1 post tagged “home ownership”

"Every large developer I know is working on a project that was expected to be condo -- and that they are now taking back to apartments," said Mark Coletta, regional partner of Fairfield Residential LLC, which is building about a dozen projects in the Washington area. "That's what everyone is doing." - TWP

It looks like the DC condo market is finally grinding to a halt. Unfortunately, that means rents are also going up because people would prefer to throw a couple of thousand dollars away on rent each month than risk throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars away on inflated home prices. That two-year lease we signed with no rent increase isn't looking so bad right about now.

But seriously folks, $400,000 for a one-bedroom condo? No thanks. How do people our age afford to buy homes? Does everyone use interest only loans to stretch their income so they can afford to buy? These loans are predicated on the assumption that real estate values will continue to rise, so it doesn't matter if you don't contribute a dime towards the principal on your $400,000 mortgage, hell, you can just turn around and sell that same property for a million bucks in five years (20 percent increases each year over a period of five years - what we've seen since 2001) and pocket the spoils or reinvest in a bigger and better house.

Too bad that's about to change.