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!!!

US Housing Market Crashes! Home Ownership ENDS!!!

Seriously...how much more NEGATIVE real estate news can Buyers & Sellers take before our housing market basically IMPLODES!!!

That's all you hear right now - nothing but negative news on our 'bad' real estate market across the United States!!! Let's face it, how much more can the consumers stand before they just QUIT buying and selling - and say the hell with it? I know I'm sure getting fed up listening all this garbage...

As a full-time professional Denver real estate broker for the last 10 years, I have to admit there are some major problems going on in our industry that need to be addressed IMMEDIATELY!!!

Here are my top three suggestions to save our United States real estate market...

1. We must shrink the existing inventory of homes for sale - including all of the extra foreclosure homes! This is a huge dilemma because right now there are no more zero down loans and it's very difficult for first-time homebuyers to qualify to buy the extra inventory. Plus, on top of that, all investors need a minimum of 10% to purchase the other foreclosure homes as a nonowner occupied rentals or fix/flips, so there are LESS buyers to get rid of our oversupply...

2. The mortgage crisis must end immediately!!! If there are not loans for people that want to buy a home, then we will NEVER sell off our existing inventory of homes in most cities this summer, this fall this winter or in the next five years!!! The mortgage loan problem is the #1 obstacle for most Realtors helping to sell off excess inventory - including foreclosures. It's just so simple - it's just merely supply and demand, and right now there is still a good demand for homes ...but no supply of mortgage loans for a huge amount of borrowers. (It's estimated that 24%-28% of all potential homebuyers CANNOT qualify for a mortgage loan now!)

3. The theory of that "If it Bleeds - It Leads!" for news broadcasting, radio and newspaper stuff must STOP - when it comes to talking about real estate!!! I'm not a communist and I certainly don't believe in censored news, but the continued use of "Let's Scared to Death the American Homeowner" is NOT responsible journalism! As a matter of fact, even if you were buying a house that was depreciating $5,000 per year over the next 10 years, you'd still be paying the mortgage loan down and creating your largest retirement cash nest egg! Cars depreciate to nearly $0 value after 10-14 years...but if you maintain them - you still get to drive them! Homes have NEVER done that - NEVER!! Home ownership is like a "forced" savings account for most people - that you actually get to live in and enjoy...while you're saving! Duh!!!

So why does the news media continue to bash real estate and continue to scare the living crap out of most people?

The US housing market is never going to hit rock bottom and go to "zero" like some stocks do!
Since the evening news, radio broadcasts, and newspapers would not exist if it weren't for that advertising they sold, can't an intelligent person at the National Association of Realtors, the President of the United states or our "worthless" Congress explain to these media folks that owning housing is a POSITIVE ACCOMPLISHMENT for all people, of all colors, of all races, and of all political persuasions in the United States! According to the United States Census 82% of all wealth from retirees is sitting in their house! How can a 82% of weath creation be wrong? What am I missing here...why are they being so negative about real estate?

There's a lot of horrible things going wrong in the United States and in the world right now, but people still have to have housing! An INTELLIGENT PERSON certainly would realize that owning your own home outright - with NO mortgage payment (even if it was going down in value every year) is far better than paying out money to somebody else for a rent payment... even Einstein could figure this one out. Does feudal England, and the "class system" ring a bell? If you don't have a home that's paid off by the time you're ready to retire, then you are FORCED to keep paying money out up your Social Security and other savings - therefore creating the world's worst welfare state; that the United States will not be able to support!!!

Am I the only intelligent person out there that has this figured out?

Certainly our news media doesn't think the people are better off renting, after retiring - right? They certainly don't think retirees are going to start buying tents from REI and Wal-Mart and begin living in tent communities at new KOA Campgrounds 'suddenly' popping up all over the country - right? Owning your own house makes much more sense to me - or am I the only one who is NOT smoking crack? All the news media, Congress and the President need to do it to "inform" people that retiring without a home paid off - and paying rent out of your retirement is IMPOSSIBLE!!! Where is Ross Perot with his charts to show that you CAN'T retire comfortably (or at all) without owing your home outright? In the Soviet Union and Cuba, they built big high rise apartments for all the poor retirees - and poor peasants created by socialism...maybe the news media should show that and start promoting 'communal living' and socialism for retirees next!!! Or, maybe we should put retirees who don't own homes on icebergs and float them out to sea - to die - like the Eskimo's used to do...

Am I the only person left understanding that our present US housing mess needs IMMEDIATE help...???