Life in North Georgia, Real Estate in the Mountains

At some point in our lives almost everyone has faced the decision on whether to rent vs own. Sometimes the decision is simple and other times it is a real struggle to figure out just what makes good financial sense over time. The New York Times has a great tool on their website that allows you to enter in real values for rent or purchase price, property taxes and assumptions on how home values and rents will rise or fall over time. As you change real input and assumptions the value time line and chart update automatically. It is a very good tool. Don’t be afraid to play with it – you can’t break it!

The New York Times – Rent vs Ownership Calculator

Although it may sound counter intuitive, sometimes it might make sense to gladly take less for your home than you really want.  The Article below from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, gives examples of owners that purposefully took a loss so they could get an even better deal on where they really wanted to live.  With some areas discounted more than others and some foreclosures selling at 40 or 50 cents on the dollar, you actually could end up ahead even after taking a loss on  your home.  Here is the link to the AJC On-Line article.

Good News from the Wall Street Journal this morning. They report that home affordability has finally returned to its” pre-bubble” levels. The cloud on this good news is that we did not get there through jobs growth or earnings increases. Instead we arrived at equilibrium through falling home prices. Never-the-less, if we are at equilibrium at least we can look forward to an improvement in the market and be certain that when jobs recover it will get even better.

Here is the Link to the Article: “> Wall Street Journal