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Housing envy -- owning a house while keeping your friends

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  • #16
    Originally posted by Provost Harrison
    Yeah, or more...I rent the house over my head which would cost about £160-£170k...
    Hell, that's only like $260k. This is actually in the city of London? That sounds like a heck of a deal!
    Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

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    • #17
      London Borough of Greenwich, SE9. Sounds like you lot are getting absolutely fleeced nowadays...
      Speaking of Erith:

      "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda Smith

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      • #18
        Originally posted by DanS
        I think he meant $70k a year.



        Really, it just makes your financial situation more stable (i.e., your net assets are more). Having a 20% down payment rather than a 5% downpayment does save a little bit of money, but it's like the difference between having a $600,000 house and a $700,000 house. Basically you live in the same house on a day-to-day basis, so envy is unwarranted. That is, unless you could envy somebody for something like financial stability.

        I guess my point is that an extra couple hundred thou sounds like a whole lot of money and is a whole lot of money, but when it comes down to it, when it comes to housing, it doesn't mean two friends in similar situations otherwise will live any differently.
        I don't know what the rental market is like in DC, but here in Toronto someone paying the same in rent as I do on my mortgage, condo fees and property taxes is living in a much worse place. And if property prices continue to climb (not even particularly quickly), in five years if we both wanted to buy a new place, my relative advantage would be skewed even more. Whether that's a source of envy or not is up to the individual, but my lifestyle/cost ratio is certainly better owning than renting, and it gets better every year.
        "The French caused the war [Persian Gulf war, 1991]" - Ned
        "you people who bash Bush have no appreciation for one of the great presidents in our history." - Ned
        "I wish I had gay sex in the boy scouts" - Dissident

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        • #19
          Originally posted by DanS
          What kind of deposit is normally required in the UK? Here, it's about 5%.
          5% and you can get a loan but 20% is needed to avoid PMI (which is only a few hundred per month but that adds up; it's like an extra car payment). With FHA or HUD first time buyer loans you can get in with very little to nothing down and no PMI but that's because the government is subsidizing the loan.
          Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

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          • #20
            Yeah, well I'd want more than 5% before I buy, preferably 10% or more...
            Speaking of Erith:

            "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda Smith

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            • #21
              Originally posted by Provost Harrison
              London Borough of Greenwich, SE9. Sounds like you lot are getting absolutely fleeced nowadays...
              I payed $395k in May of 2004 for a 3bd/2bth 1350 sq ft town house with an attached two car car port and a small back yard. They're going for aorund $490k to $525k now depending upon location and how the interior is done and I'm not even living in a fashionable part of town. It isn't unfashionable either but if it was located 10-12 miles west in the University City area then it would cost another $200k easy. This is for a tiny town home.

              My parents bought a nice 4 bd/3.5 bth with around 2500 sq ft on a .10 acre lot in 1982 for around $100k which is likely worth over a million by now. After my mom died last year my dad lives there by himself. The housing market is just insane.
              Last edited by Dinner; June 17, 2005, 19:02.
              Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

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              • #22
                That is ridiculous...the property prices are bad enough here but that is stupid. I am sure that were you are will eventually follow suit.
                Speaking of Erith:

                "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda Smith

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                • #23
                  Is a little dangerous in D.C. like saying a little lawless in Mogadishu?
                  Exult in your existence, because that very process has blundered unwittingly on its own negation. Only a small, local negation, to be sure: only one species, and only a minority of that species; but there lies hope. [...] Stand tall, Bipedal Ape. The shark may outswim you, the cheetah outrun you, the swift outfly you, the capuchin outclimb you, the elephant outpower you, the redwood outlast you. But you have the biggest gifts of all: the gift of understanding the ruthlessly cruel process that gave us all existence [and the] gift of revulsion against its implications.
                  -Richard Dawkins

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                  • #24
                    I do not own my house, nor do I pay rent, what am I?
                    Long time member @ Apolyton
                    Civilization player since the dawn of time

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                    • #25
                      Originally posted by Starchild
                      Is a little dangerous in D.C. like saying a little lawless in Mogadishu?
                      I haven't been to DC or Baltimore since around 1990 but the place seemed very dangerous at the time. 15 years is a long time though so maybe things have changed for the better.
                      Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

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                      • #26
                        Originally posted by Lancer
                        I do not own my house, nor do I pay rent, what am I?
                        Someone who lives in his parents basement?
                        Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

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                        • #27
                          Parents are dead, ie don't have a basement.
                          Long time member @ Apolyton
                          Civilization player since the dawn of time

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                          • #28
                            Cardboard box on the streets?
                            Speaking of Erith:

                            "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda Smith

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                            • #29
                              Originally posted by Oerdin


                              I haven't been to DC or Baltimore since around 1990 but the place seemed very dangerous at the time. 15 years is a long time though so maybe things have changed for the better.
                              DanS posted statistics a few weeks back about reductions in the murder rate in America. D.C. still had a murder rate 11 times that of London, UK. And this was when things had been getting better.
                              Exult in your existence, because that very process has blundered unwittingly on its own negation. Only a small, local negation, to be sure: only one species, and only a minority of that species; but there lies hope. [...] Stand tall, Bipedal Ape. The shark may outswim you, the cheetah outrun you, the swift outfly you, the capuchin outclimb you, the elephant outpower you, the redwood outlast you. But you have the biggest gifts of all: the gift of understanding the ruthlessly cruel process that gave us all existence [and the] gift of revulsion against its implications.
                              -Richard Dawkins

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                              • #30
                                Dumpster in a back ally?
                                Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

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