Good time to buy a house??

[Vincerama2]

Bryan, that's a result of proposition 13, it's a reason I get away with paying 1/10th as much in property taxes as my neighbors The difference is that your neighbors bought the house back when the sell price was similar to the average assessed price of homes, where in this case the value they ended up selling for was much less what the average assessed value of properties in that area.

Always wondered if you could transfer property to other people simply by selling for a ridiculously low amount.

First of all, Mike, I hate you. I have a friend who bought his Grandparents home (bought it off his Dad and Uncles). It's in the Richmond District in San Francisco, he pays $700/year for property tax.

If you sell the property, it gets re-assessed ... then you are screwed because it follows current market values. On the flip side, you can ask your county to re-assess your home if it dropped in price to have your property taxes lowered, though it usually doesn't end up as much of a drop. (but something is better than nothing!) The property tax they hit you with is the lower of two amounts. It's the 3% raise per year or it's the re-assessed value...in case your house skyrocketed in value you won't get dinged for re-assessing.

I think the original owner of my house bought it in 1939 for about 45k so that's what 450 (plus 3% per year or whatever) bucks per year property tax?

V

 

[Otakuthugster]

Do you work for Pergo or have experience installing them?

Nah, jus' did the living and dining areas in my house. It's one of the easier home improvements I've done. Plus, with 3 dogs, 1 kid (+1 on the way), and a whole bunch of saltwater splashing on the floor in one corner of the room, I highly recommend it over traditional hardwood. With all the abuse we've put it through, it still looks brand new.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Vince, first of all, I love you :smooch:

Your friend bought the home from dad/uncle then it should get reassessed.

Prop 13 didn't pop up until the 70's, so its those prices, I think my house is somewhere in the 45k range too according to the county assessor

 

[Elite]

What the! 4.5%!! Amazing!

I can get close to that, but I have to pay points. We're in the process of a refi now. The no-points rate fluctuates around 5%-5.25% with a point paid, I can drop it to about 4.75 or something. If I had a lot of spare money and could jam the loan down to a "conforming loan" then I could get 4.5 ... but really...who has that kind of spare money?!

V

Congrats Phong! Make sure to pick up the Home Depot 1-2-3 Home Improvement book, or the Black & Decker "Home Improvement" book,t hey have great pictures and provide step-by-step help on everything from repairing to installing just about everything around the home! I just lent mine out to a coworker who also just bought a house!

Of course, we have to pay point for that rate but our agent pay 1 point for us and we only have to pay .5 which is not much.

Thanks man.. nah no book.. save $ on tools LOL .. I just post question if I have any. There are several general contractors on here. I'm sure they can answer my questions :bigsmile:

 

[sfsuphysics]

Give you a bit of advice Phong, something my grandfather always used to say

"Cut the damn thing 3 times and it's still too short!"

Words to live by

 

[hooked]

Give you a bit of advice Phong, something my grandfather always used to say

"Cut the damn thing 3 times and it's still too short!"

Words to live by

LOL ! thats the on going joke on the job ! your grandpa must have been a fun guy .

 

[Gomer]

/necro!


Thought some of you may find this interesting:
http://patrick.net/housing/crash.html

 

[sfsuphysics]

Yet on the coasts, both those safety rules are still being violated

Well duh, if you only take a maximum of 3x your annual salary not many people could buy a house, only those who make between about $150k and $250k a year could afford it! Problem with housing "in the middle" is yeah you can get a 3000+ sq.ft home for less than $300k, but salaries don't decrease as linear relationship, hell my cousin who now lives in Colorado because his company (Charles Schwab) moved all trading operations out there makes the same amount of cash as he did when he lived in SF.

Either way, I think a better gauge is to base it upon how much disposable income you have after you pay off all your "essentials" (which for some people include that cell phone with the $100/month plan). Hell if you only take 3x your salary I probably couldn't get a home in Arkansas ... ok not true I could in some parts