LivingAlmostLarge

So on the 4th of July we were hanging out with friends who own a condo in the city.  They have a 2 bd/1ba condo about 700 sq ft.  This place has a premium location, and was EXPENSIVE.  They are 33 and this was their first real estate purchase.  Thus they only considered the location [...]

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Reading about Mrs. Micah’s arrest outside her door made me think, gee, we’ve got neighbors from hell.  It makes me wonder why we ever bought a condo? And then I remember, we couldn’t afford anything better.  Sometimes being prudent sucks.
But anyway back to our neighbors from hell.  Typically we ignore them, which isn’t a huge [...]

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In a thread at Savingadvice, someone asked “Why do we need Real Estate Agents?”  I had to really ponder that question.  There were many pros and cons answers.  And MANY more answers I hadn’t even considered personally until someone had mentioned it.
Of course the traditional answer is to help you find a home you.  They [...]

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I knew renting in our area was expensive, but now I realize how tough it really is. This brochure for an apartment complex outside the city has prices and sizes. The cheapest 1 bedroom is $1499/month. A 3bd/2ba smaller than our townhouse is running at $2500. So how does that compare [...]

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MSN just had an article on smaller living. They stated that developers are selling 298 sq ft condos for $150k-$500k. Mostly in urban areas where land is a premium. Amazing huh?
They questioned who would live there? I know tons of people who live in such small spaces either as singles or couples. Personally I’ve lived [...]

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How do you handle moving up in mortgages? For example where you buy a home, then after a few years (5-7), you sell and move into a larger home with a bigger mortgage. Do you reset your mortgage to a new 15 or 30 year fixed product, or do you just continue with the years [...]

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I’ve noticed that Dave Ramsey followers fall into two categories. Those who use his words and try to live a new life without debt, and those who follow his words blindly and extremely.
I admire the first group, while despising the second. Why? Because usually those in the second are judgemental [...]

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Let’s say you bought at the peak of the housing market, and since then home prices have dropped. What should you do? Panic and sell? Keep calm and wait?
I was contemplating today about our purchase of a home at close to the peak of the market. Because we moved cross country [...]

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So we got our quarterly property tax bill, and the assessed value of our home dropped yet again. I thought it would decrease our property taxes, but instead they raised the rates of our property taxes so it turns out, it’s a wash.
We used to pay $9.33/$1000 of assessed value. Now it’s $9.70/$1000 assessed value. [...]

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Does renting in retirement make sense? In some cases it does. In others it does not. However, from a purely financial standpoint, I think it does. But of course no financial decisions devoid of emotional value. So why does renting make sense?
Well for example a $300k home, would allow the owners assuming they pay cash [...]

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