MAI/ESM 72 Permanent Address

Hey, that's a feature!
You're suppose to borrow against that inflation-equity until you can't make the payment anymore.
What do you think is fueling our economy? It ain't manufacturing.
Greg

california better sink into the sea before the housing marjey collapses and people here are left with nothing. i rent for a reason.....

Greg et al
Fortunately we inherited from my parents. The $25g home bought in 1959 and pretty much unchanged is now $1mil. We have put maybe $200g into it and we do not intend to sell or move. That's what drives the realtors nuts. Our mortgage is affordable and the house is becoming a perfect fit.
New cabinets in the garage this week to replace the shelves that collapsed. I buy the cabinets when they come up on sale. Have two just finished and two ready to do. Any idea how much space 7000 books and magazines take up?
The big project is the attic. Opened it up and started storing things in there years ago with simple plank floors and a couple of work lights. Eventually it will have finished floors, insulated ceiling with plywood covering, vents, full lighting and shelves for 2000 unbuilt kits.
Step by step in between models.
Tom e wrote:

That sounds like my friend's folks up in Toronto (another area with insane housing prices). He bought his home in 1954 for $14,500 and paid it off in 1984. Ever since he got pestered by realtors guarenteeing that he could get over a million dollars from it. His answer was "and where would I move to?" His son (my buddy) lives there now with HIS family and has flatly said that when he cashes in, the house will go to HIS son. I think that this might become a way of doing business of the future. I'm told that it already is in Japan.

That's the way it has been for generations in much of Europe. My paternal grandmother's family was from Alsace Lorraine. When my uncle visited while passing through in WWII he was allowed a couple of hours to visit the family home. Found out that they were celebrating 500 years on the same property, 200 in the same house.
The first floor of the house was home to the Waffen SS. The second floor was the family weaving business, family on the third floor and the everchanging flow of Jews, Partisans and the occasional Allied airman. They were able to pull this off during the last months of the war. One of the SS officers warned them to get out two days before the Allied troops arrived. The family met him years later and consider him a friend of the family.
My son and Lynne's daughter will inherit the house when we are gone. One or the other, or both, will take over Justin's care.
Now, if only we can get rid of all of the JUNK! Other than models and the library, of course. :-)
Tom
The Old Man wrote:

"The Old Man" wrote
Someplace where you could buy a near mansion for $500,000.
Which is swell so long as your kids WANT to live there, and you die exactly at the point when they need a house. What happens when they get a job two states away at age 25 when you are 50? Should they be expected to rent or otherwise remain transient for the next 25 to 40 years until you croak or become senile, just so they can come back and live in the same house they grew up in? I think many kids would be happy to sell it and buy a house they chose where they chose.
KL

Well I would love to have inherited my dad's house because it's a very nice house in a decent neighborhood and is reasonably convenient for location. Had it been a crappy house, in a bad neighborhood or inconveniently located then it could get sold for all I care.

The man said he wanted to leave it to his son. It's like a $1M inheritance. There was no mention that the son was required to live in it or what the son was allowed to do with it. The son could sell it, he could rent it out, he could live in it. I suppose you wouldn't want your parents to leave a fully paid up house for you, no matter where it was?

He was in his mid-seventies then and retired. His sons were grown and moving for his wife and him wasn't an option that they wanted. And there ~are~ no $500,000 mansions in the Toronto area, real estate is way overpriced.
His youngest son works in the Toronto area (actually all the sons do) and has a good paying job. Toronto has an excellant job market, from what I'm told. But as I said, real estate is through the roof so a lot of folks live where its cheaper and commute as much as 75 miles (one way) a day. With today's gas prices, that's a pretty hefty gas bill. So if anyone has the chance to cut that commute, they jump at it. And Walt (my buddy) knows the area, it has good schools, health care and shopping, and as I said, isn't a bad commute for him, so he's happy.