Truer words have never been spoken.Quote:
Originally Posted by spindrift
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Truer words have never been spoken.Quote:
Originally Posted by spindrift
Greenspan.
That is all.
In ten years the Greenspan/Bernake relationship will be similar to Bush Sr. and Bush Jr..
You are being too kind to Greenspan. Way too kind. And Bernanke, well - maybe GWB will throw his trained monkey a few bananas to make him feel better. Note the warning on the famous Ben doll ad. Never more timely.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thre...helicopter.jpg
I can only imagine the whining and finger pointing if Greenspan DIDN'T lower interest rates. Like, where was everybody the past 8 years when all this absurd housing inflation was going on? Why weren't they complaining then? Nope, they were off cashing in the equity and traveling off to Chile for a nice little summer ski fling.
And I can only imagine the whining and finger pointing times ten that will happen because he did...Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
Sorry! You've got the process all wrong... Your local government does NOT collect your property taxes based on the assessment each year, quite the reverse... they set the tax rate based on assessed values each year.Quote:
Originally Posted by gravitylover
The process varies by State of course, but in general the first step is each department (police/fire/library/etc) in the municipality (city/village/town/etc) sets a budget based on the services they provide. For example, if the police department budget was $11 million last year, it might be $11.5 million this year to account for expenses (raises/increase cost of gas/etc)... Then the total for all those departments is added up to get to the entire municipal budget amount.
That full budget amount will be raised each year by taxing each property it's proportionate share of the total valuation of the community. Even assuming the assessments were changed to market value each year (often they are not), it won't matter if the communities average appreciation is +20% or -20% in a year... they will raise or lower the mill rate (tax percentage in dollars per thousand) each year to match what their budget needs are. So even if values fell by 50%; the mill rate would be raised by 100%, you'd pay the same total property tax amount and they'd collect the same full budget amount needed. Edit: Note this also works the other way; if somehow total assessment value doubled in a year... the mill rate would be cut in half to raise that same budgeted total.
The only times your property taxes are likely to go down are when the values for the rest of the community go up in relation to your home (Their new assessment is +20% but yours only goes up +10%), or when for some reason the municipality decides to lower the budget amount (don't hold your breath). Again, not because property values have fallen, but because say... they've just bought 5 new fire trucks over the last 5 years and won't be buying another new one this year. I suppose you could lower your assessed value in relation to your neighbors homes and have your property taxes go down by tearing down half your house, but no one seems to use that approach? :D
What else is new. :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by timvwcom
I just know that as long as it keeps going the way it's going and our property/school taxes keep taking a larger percentage of our income along with all the other costs of living rising the way they are our quality of life is really beginning to suffer.
are there any mag realtors in ogden? or does anyone know one you would recommend? i'm looking at houses in the area and its pretty rough going alone.
You've got a PM.Quote:
Originally Posted by kokomas
Yes indeed, investing in the future earning potential of the people who will be writing your social security checks is the root of all suffering! Yup. No doubt about it...Quote:
Originally Posted by gravitylover
I'm pretty disgusted with lots of things about schools these days - but I think you have the basic model backwards. The bigger reason "your" quality of life is about to suffer is because some dimwit regime slashed taxes while hiking expenses & relied on others - notably China - to extend credit. And encouraged similar individual consumer behavior - with, once again, predictable results. And facilitated that by goosing consumer spending with artificially free-flowing capital turning houses into ATMs. All of which made things worse.
One inevitable (well, very likely) result of this is that prices go up while wages stagnate and the global buying power of dollar denominated savings accounts shrivels. Oh yeah - not only that, but given the resulting situation in bond world, expect your municipality (etc) to need to snag a ton more money just to cover increased interest payments...
So why not try getting annoyed at the bogus "lees government, less taxes" crowd who can't do grade school arithmetic and then cry "mommy" every time the economic winds are not blowing their way...
Heh. That's a good one.Quote:
Originally Posted by spindrift
Don't worry too much about your SS. You'll be getting it, although maybe a little later than 62 or 65. I'd worry a whole lot more about Medicare. We're pretty much fucked on that one. So, stay in shape, eat better, save your money in the IRA or 401K.
Hillary in a speech today says the prez should form "an emergency working group on foreclosures" ... and should be led by ... experts such as Robert Rubin, ... and former Federal Reserve chairmen Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker.
Comments? I'll start with the obvious, some of these guys were in the drivers seat, at the Fed most recently, when the makings of this mess were in their infancy.
She's campaigning. She's pandering to the people who lost or will lose their houses. She'll say anything at this time to get nominated. Doesn't matter, by next January, and, well, probably April or May, when and if the new president can get their policy train rolling, we'll be one more year deeper into this mess.
We need to get through the spring buying season before anything is done. There's been activity in my neighbofhood on houses that haven't seen anyone in months. I see cars driving by all the time slowing down and realtors are bringing in clients.
If the fed can get the mortgage loan pipeline greased I think we'll be ok. Not great but some stability.
Yeah, its a stupid idea, here is why. The actual percentage of people getting kicked out of their houses because of foreclosure these days is quite small. The large majority of foreclosures are owned by speculators, or were involved in some sort of fraud/scheme. These people walked away and don't care if the property forecloses or not. They don't give a shit, because either the house was losing them money or they are in jail or in trouble with the law.
Here is the irony. With all of this happening banks are doing everything they can to prevent these foreclosures to keep them off of their books. That means that anyone who is truly going to lose their house can likely work out a deal with the bank to short sell their house and move into a place that they can actually afford.
Heres the rub. Foreclosures need to happen so that people can find a decent affordable place to live. It is the mechanism of how the market corrects itself. If the government interferes with this process it is just going to fuck things up and make things worse for everybody.
I hear this all the time now. There's only a itsy bitsy amount of homeowners in trouble, speculators, blah blah. We're forgetting that trillions of dollars have been extracted from home equities over the last decade, and those people, in other words, most homeowners, are pretty much in the same boat. If you borrowed on your home, THAT amount is what you paid for your house, not the original purchase price. All those Lexuss (Lexi?), Range Rovers, Viking ranges, Vail trips, Vegas debauchery, is coming due.
Actually it has effected the ski resort condo market drastically. Condo values have dropped by a 3rd here. Many are in foreclosure now because they were purchased with those funny rate loans.
So a 1 bedroom that sold for$250K last year is selling for about $175K right now here. But only the 1 bdr and studios are reselling. If you own a 2bdrm and above good luck selling it. Our occupancy rating for this ski season at Tremblant is at 38.7%. With all of this snow that is it. For Tremblant to break even occupancy needs to be at 57% for the ski season.
No shit.
You can blame the weak dollar for that one, too.
How so?Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
Weak dollar attracting home buyers from overseas
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../RER3VK3L9.DTL
Because Tremblant is in Canada and therefore has less USD coming in?Quote:
Originally Posted by 4matic
But then again as usual Benny is reactionary and has a distorted view of reality. I look at 3-5 foreclosures or pre-foreclosures a week and have yet to see a Viking range or Range Rover anywhere. Mostly what I see are rental properties that were bought by straw buyers, who paid over asking price and got cash back at closing and collected rents for a year without making a single payment and then let the bank evict the tenants who subsequently trashed the place.
Yes, that is happening around Boston too. Sometimes the buildings never even have tenants. Somebody buys the building, then almost immediately pays the straw buyers to buy either the building or each floor at a vastly inflated price...then everybody walks.Quote:
Originally Posted by mcsquared
Yep, that's the house two doors down from me. Folks living there were fob's.Quote:
Originally Posted by mcsquared
didn't speak a word of english and never paid their mortgage. When they first moved in their were some very shady characters around.
Yeah, well, I've been hearing that since I started the thread a few years ago. This is why this nice little slump will last for so long - some people won't even know what's going on until they put the for sale sign on the lawn or try to cash in the phantom profits that don't exist anymore for a new Viking and granite countertops. Good luck. Go stock market, go paper. I'll be shopping for your house in a year or two.Quote:
Originally Posted by mcsquared