Text 14217, 89 rader
Skriven 2008-04-18 08:39:28 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
  Kommentar till text 14190 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
Ärende: Property prices
=======================
16 Apr 08 18:26, Bob Ackley wrote to Roy Witt:

 BA> 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
 RW>> have chosen to travel the country, paying particular attention to
 RW>> season. South in the winter, perhaps east and west or north in the
 RW>> summer. We call them 'Snow-birds' here in Texas.

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

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

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

I was thinking that they'd abandon that property, rather than try to sell
it. When property values go down like they have in California this last
year, 'walk away' is seen a lot there. Sometimes it's not practical to
continue to throw good money after bad.

 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
 BA>>> 'unimproved property' because there are no permanent structures -
 BA>>> and the 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.

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

Then they can get away with providing the amenities I mentioned without a
tax increase.

 BA> <snip>

 BA>>> Wish I could say that.  Fortunately my mortgage payment (and
 BA>>> property 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
 BA>>> the interest on her place so she's losing ground every month.

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

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

Yeah, but I'll bet that she's taking the climate in those small towns into
consideration. The reason Nancy and I chose Texas was because I grew up in
one of those midwestern towns and she grew up in Albuquerque...Cold and
heat contrast there like night and day!

 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
 BA>>> the place (said cost had just about doubled between the winter of
 BA>>> 2006-7 and 2007-8 and apparently will rise another 50% by December
 BA>>> of this year).  I can't afford to spend $250/week for heat in cold
 BA>>> weather.

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

 BA> I wish.

Or move to a warmer climate.

                R\%/itt



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