"Val" (RCG commenter) rips us a new one?
Comment #22 on Ardell's recent post: #1 Consumer Real Estate Blog
I also love the "shout down and decry" comment, because it's so far from the truth. For a recent example, many of you may recall A Conversation with Steve Tytler, which seemed to me to be just the kind of level-headed discussion between intellectually honest individuals that Val has demonstrated s/he is incapable of participating in.
Comments like that crack me up. It's like "Val" is living in some kind of warped version of reality, where knocking my age and fondness for Lego is equivalent to making a rational argument against the points being made on this blog.Val wrote:Seattle Bubble works on the same dynamic as most right-wing political sites. There is a devoted team of followers who will shout down and decry anyone who offers an alternative opinion so that apparently they can get back to rehashing the exact same commentary day after day after day. Then when someone calls Tim out he plays naive and acts as if he doesn't have an opinion and is performing some kind of public good with his site. His opinion is about as valid as the opinion of any 20-something year old that enjoys free rent and plays with Legos.
I also love the "shout down and decry" comment, because it's so far from the truth. For a recent example, many of you may recall A Conversation with Steve Tytler, which seemed to me to be just the kind of level-headed discussion between intellectually honest individuals that Val has demonstrated s/he is incapable of participating in.
Comments
Oh, wait...what? You mean to tell me they do what now? They decry opinions that differ from their own? But surely nobody on that board would every villainize another blogger!
Oh! Never mind.
OK, somebody else step up here and post an alternative opinion (bonus points if you include mention of Pink Ponies) so we can all go about rehashing yesterday's commentary again as we shout you down and decry the audacity of your differing opinion.
Tim, after reading Val's comments, I have become concerned as well, and maybe you should consider adding a disclaimer to your site such as the following such that nobody else may be led astray:
I am (The) Tim. This is my site where I express my opinion, although I don't always have one and when I do, it may not be valid. If any public good comes about from the information disseminated at this site, it is purely unintentional and I cannot be held responsible for it. I also like to live rent-free and play with Legos.
Signed,
Redmondjp
Proud member of the DToF, 13th Auxiliary
As one of the right wing, devoted team of followers always ready to shout down dissenting opinion - I say way too funny redmondjp
..
You see...some of us can't go over to RCG and challenge them, because we get banned.
If we are Rush Limbaugh, who are they? Air America?
Q: What is the definition of "devoted team of followers?"
A: Anyone winning an argument with a member of the REIC.
Congratulations to all the right-wingers on the blog!
What about the untouchables among us who rent?
Maybe the picture wasn't clear enough...you're the guy in the paper bag...on the left side of the picture.
The last thing I would call this blog is "conservative or right wing"
The thing I like about this blog is that the contributors put a lot of time and research into their posts not like some other bloggers who feel they just have to get something posted. KUDOS for that.
I take the information I read on this site and try to understand what people are thinking and how in the hell they got themselves into the position they did. I feel real estate is long term if it is only a short term solution that is called speculating.
This is my take on what I have gotten from the contributors of this blog. Many have never owned a home and don't have the equity from a sale to use as a down payment. I also feel that the contributors are priced out of the Seattle market except maybe condo's (this is what im reading may not be true).
First, I think many of the contributors have more equity than you'd think. I for one could live my current lifestyle for nearly 2 years, just from the equity I have built up by not buying a house during the last 3 years.
Second, anyone who lives in King County and doesn't already have a SFH is either priced out of SFHs or has a household income in excess of $150,000 a year.
Let's say you make $100,000 a year and have $50,000 in equity (from your condo). That's enough to get $350,000 in house using traditional calculations. Guess what! That's another condo.
But only because I was "lucky" enough to have purchased 10 years ago--even then, the house was 4x my annual income and it was a bit of a stretch. And prior to that I had lived with my parents for several years after college and rat-holed a lot of $$$ away, just so I could put 20% down on a house someday (no PMI for me).
At what I am currently making, even combined with what my wife makes, we can't afford to buy anything within a 30-mile radius of Seattle (well, we probably could afford a condo-partment, but there is no way I will pay $250K to "own" a beat-up former apartment). RCC is right about the salaries it takes to buy here (way above median incomes).
Since my PITI is well under what it would take to rent an equivalent house, it makes sense to stick it out and stay where I am at. But again, I really do consider myself lucky, although the ability to initially purchase did come about because I saved like a madman for several years.
"Saving"
Huh. Tell me more about this saving and delayed gratification you speak of.
Some of that was bound to rub off on me. Unfortunately (as you can witness by looking inside my house, garage, shed, yard, and storage unit), I tend to save a lot of other crap too, and I'm working on de-collecting now, so as to find the top surface of the sub-floor so I can actually install some real flooring inside the three bedrooms (formerly known as the House of Vacuums, Car Parts Warehouse, and Thrift Store Treasures) and front room of my house. This will make my wife extremely happy, which is no small thing.
Oh, and the most I've ever spent on a car was $7K, and that was 14 years ago, and I still have that car and drive it every day. It's not like I'm sitting on a pile of dough, however--maintaining an old house is expensive, with the major expenditure this year being a new furnace in the next couple of months, along with the flooring. The private sewer pump monster can always rear its ugly head at any moment, sucking a couple of grand from our HOA as well . . .
After owning a home for almost 10 years, I can see both sides of the ownership coin--it's definitely not for everybody. But right now, with prices so out of whack in relation to incomes, I just can't see it being a good time to buy. And I seriously doubt whether any of the purchasers of the $1M houses down the street from me put 20% down!
If you sold your house and invested the equity at 5%, what would the difference between rent-income and PITI?
Probably not enough of a difference for the hassle of moving, but I'm curious.
If I used the interest income from my equity to offset the rent (assuming 300K at 5%), I would be paying about $500/mo less than my current PITI by renting. Hmmm . . . very interesting! I've never looked at it this way.
But you're right. Right now is not a good time for us to move and it would be a huge pain (it's a good way to get rid of stuff however).