to repair Apple, Dell, HP and Lenovo (mostly business products for the last 3).
 
I have two payments left on my truck, and wouldn't you know the transmission went on my wife's car. We're not spending $2k+ to fix her car.

Now I get up earlier every day, drop my daughter off to daycare, drop my wife off to work, then I got to work. Get out of work, pick up my daughter, then my wife. We have no plans to fix her car or get a new one. We are saving for hospital bills. She's due for our second child in August, and she's going to Japan in November. Hopefully I find a job there around the same time.

There is always something that comes up that cost money, which stops my plans for saving.


hallux said:
I'm not actively looking, I have a stable job, just not making quite enough on my own to buy a house and drive a decent vehicle. If I didn't have a car payment I'd be in a house. If a job offer comes my way, I may be all over it but I'm alright where I am now. I actually had a chance at GF but it was a temp-to-perm with no assurances I'd become permanent. As it turns out a buddy of mine that was working there in a similar role at that time is now looking again because of the way the state is making them handle contractors (1 year on, 3 months off unless they get hired direct).

CompTia? Have A+ and Net+, as well as being certified to repair Apple, Dell, HP and Lenovo (mostly business products for the last 3).
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Own.

I live in a hand-me-down mid-century ranch home that my grandparents built back in 1958. 3 bedroom, 1 bath, approximately 1030 square feet. It's completely original, down to the seafoam green tile, tub, toilet, and sink in the bathroom, plaster walls throughout the house, crank-style windows, original hardwood floors, the whole nine yards. I love the original charm, and could never remodel it.

My dad lived there for many years, then I grew up in this house. Took ownership of it when my dad decided he wanted something else, but wanted to keep it in the family. It's a block-and-a-half from the ocean, so I couldn't ask for anything more :cool:

The house has been paid off since 1979, but the property taxes are very reasonable.
 
Own. In the UK.

Mortgage paid off in 2011 and i'm only 35!

2k square foot detached 4 bedroom house worth £350k. :D
 
Rent and it's way too high. Pay nearly 1800 for a 2 bed 2 bath, newly renovated. After reading some of your places, I wanna move....
 
xtremr said:
Rent and it's way too high. Pay nearly 1800 for a 2 bed 2 bath, newly renovated. After reading some of your places, I wanna move....
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rent1.jpg
 
Just to be clear - you NEVER own your house, even if your mortgage is paid off.

You're always (still) renting from the government.

E.g., at 3% property taxes, you would have paid the government the full value of your house after 33 years.

-t
 
Used to rent in VA. The wife and I moved to CO and now have a home mortgage in a newer part of town that is lower than our rent controlled apartment in VA because of a few refi's (bottomed at 3.5%) and awesome credit (both over 800). Got lucky and bought right before the market collapsed as we would have never been approved for a loan after as we had no down payment. Can't complain at all.
 
Nice spread here. We really want to buy but with house prices going up something like 25% a year in Auckland at the moment and the average first time 2 bed house being around 6 times the average salary AND needed 20% minimum deposit I don't see how its possible for us. Plus there is the added problem that a few years ago the NZ government relaxed the building laws which meant a tonne of houses were built crap and ended up leaking so if you have one of those its basically worthless and needs recladding. Problem is the seller doesn't have to tell you this when you buy so it puts a huge question mark on any houses in the area built in a certain age range, plus the fact that hardly any new houses are being built due to high land costs.

We have thought it thru and are just going to keep renting for now. We cannot find a house that isn't damp cold and leaking and within an hour/1.5hrs commute of the CBD for under $400k, so we are just going to keep renting where we are now. Once the wife goes back to work (newborn) her salary will go straight to a savings account to go towards a bigger deposit, but by then we probably will have jumped ship and emigrated somewhere more affordable.

On a sidenote, I'm shocking about the land tax you guys in the US pay! Seems insane you still have to pay tax even after you have paid your mortgage?!?!
 
I rent. London is stupidly expensive! I live in a one bedroom flat - I do like it and its in a nice area, but at the end of the day it's a one bedroom flat. Market price would probably be around £300k ($450k). Crazy! :eek:

skunk said:
No. The Crown retains mineral rights, but freehold is freehold.
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Actually technically the crown does own all the land in the UK. It's just more than one person can own an interest in property at the same time. It's a rather academic point that has little bearing in real life, but I think it's interesting.

Basically freehold is an "estate in land" - the freeholder is granted an interest in the land that basically gives them the right to do whatever the want (within the law of course). The estate can either be passed on expressly in a will or by inheritance in the absence of a will. If someone dies with no will and no traceable heirs the estate in land transfers to the Crown* bona vacantia. The Crown can then 'sell' the land again to a fresh freeholder - or more accurately, create a new estate in land. You could think of it as an indefinite leasehold with no rent and no real restrictions (other than the law).

Like I said, it's really a technicality due to the fact that property law in the UK is based on principles laid out hundreds of years ago! In practice a freeholder is indeed an absolute owner.


*Which is in fact the government, nowadays often "Crown" legally means the government as most of the Crown's traditional power no lays in the government's hands.
 
AhmedFaisal said:
That's better, but still doesn't change the fact that you or your family can lose your property due to a regressive tax. It fundamentally goes against the grain for me in regards to what I consider ownership.
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Tenants can be dispossessed by a landlord. Which happens far more often in Canada than anyone losing their home due to property taxes even with tenancy protections. I'm not trying to brag about the Canadian system... just that I don't what happens elsewhere. But the last time I heard of someone losing their property around here was a Hollywood star who could afford to pay the taxes, but didn't for 3 years, on a commercial property they own and were supposedly meant to redevelop.
turtle777 said:
J...
E.g., at 3% property taxes, you would have paid the government the full value of your house after 33 years.

-t
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I have to say, I've been horrified at some of the property tax rates quoted by our American cousins to the south. Canada is supposed to be a 'high taxation' jurisdiction, but we (personally) have never paid more than a fraction of what I've been reading here. We have lived in Metro Vancouver, and now live rurally. We may have higher income taxes, but we got beat on property taxes it seems. And I don't mind our property taxes since it all stays local.

Local fire and schools (well technically, all school taxes in BC are pooled provincially and the ministry then supports all school districts equally to ensure poor neighbourhoods don't get penalized - but it's 'local' to BC). Local police - kinda, since we live in a rural unincorporated municipality so in fact the Province contracts to have the RCMP provide local policing services... Hmm.... our roads are looked after by the Province as well, because we are unincorporated... and the Provincial government provides the ambulance services for the entire Province (city and rural alike) so we have access to same services as any city. Ditto the hospital. So we pay our property taxes for these services to the Province, and then those services are provided based on our population stats regardless of whether we paid the full value or not.

But you know what I mean... my property taxes pay for local services, even if for some things they get pooled and we get the benefits of economy of scale.
 
I live with 3 roommates and we pay a total of $1380 for a 2 bed 2 bath apt. Any housing close to the university we go to is ridiculously expensive. This was one of the cheapest we could find.
 
Own. Never rented, my parents let me stay at theirs rent-free (bought my own food and paid my own bills) so I could save up for a deposit and a bit more.

Probably worth noting this is a medium-sized house in little village. No London/city prices here!
 
Own. Well, I should say, paying a mortgage. Still a looooong ways off from full ownership. Bought brand new in 2005 for about $202k just 10 minutes outside midtown Atlanta, now paying about $1540 per month in mortgage. If my refinance EVER goes through, it should drop to about $1200.

Mine is a three-floor, 1372 square foot, two bedroom with extra bonus room, town home. I have no land (fine with me). Taxes are about $1400 a year and HOA was about $2340 per year, going up this year to $2700.

I'd love to be in a bigger, better place, but we're so severely underwater now, that won't happen for years.
 
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