A Home Buyers Worst Nightmare - (Your Car!)

Why in the world do homebuyers in the Denver, Highlands Ranch and Littleton real estate market actually worry about if the house they "might buy" is going to go up in value or down in value over the next two years?

After all, no one really seems to care that when you drive off the auto dealers parking lot the car you just bought over the next five years will depreciate down to about $8,000-$10,000 in value!

And, worse yet - you probably don't even have a 401(k), but if you did - you probably lost 25% of the value over the last two years!

So why is everyone crying about trying to get the world's best deal on a house if you are renting right now?

If you're a renter right now, you'll most likely spend four to five hours over the next month trying to get the world's best mortgage loan if you do decide to buy Littleton homes for sale or a home somewhere else in the Denver real estate market. You might even get an extra 1/8 or .25 point lower by shopping different lenders - and playing one lender off the other to get the world's best mortgage deal and lowest closing costs (if you have good or excellent credit.) But at the same time, your cars are depreciating at 15% a year, and you're NOT saving a minimum of 10% of your paycheck every month in a 401k! Am I missing something here? A $30,000 car loan at 7% financed over 5 years, cost you $595 every month, which means you're paying $7,140 a year for that car to lose $4,000 every year in depreciated value! Yes - you're LOSING $11,140!!! What part of "LOSING" don't you understand...?

At what point in time in your life does your car AND your car payment mean more to you than owning a house after 30 years. Instead of waiting until you are 50 years old to start saving your first dime for retirement - why not start now by buying a house instead? The US Government will write you a check for 28-33% of all your home mortgage interest & property taxes if you'll just buy a house instead of renting - which means your $1500 principle & interest payment at 6% on a $250,000 house ACTUALLY ONLY costs you $1005 - since the IRS will let you change your W4's at work and give yourself this $495 tax break every month!

Does your auto loan send you any money every month?

If you stay in this house for 30 years - you'll own a $250,000 free and clear - if it doesn't appreciate one damn dime!

How else are you going to save $250,000 - with your 401k you're going to open (finally) in 10 years?

If you lived in your house for 5 years - and it DID NOT appreciate 1 penny - you'd only owe $232,300 on the loan, after paying down the principle $17,000. But, you would have received $495 in monthly tax write-off benefits too...or $495 x 60 months = $29,700. So in reality, using REAL numbers, you'd make $29,700 + $17,700 ($250,000 - $232,300) = $47,400 as a "real estate investor" - instead of renting!!!

Is home buying such a bad thing to do now?

The only real nightmare is your dumb car payment!!!