Thursday, July 20, 2017

You mean in prisons we get to remodel kitchens!

When Does A Home Become A Prison?.

“Existing homeowners are increasingly financially imprisoned in their own home by their historically low mortgage rate. It makes choosing a kitchen renovation seem more appealing than moving.”

I wasn't going to post anything today because... meh. Then this article came across and I had to just laugh to myself and say who ever wrote this article is such a fool.

I can't even believe someone would write such an article after so many years of saying owning a house was a chumps game. And all the cool kids were out having "experiences" with all of that sweet, sweet money they saved from renting.

Well, we all buckled down and got a super low rates and now we can afford to do all the shit we couldn't before because we aren't paying as much interest. How is that renting going? If this guy thinks that is a prison.... all I can do is laugh and laugh and laugh.

What a hardship when the only thing you can do besides move is remodeling a kitchen or bath. It's positively inhuman. Worst prison Eva.

Such first world problems with all that extra disposable cash.  Those prisoners are going to have the best retirement ever. I can't wait to see the articles that come from now on because there is going to be a lot of butthurteddness going forward. In Oakland, hundreds of people are showing up to open houses.

2 comments:

  1. Capital of Texas RefugeeFriday, July 21, 2017 4:38:00 PM

    I'm one of those cool "older kids" who sold out instead of selling up ...

    About twenty years ago, I sold a house during a time when interest rates were so-so, but property values were going up in that area only gradually. You could get a 30-year loan for 6.5% and an ARM for 3.5%.

    Every now and then, I check on the value of my old house, just to see what I've been missing, if anything.

    There were ten years where the property value went down, and it has only in the past year clawed its way back up to within $5k of the selling price.

    I'm a damned good replacement for a realtor, in other words, because I didn't have one. :-)

    Since then, my attitude toward renting has been that it's been worth it.

    During the years when I've been traveling, I don't have to deal with a place to live -- everything goes into storage units, and I hang my driver's license address off a friend's place where the friend is willing to handle my mail. (Payment is usually rendered in the form of free touristy T-shirts and other tourist fluff, of course.)

    For what I used to pay for a micro-mini-McMansion With Hard-To-Maintain-Craftsman-Roofing-Material-Cheese, I can often rent a place in the city where someone else mows whatever passes for a lawn, someone else fixes the stuff that breaks, someone else keeps the gym machines looking nice, and so on.

    When I no longer think I'm getting good value for money, I simply shift everything back into storage units for a while and interrupt everything with a long period of travel.

    During those times, I'm "renting" hotel rooms or staying in small apartments where I can cook my meals and have a bit of privacy. In many of these places, the countries where I'm staying are generally not happy with my sticking around for more than a few months without some sort of work or residence visa, and I'm generally not happy with paying them higher taxes.

    In other words, for some people, it actually works out.

    But I wouldn't call what you have "a prison" -- I liked having a stable location for one of my start-up companies where I didn't have to worry about someone poking his or her head in only to wonder what on earth all of that very industrial-looking equipment was meant to do, not to mention whether it was going to leave nasty spots on the carpet.

    In fact, the only guff I received was from some of the neighbors, who did not like it when I replaced the lawns with actual crops, and from the local power company, who would charge me extra for using power well above the requirements of a typical Ranchburger With McCheese.

    For all I know, the current owners are still growing carrots in "the yards".

    The rabbits in the neighborhood absolutely loved me. :-)

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  2. Yeah, the past ten years have not been kind. That's for sure. But that is really an anomaly in history. I'm not saying that prices can't go down. They definitely can. But even if you walk out basically flat with your repairs and everything - that means you are living rent free for the time you owned that place. It's not a bad deal. People always like to make money on their houses - but worse case scenario, living rent free isn't too bad either.

    I am curios about your start up though. Servers or pot? When the electricity people start noticing you....it makes everyone curious. ;) You don't have to tell me... but I did have to ask.

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