• Scientist

  • Beer Drinker

  • Advocate for distributed / user-supported communities and media

I wish that I was skinnier but I love beverages.

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  • 18 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 10th, 2023

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  • I’m sorry to be pedantic but this is a pet peeve of mine. If you bought a house you would not have any mortgage payment. You (and everyone else usually) are talking about financing a house.

    Maybe I’m the crazy one but when I buy something I like to look at the total amount that I’m paying for it.
    If I wanted a house listed for $300,000 5-years ago and I wanted to finance it, the rate might have been 3% so the total amount I would be paying would be $455,332.36 over 30yrs. Therefore I would only finance if I thought ~$450,000 was a fair price. If I thought the house was only worth $300,000 then I would need to pay in cash.

    Today rates are at 7% so a house listed at $300,000 actually costs $718,526.69 when financed. Do I think the houses I see listed for $300,000 are worth over $700,000? No. Do I have more than $300,000 needed to afford to pay in cash? Also no. Therefore, I’m not buying.
    *These calculations are ignoring the down payment but the principle is still valid.




  • I’m not saying mortgages should completely go away. I’m sure a mortgage is the right decision for many people’s situations. It’s just the way that people talk about buying a house, a mortgage seems to be assumed. If it wasn’t just assumed then maybe people would put more thought into whether they want to save for a larger down payment (or the full price) or whether they want to pay $750,000 for a $400,000 house.
    I don’t know, maybe people see these numbers and think its a great deal. All I see is a bank making a huge amount of money from me that I would rather keep for myself. Also, if people stopped stretching their budget to the absolute limit with financing nonsense (3% down, variable rate loans, rate buydowns), in aggregate there would be less demand for houses at these high prices and sellers would have to start accepting lower offers.



  • That’s a good point. But the US is not offering this same path to citizenship to anyone willing to buy a house in rural Alabama. I assumed these visa programs were aimed at attracting wealthy foreigners which is why the US has something similar for anyone willing to invest $800K in a commercial enterprise. That’s why I was curious if $263K is considered relatively wealthy in Greece and could buy a house even in desirable areas. The fact that apparently this is not the case makes the goals of this program unclear.











  • Yes a mortgage is an investment (which can make a profit or loss just like other investments) but it is also an obligation. With a mortgage losing your job could potentially leave you homeless. That is not what I consider “financially free”. If you have a lot of cash up front you could potentially put it into higher yielding investments and make a profit on the difference between yield and mortgage rate at the end of 30 years but that takes some amount of luck and skill with investing. Especially now that mortgage rate are 7%. If you don’t have all the cash up front then taking out a 30yr 7% loan for 300k will mean you’re paying over 700k for the house with interest included.



  • As someone who lives in Florida I’ve got to ask, how? When thinking about finances and investments I often feel like I’m in my own bubble and I don’t understand other peoples’ situations, motivations, etc. So I’m genuinely curious. 4-bedroom houses near Orlando can be found in the mid 300s. With your income you should be able to pay in cash after saving for just one or two years (depending on how much savings you’re starting out with). Even if you wanted something more expensive, are mortgages that difficult to get approved even for someone with such a high income?