By Realist

September 6, 2007 11:13 AM | Link to this

Jeff,

Don’t take this the wrong way but where the he## have you been for the past year? Many of us having been mentioning this over a year? Better late than never I guess. Now if your paper had asked the tough questions a few years ago instead of touting the price bubble some of your readers could have saved made some informed decisions. How about you all go back and reinterview all those folks you interviewed last year who had bought multiple homes for “investment” and check on their status today. That would be informative.

By cw1900

September 6, 2007 11:15 AM | Link to this

Interesting debate on the student loans. I never thought this was such a hot topic. Many here must have or had some mighty big loans and I guess I touched on a sore subject. Actually, “Greg Block” brought it up, I just commented and laughed at it. You people really have that many student loans out there? Unbelievable, but I guess I never thought about it. I thought it was something the 20 something crowd had or mom and dad paid off for you. I still find it hard to believe some guy in his 40s is still paying off a student loan. It just wrong on so many levels as the saying goes, but it is debt, and it does have to do with the argument of if you can afford investment real estate, so I’ll continue my comment.

“To CW”, you said, “Seriously, you need some investing help. If you can’t get 10% on a regular basis, you need to re-develop your whole strategy……That’s why you will never have any real money, you just don’t get it.” Actually, you don’t get it and you totally missed my point. I think I have been quite clear over time that a decent chunk of my networth is in the stock market and has been for many years. I wasn’t implying I keep every investable dollar in a money market, I would have thought that was obvious. Yes, I do try to get my 8 to 14% growth in the market year in and year out. Some years yes, some years no. Again, that should be obvious.

What I said was, “I would rather pay it off first, and give up the time and chance to invest those dollars now, for the bigger payoff later.” That is exactly what I have done. When you have less payments, you have more money to invest. Over the long haul, that wins. Over the short haul, the first maybe 10 years, you are right, the math works in your favor, I will not dispute that, but eventually, with you keeping to make payments on student loans or car loans or both, and I not, my way for the next 10 years pulls away from you, assuming all other things being even. I’ve run the numbers, you can to, and it is not even debatable. After another 10 years, which is 30 years after graduation, and paying off those loans asap and freeing up that extra cash to go to work for you does remarkable things and leaves you in the dust.

Greg and “to cw” both mentioned behavior when it comes down to personal finance. I couldn’t agree more, and I didn’t even factor that in, which would be even more to my benefit.

Best post of the day yesterday was last night from another “to cw” at 1128pm. I loved it.

Ok, enough on that.

We’ve got new topics….The one on what your money buys in Manhattan and how bad the whiners here think they have it, Max ought to be all over that one. Max, go get ‘em.

cw

By Manhattan

September 6, 2007 12:13 PM | Link to this

I have a place in NYC as well (have owned 30yrs).

Bad mouth the city all you care to. People who own there are used to hearing “how can you stand it there” , “its so dirty, noisy, crowded, crime-ridden, etc,etc,etc.”

I do not bother arguing. You either “get” the city or you don’t.

What is undeniable is the constant demand for housing. I laughed when one of my sons bought a home in BROOKLYN 8 years ago. Guess who is laughing now.

A similar 4Br 2 bath near him just sold for over 1 million.

The big differance in Real Estate today is SoFl, called paradise, is slumping, while NYC, called hell is going as strong as ever.

The beauty of markets. They ignore personal opinions and anecdotes.

You either have both buyers and sellers, as in NYC, or, as is the case in SoFl now, we have not.

By Max says Good Morning to Jeff Ostrich

September 6, 2007 5:06 PM | Link to this

Maybe Jeff should have just done a little house-hunting, or even rental hunting in NYC over the past year, instead of making a fool of himself proclaiming our “real estate bubble,” as someone noted above.

It is simply UNBELIEVABLE how cheap real estate is in Florida. It is BEYOND UNBELIEVABLE how low our property taxes are, almost non-existent.

Our state individual income taxes ARE non-existent. That areporter in NYC would be paying about 12% combined state and city tax, then she can first start talking about her Federal and FICA taxes. For icing on the cake, her real estate taxes will be close to 10 times higher, dollar for dollar of value. (and don’t forget, her property, inch for inch, is probably 10 times more expenseive).

Welcome to the world, Jeff!

You really need to get out more Jeff — and IN to the real world like NYC, to understand how foolish it is to talk about a price bubble, or high taxes, in Florida.

By 610Clematis

September 6, 2007 5:07 PM | Link to this

No shortage of cases of trbled sales.

610 Clematis sold great, begining of 2006.

Some recent sales :

310 paid 525K May 2006

in forclosure, for sale 415K

331 paid 281K Jan 2006

forclosure sale 250K

501 paid 280K Jan 2006

sold for 265K Aug 2007

203 paid 250K Jan 2006

sold May 2007 235K

Only “winners”:

806 paid 312K Mar 2006

sold Aug 2007 325K

419 paid 267K Jan 2006

sold May 2007 292K

By Max says Good Morning to Jeff Ostrich

September 6, 2007 5:10 PM | Link to this

Maybe Jeff should have just done a little house-hunting, or even rental hunting in NYC over the past year, instead of making a fool of himself proclaiming our “real estate bubble,” as someone noted above.

It is simply UNBELIEVABLE how cheap real estate is in Florida. It is BEYOND UNBELIEVABLE how low our property taxes are, almost non-existent.

Our state individual income taxes ARE non-existent. That areporter in NYC would be paying about 12% combined state and city tax, then she can first start talking about her Federal and FICA taxes. For icing on the cake, her real estate taxes will be close to 10 times higher, dollar for dollar of value. (and don’t forget, her property, inch for inch, is probably 10 times more expensive).

Welcome to the world, Jeff!

You really need to get out more Jeff — and IN to the real world like NYC, to understand how foolish it is to talk about a price bubble, or high taxes, in Florida.

By tomaxi

September 6, 2007 5:12 PM | Link to this

Bottom line with NYC RE vs SoFl RE -

NYC still selling .

SoFl doldrums at best.

Everything else moot.

By Max is sick of 610 Clematis

September 6, 2007 5:15 PM | Link to this

Can we stop hearing about 610 Clematis and Evergrene?

There are hundreds of thousands of buildings in PBC, why can you only find an argument in two of them?

Your dependence on one building to find a crisis only proves the weakness of your argument.

By Max to: Greg Block

September 6, 2007 5:31 PM | Link to this

Thinking about your “strong hands” and “weak hands” analogy, Greg, it is going to be almost too easy for anyone with a bit of cash to move in and buy up some foreclosures. The comical thing for me is watching this blog, which is rife with renters and other jackals who railed against flippers and howled at their being “punished” with foreclosures.

Little do they realize that the stage is being set for perhaps the greatest flipping opportunity since the RTC debacle 20 years ago.

While I certainly do not want to acquire the “vulture” mentality, there are a few bargains out there that are too good to resist.

Might as well go for the Royal Flush, Greg. Some of us will watch our hands get stronger and stronger, while the renters will watch their palms get hairier and hairier.

By TO: TOMAXI

September 6, 2007 5:57 PM | Link to this

Yer darn tootin’ NYC is selling. And if NYC is selling, SoFla will be selling.

BTW, where’s the l media’s national housing depression in NYC? Or Seattle, WA? Or San Antonio, Texass? Or Buttf**k, NC????

B******t, b******t and more b******t. Get out of friggin’ SoFla once in a while and go see for yourself.