Drop Foreseen in Median Price of U.S. Homes - New York Times
Here is a milestone nobody wants to see. This is mainly the result of the overpricing that occurred during the housing bubble, but I can't help thinking that on some level the market is reflecting the fact that, apart from the investment expectations and the tax advantages, home ownership isn't worth as much as it once was. With today's new CID housing, you just don't get the dominion and control that was once considered a major part of the package. For example, if it comes to deciding whether or not to buy a condo unit, and the value isn't increasing, many people would just as soon rent. Home ownership can be a huge hassle, and the costs can offset the tax advantages. I know some people with substantial assets who have rented their entire lives, including at least one famous law professor. In some big cities it isn't all that unusual a thing to do.
1 comment:
"With today's new CID housing, you just don't get the dominion and control that was once considered a major part of the package."
Perhaps it is finally being recognized that "ownership" in a CID is really homeownership in name only. It is far better to rent in an apartment complex than it is to "buy" into a CID, put up with the imperial board of directors and pay them vast amounts of money so they can afford lawyers to sue you for the most specious of reasons.
Further eroding the value of ownership is the nature of most new developments. They strip out all the trees, cram the cookie-cutter houses as close together as possible, build them as poorly as possible, and then saddle you with the legal albatross known as a homeowner association on top of that. If this is "ownership," I'll continue to rent an apartment in a complex with plenty of trees, with the buildings well spaced apart, and very friendly and professional management.
If I ever own a home, and I hope to eventually, it will be in an older, traditional neighborhood with trees, homes spaced well apart and not looking alike, and most of all NO HOA!!
It isn't just the mortgage industry and its problems that beset the housing industry, it is the butt-ugly, cookie cutter developments with their HOAs that put off potential home buyers.
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