If anyone can save on their taxes then they should do so, but no matter what people still have to pay their interest and property tax. I thought buying a condo , townhome or any shared wall , ceiling and floor building unit that the buyer could not possibly own anything but the inside walls , and the corporation or group of investors that own the building have complete control of everything and anything a person does while living there, like telling the tenants when and if they can wash their car, drying clothes on a line and also how you paint your unit and where to park vehicles. To me it would be like living in a Fishbowl. It's true that even if you don't own the detached house , it is an appreciating asset sometimes , lately the market is flat but not as bad as the rest of the Bay Area. Maybe I was a bit radical but I think a lot of people don't really understand the process. They think that when they get approved for a loan, all the money they pay goes to equity, and when they get divorced or decide to sell , they get to keep all the money , they don't think about the fact that they don't own the property and have to pay back the the bank for it, and any appreciation is profit , to be split with the divorced spouse after taxes and fees. It used to be that the banks were very strict about who qualifys for a loan , and then they started approving all kinds of exotic financing schemes like interest only , no money down , zero interest and a whole lot of people are in big trouble now because of shoddy lenders and being mis-informed. I have not seen it myself , but my neighbor ( who is as straight as an arrow) told me that in the preamble of the California State Realtors handbook states " All land in California is owned by the State , and only if one pays taxes , then they can develop the property , ie: construct buildings and landscaping. I have read this from other sources as well. And they said just try and not pay the State the rent , and see how fast you will be evicted and loose all the interest you have payed so far for back taxes.
Not entirely true Paul. When you own a condo you have the right to occupy the unit, plus an undivided interest in the outside walls and land. The State of California does not own the land. The land is normally owned by the condo association.
Regarding home ownership; granted it is very expensive to buy here in Marin. However, it is, over long periods of time, an appreciating asset. In addition, the interest and taxes you pay are, subject to some limitations, deductible against your Federal and state income taxes.
You also say that 98% of the people who live here own nothing and that their houses are really owned by the banks. My guess is that most people who have owned homes (or condos) in Marin for more than 5 or 10 years have substantial equity in their properties, unless they have fallen into the practice of treating this asset like a piggybank by refinancing to take money out and then spending it on fancy cars, vacations and other toys.
What we call home ownership is really a joke now. Condo ownership is really a mis-nomer. Since when you get locked in to a condo all you will ever own is the inside walls , you will never own the building or any grounds , the State owns all land in California. To buy a home today in Marin one must earn at least $210.000.00 per year for many years. Once a person gets approved for the loan , they will have to pay around $7000 a month to the lender , and out of that only a very small amount is applied to the principal , if any for the first 10 years. And then there is rent to the State/County (taxes) for the land , 1 to 1.5%. All of that money in interest and and taxes is non refundable , it is the rent that must be payed to live in such a beautiful place. So unless you make those payments for 40 years ,or "have money" and pay it off in full , 98% of the people who live here now own nothing , but the banks own them !
Hey Paul. Just kidding about the house being a shack. I did see an open house last weekend that was a shack on Humbolt Street in the Sun Valley area of San Rafael. 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, about 50 years old, kitchen and bathroom had not been upgraded in a long time, about 1700 sq feet, tiny lot, etc. The price? $790,000. My daughter lives in a nicer house in a suburb of Dallas that she and her huisband paid $140,000 for a few years ago. Of course, it ain't Marin !!! And no, I am not the Howard Foster from Redwood Class of 64. I am the Howard Foster from Lawrence High School ( Long Island, NY) Class of 62.
I never knew that house was a church! That's something.
Did your mom sell the house before or after the earthquake?
The early 90's were the pits for selling houses. We sold our condo, after having it on the market for over 8 months. We were so happy to finally get a buyer, we groveled and did anything to the place that she wanted. We looked at a house on Staghound in Corte Madera, that was going for 278,000, but our condo hadn't sold yet. It sold a year or so ago in the 900, 000's. Unfreakin' believable. The house we currently live in, tract house in east Corte Madera, was bought by it's original owners for 8 or 9 thousand dollars.
Here's what it looked like a bit after it was built (as a church) in 1906. (Your birth date doesn't sync, so you couldn't be the Howard Foster of Redwood class of '64, could you?)
I purchased my first house in Mill Valley on Greenhill Rd.(off Loring) for $72,000 in 1976. I wanted to be in Sausalito, but my real estate agent told me I couldn't find anything there for less than $80,000. When my friends in New York heard how much I paid they thought it must have been a mansion, but the truth is that it was a funky 3 bedroom dump on a small lot. I sold it in 1979 for $132,000 thinking I had made a killing, only to see it resold a few years later for $199,00.0 I can only imaging what it is worth now.
