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Saturday, September 27, 2008
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19 comments:
Alternative bailout plan:
Two steps:
1) Federal agents will go door to door and hand each family a payment plan. The plan will state that for the next 10 years each family is responsible for paying 2,000 extra dollars to the government.
2) The payment plan will provide a link to a website that will detail the banks that are getting the money: Goldman Sachs, Citibank, JPMorgan, etc. The site will list the profit made for the last 10 years and how the money is helping to keep these institutions profitable.
You think this would get people's attention? I do
I'm not seeing much that is interesting in the market. However this (see below) place seemed to sell in no time. The key is that it looks like a very nice place, much nicer than similarly priced houses in the same neighborhood that have been sitting forever.
http://www.franklymls.com/FX6871073
contrast it to this place: http://www.franklymls.com/FX6770990
So, undercut your competition, and your place will sell in no time.
On a side note, I noticed that the tax assessment is way low compared to it's neighbors. The new buyer could have a shock when they get their first tax bill.
nova,
I don't know that area at all, and the prices are such that I never will. Both places looked quite nice and fairly comparable in prices, so what's the big motivator? 1073 seemed a big nicer--larger, more recently built, etc. 0990 is still far, in terms of quality, from most of the stuff that's selling around me.
just curios, can you really get $25K for closing costs? that's at least a 15K down-payment.
REMARKS NOW $25,000 TOWARD CLOSING COSTS.
My GMU professor had a great idea for an alternative to the bailout plan: give $1 million dollars to every man, woman and child in the USA. Cost: $365 Billion.
And the best part? It would stimulate housing and the economy with only half the cost of the $700 Billion bailout bill currently proposed.
My GMU professor had a great idea for an alternative to the bailout plan: give $1 million dollars to every man, woman and child in the USA. Co^st: $365 Billion.
1*10^6*365*10^6 is 365*10^12
That's 365 Trillion.
The plan costs $2,000 per man/woman/child.
Big difference between $1,000 and $1 mil.
So, undercut your competition, and your place will sell in no time.
Make your home an obvious bargain and it moves.
Got Popcorn?
Neil
xpovos: those two houses aren't even in the same league. The first house appears to be 50% larger. It also appears to have been redecorated (renovated) in this century.
In contrast, the second house appears to be all original 1973.
nova,
Nope, still don't see it. Now, the ads could be inaccurate, but the smaller is listed at 3328 sq.ft. The larger at 3800. That's a long shot from 50% bigger. Now that's finished to finished, so maybe the larger one also has a lot of unfinished?
And yes, I can see that the larger one has also been tastefully updated, which is rare--recently most updates are gaudy or just plain ugly. But having the original isn't a terrible thing. It just means that you'll get to select your own update style, which isn't really feasible with the larger.
Location seems to be the most important issue on both of these of course, and second to that, personal tastes. Internally, I think you're right that the larger one wins. Externally, for my money I'd much rather have the smaller place.
Well, it looks like the bailout is finally getting pushed through.
I can't help but get the feeling that the "cure" is more of the same thing that caused the illness.
This part especially worries me:
"To help struggling homeowners, the plan requires the government to try renegotiating the bad mortgages it acquires with the aim of lowering borrowers' monthly payments so they can keep their homes."
http://tinyurl.com/3qr9w8
I really really hope that doesn't mean what I think it means... this would amount to little more than a taxpayer handout directly to those who spent more than they could afford.
xpovos: "But having the original isn't a terrible thing. It just means that you'll get to select your own update style, which isn't really feasible with the larger"
I dunno about you, but after paying $800k for a house, I do not want to have to completely strip the interior.
The first place has *only* half an acre vs. a full acre, but it backs up to parkland, which in my book makes it equal to, if not better, than a full acre.
All about reflation . . . 700B will become >3T. Take the bad assets give them cash and reflate baby!
Does the professor have tenure?
I have a question, somewhat off-topic: what do people think about the effects of high gas prices on the proposed Metro extension through Tysons and out to Dulles? Do you think high gas prices will revive the plan, possibly increasing the desirability of north Reston properties over the long run?
kob: it could have been an English professor making a joke before class.
WaPo end of DAP Oct 1
Cry me a river. Anyone who can't save up a 3.5% downpayment, can't afford to buy a house.
"But the nation's largest builders say thousands of first-time home buyers, minorities and single parents will be shut out of the housing market without this financing tool.
Shut out?? 3.5% of $200,000 is $7000, that should take at most 1 year to save up, if you can barely afford the house, only 7 months if you can reasonably afford the house. Everyone knew this was coming, by now they should be close to having the payment ready. This could delay buyers, but not by long. Gah.
Why is it in someone's self-interest to invest $7K in a down payment on a property that is probably going to sink in value?
A 3.5% down may not get you a better interest payment than zero-down. It won't get rid of PMI or lower your payments all that much.
Are you better off keeping your 3.5% down in a savings account?
cara,
Thanks for the link. That article has this:
"Seller-funded down payments allow builders to sell to cash-strapped customers without lowering prices and depressing values in the subdivisions they're constructing."
This kind of market manipulation should be illegal. I think discontinuing the program is the right thing.
My bad. The GMU professor that made the comment did so over a dinner, not in front of a class. Neither of us had a calculator, obviously. Later I found that the calculators I had couldn't handle numbers with that many zeroes.
I'm still not sure just what $700 Billion parcels out to per person, given a population of 365 Million. I've heard numbers between $2,500 - $10,000 per person.
I've heard three friends say recently that they were thinking of moving to another country. The beginning of the brain drain?
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