Text 14190, 68 rader
Skriven 2008-04-16 18:26:28 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
  Kommentar till text 14161 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
Ärende: Property prices
=======================
Replying to a message of Roy Witt to Bob Ackley:

 BA>> A lot of people in this country live in 'recreational vehicles'
 BA>> (motor homes and travel trailers, I think Europeans call them
 BA>> 'caravans') and rent the space to park them.

 RW> Those are the retired folks who tire of paying property taxes and have
 RW> chosen to travel the country, paying particular attention to season.
 RW> South in the winter, perhaps east and west or north in the summer. We
 RW> call them 'Snow-birds' here in Texas.

 BA>> Communities hate these arrangements because (1) the people can unhook
 BA>> and move someplace else if the community government does something
 BA>> they don't like and

 RW> Well, duh...there's nothing stopping anyone from doing that if they
 RW> own property either.

Yeah, there is.  The property.  They have to (try to) sell it for at least
whatever
they still owe on it.

 BA>> (2) recreational vehicles are not subject to local property taxes
 BA>> (but they are subject to state vehicle registration fees), plus the
 BA>> parks for recreational vehicles are generally considered 'unimproved
 BA>> property' because there are no permanent structures - and the
 BA>> property tax is lower on unimproved property.

 RW> If they provide RV hookups, such as water, electricity and sewer
 RW> services, that's called 'improved' and the property taxes are
 RW> commenserate with it.

Most places require a structure of some sort to be 'improved' for tax purposes.

<snip>

 BA>> Wish I could say that.  Fortunately my mortgage payment (and property
 BA>> taxes and insurance) is all covered by my monthly military
 BA>> retirement check. Since I don't 'do' adjustable-rate mortgages I
 BA>> have a fixed rate and therefore a fixed monthly payment.  Presently
 BA>> I pay just about $850/month, and just over $200 of that pays down
 BA>> the mortgage balance; my sister is paying three times that for her
 BA>> one bedroom condominium out in California and that doesn't cover the
 BA>> interest on her place so she's losing ground every month.

 RW> She should get out while the getting is good.

I told her that three years ago when she lost her job.  At the time she had
about
$100K equity in her condo and could have sold it fairly quickly.  One can buy a
nice house in small Midwest towns for $50K, and since she can do just about
anything with any of the various PC Office suite packages she should be
employable -
and in most small towns she could walk to work.

 BA>> I do have to make some significant improvements to the house in the
 BA>> VERY near future - like this summer - to cut the cost of heating the
 BA>> place (said cost had just about doubled between the winter of 2006-7
 BA>> and 2007-8 and apparently will rise another 50% by December of this
 BA>> year).  I can't afford to spend $250/week for heat in cold weather.

 RW> Maybe it's time to build that underground house you were talking about
 RW> a while back.

I wish.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)