McCain - Straight Talk Express

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EricBess

Guest
Mooseman said:
I did read an article about that and he said a lot of things I feel are correct...... Something like, "If you were trying to make money on realestate and are having problems, the government is not bailing you out.... lenders, flippers, speculators are all on your own...... that's the way the market works.... you took the risk, now pay the price........ if you bought to much house for what you can afford, then the government will help you, but just enough to get out from under it and into something you can afford and if you lose equity .... tough toilet paper...."
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Personally, I don't think they go far enough. Thanks to the lenders, flippers, speculators, etc, there is now a huge burden on homeowners.

My personal frustration isn't buying more house than you can afford, it's getting stuck without options because you can't afford to move. And why? Because of the damage done by all of those people.

I'm actually doing okay, but if I had moved to California a year later, I would be in serious trouble. However, I purchased my house for what was considered reasonable at the time. I couldn't afford a house near the coast, so I intentionally went inland because I didn't want to buy more house than I could afford. I can afford my house payments, but I now owe more on my house than I currently owe (and no, I didn't pull out equity loans like a lot of people). So, I'm doing fine, but if my situation were to change and I needed to move, I would be in a lot of trouble.

I blame those same people, so I certainly hope the government isn't going to use my tax dollars to help them out. I can't get any assistance, so why should I pay for them to? Personally, I have very little sympathy for people who bought more than they could afford as well. They knew that the interest rates would be going up and they didn't plan ahead. I realize that some had a change in income status or just flat lost their jobs and I have no problem helping them out, but if they got hit just by the raising interest rates...

I guess you ultimately can't blame anyone but yourself. Had I even considered that housing prices were going to fall this hard, I would have been renting for the past 5 years. But then again, 5 years ago, general consensus was that if you could afford to buy, you were throwing money away by renting.

The greed that led to the current housing situation hurts a lot of innocent people in a lot of subtle and significant ways and I personally wouldn't mind seeing fines and/or jail time for the con artists who got everyone into this mess (not just the people who were conned).
 
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DarthFerret

Guest
Yeah...threw me for a loop for a second and had to go over it 2 or 3 times to make sure I understood what he meant.
 
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EricBess

Guest
Sorry, yes. I owe more money on my house then it is currently worth. I owe significantly less than I originally purchased it for. Had I bought my home a year later, it would be worse, but as it is, it would be incredibly difficult for me to explore any options for my future that required selling.

I avoided all of the explosive adjustable interest rates (I have a fixed rate) and with my current income, I can afford payments. But if I were to lose my job or want to pursue a job opportunity in another area, I might be in trouble. No tax money coming my way to help bail me out. I'm not bitter, just a bit frustrated. And my point is that there are a lot of people who have tried to do everything right that are just getting shorted right now.

If someone steals, there are subject to the law. In this case, I'm not sure that the law is adequate. It's unclear if anyone did anything technically illegal.
 
Mooseman

Mooseman

Isengar Tussle
If they did, it has no real effect on the housing problem.....
Mostly, people (lenders ad borrowers) made incredibly bad choices and now don't want to pay the price for failure...... I'm just glad that the new pesident will make that decision, since the current one is an idiot about finance..... and most other things......

McCain sems to want people to take responsibility for their mistakes..... I hope it stay that way.

Unfortunately, the rest of us will have to pay part of the price..... like EB.... It's just the nature of the economy right now....
 
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DarthFerret

Guest
And now for a interuption from our locally broadcasted topic, to visit in on the messiah, Barak Hussein Obama:

His latest gaff: Barak believes that all Americans should learn spanish so that when they go to Europe (more specifically France) they know more than just the phrase "merci beaucoup"! Dont believe me? Watch this!

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/07/09/obama-your-kids-should-learn-spanish/

Ok, well, maybe that was a bit over the top (the statement I made above that is), however, I think that McCain now has little to worry about. This speech was a veritable political suicide. I would figure that Barack would have a much better speech writer. Oo, Oo, maybe it is a conspiricy within his campaign camp!

:D
 
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DarthFerret

Guest
Not sure we need any Obama bashing thread. He is doing it to himself.
 
Mooseman

Mooseman

Isengar Tussle
Maybe more like an Obama watch thread..... what is he up to now.....

I did watch that vid and he is so wrong on this one.... English should be the official language of the US... It is also the most widely spoken second language in the world. But, this yahoo whats us to learn Spanish? Why? To make it easier for the illegal aliens?
 
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EricBess

Guest
Spiderman said:
EricBess: Looking on the bright side, your real estate taxes should be less too :)
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Actually, that's not even true. Property taxes are based on the "value of the home", yes, but the assessment is based on the price that you paid when the home was purchased.
 
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Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Until the next reassessment, which in the county I live in is every three years. I can't imagine it's much longer than that elsewhere since the county/state government wants their money :)
 
Mooseman

Mooseman

Isengar Tussle
Spiderman said:
Until the next reassessment, which in the county I live in is every three years. I can't imagine it's much longer than that elsewhere since the county/state government wants their money :)
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Ha HA..... I live in Allegheny county in PA, near Pittsburgh and our property is assessed once a decade, maybe. The last time they did an assessment, the county hired a firm from OHio that took a picture of your home in a drive by and then raised the assessment 4x to 10x any sense of reality...... I have to dispute the assessment on my house around the year 2000 and got it lowered almost 40%.... that still was 3x the earlier assessment (which was low), byt was more in line with it's true value.......

I had an idea that would be tough, but fair..... assess the house on purchase price or some reasonable value assessment, then never change it.... when the house is sold, taxes would be owed on the amount over the purchase price... this way people would improve the properties without the fear of raised taxes.
 
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EricBess

Guest
It turns out that the government is more interested in doing reassessments when the market is on an upswing than when it is on a downswing...

And from what I've seen around here, the reassessment typically consists of looking at the previous assessment unless there is reason to believe it might have increased.

I haven't researched what it would take to dispute an assessment, but from what I understand, it isn't an easy process.

Out of curiosity, I went and looked through our taxes for the past couple of years. My property taxes increased by about $100 (not a significant percentage, but still an increase) from 2006 to 2007.

Per Califonia law, they can raise my property taxes by as much as 2% a year (for inflation) without even having to inform me. And they "may" reduce my property taxes for a decrease in value of my home, but that is that the assessor's discretion.
 
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Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Mooseman: I stand corrected then :) Do property values in your areas generally remain steady then?

About your taxing the difference in house price when you sell: the amount might be too big for someone to handle at settlement.

EricBess: How much did your house value rise from 2006-2007?

I can't remember, but in Baltimore County, MD, I think we can get up 10% increase every 3 years but it's phased in over the three year period at a max of 2 or 3%? Something like that...

Incidently, it's EricBess's turn in the Points Draft game... :)
 
Mooseman

Mooseman

Isengar Tussle
Spiderman said:
I stand corrected then :) Do property values in your areas generally remain steady then?
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yes, mine hasn't changed in years, although the tax rate may change at any time.

Spiderman said:
About your taxing the difference in house price when you sell: the amount might be too big for someone to handle at settlement.
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Just limit it to no more than the increase in the sales price to the purchase price. (the sales price has to be reflected in the assessed value, in PA all properties have to be assessed when sold, so sales prices can be compared to assessed value for any irregularities)
 
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DarthFerret

Guest
In Texas, you are allowed to request a property reassesment every year if you would like. Other than that, not sure how ofetn they do it on thier own.
 
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Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Mooseman: If they remain steady (and have for decades), I guess I can see just assessing them every 10 years.

The thing is about having the tax rate remain the same for the house, it doesn't make sense that the stuff it pays for also goes up. Ya know? I guess I'm looking at it from the government's point of view - the stuff they gotta pay for goes up so having a stagnant tax on houses in an increasing area doesn't make sense. At least on the surface. I don't know, I haven't thought it about in depth yet. But basically, it's like stock, right? You're paying a tax on the difference from the purchase price and the sales price... hmm... gotta think about it more.
 
Mooseman

Mooseman

Isengar Tussle
Actually the rate is not stagnant. I t can change, the assessments are stagnant.... this way people can improve their property without having to have the disincentive of immediately higher taxes...... Also, with the sales "penalty" people are more willing to work on the area since leaving is not super easy.
 
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