Carnival of Debt Reduction #125
By Ryan Healy | February 4, 2008
Broke Grad Student hosted the 125th Carnival of Debt Reduction today, calling it the Superbowl XLII edition. My post about commitment was included. Other posts I enjoyed…
- I have zero debt. Am I weird? over at Squawkfox. This Canadian woman has zero debt, six-figure savings, and still has nice things. How did she do it? Read the post to find out.
- Don’t use your house to pay for your life at Rocket Finance. “Rocketc” relates the story of how he bought a home and then refinanced the mortgage four times in six years. Oh, and he got two HELOC’s during that time too. It’s a cautionary tale with a good list of lessons at the end of it. Definitely worth reading before buying a house and before refinancing a mortgage.
This second post struck a chord with me for a few reasons.
1. When my wife and I bought our first condo, we took out a second mortgage to fund a vending business, which ultimately failed. We lost $30,000 after we discovered how quickly vending machines depreciate in value. Fortunately, we were able to sell the condo for a price that covered both mortgages. We “only” had to bring $1,500 to the closing table to get out. (It could have been much worse.)
2. In the Denver area, I’ve seen all kinds of shenanigans in the housing market. I remember when my wife and I were still looking for a home. One neighborhood was particularly attractive to us because the homes were new and the location was good. I remember the sales person pressuring us to buy saying, “If you don’t sign the contract now, the prices will be going up by $15,000 in two weeks or less. Lately, they’ve been going up $10,000 to $15,000 every three weeks. If you wait, you may have to pay a lot more.”
Of course, the price increases were completely absurd, built on nothing but mass hysteria. I resented the high-pressure sales tactics and we left. We never bought a home there.
Anyway, definitely read Rocketc’s post if you’re in the home buying market.
Enjoy! And look for more posts about debt reduction soon.
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Topics: Carnivals | 2 Comments »
2 Responses to “Carnival of Debt Reduction #125”
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February 5th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Thank you for the link Ryan! I too really enjoyed the second article. Due to the housing market craziness in the last 5 or so years I made the decision to continue renting. In the city where I live, housing prices just went bonkers and I couldn’t rationalize paying more mortgage interest per month than rent. I’ve run the “Rent Vs. Own” numbers HUNDREDS of times and still get ahead by renting as long as I save my money and don’t consume it.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:18 am
You’re welcome, Squawkfox.
We’re currently renting, too. We got a bigger house for less money than we were paying on our mortgage.
For a long time, when interest rates were low, it made more sense to buy. But there’s been a lot of downward pressure on rental rates in the last couple of years, which makes it better to rent in my area.