[eyevancsu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1911 that is awesome and i am glad for your quality of life there....but for the ny and cali people let me say this before they turn green with envy....if you are able to buy in ny or cali that is a great investment over time that will far eclipse the savings you initially had by buying a cheaper house in a less expensive state...so it really is your decision...i know that my cali home will be worth millions when i retire 30 years from now..that is a pretty good return..probably not matched in houston

I agree, however not that many people stay in a house for 30 years, but the few years that you do live in a house in those states may still turn out to be a nice investment. Many people that live in states such as NY or CA do exactly what you do and at the end of that period they sell the house and use the, at times, hundreds of thousands of dollars to move to states like Tx and buy a bigger house than they could otherwise afford and live more confortably- not a shabby move at all (run-on sentence, i know).

-ivan

 

[Elec]

Yeah, you still have to live somewhere. Your house can be worth a million bucks but that helps you not one bit if you sell it and can't buy another for less than a mil. It's mainly an advantage if you plan to sell it and move someplace cheaper. If you can sell your Cali house for $1M and buy basically the same house in Texas for $250k (and don't mind moving there and don't plan on moving back etc etc), you've done pretty well.

The opposite is also true. I have a coworker here in the DC area who is trying to sell his house in rural Ohio. When it sells, he hasn't got a chance in hell of getting a comparable place here with the proceeds from the sale. Makes it tough to go from cheap place -> expensive place, even if your salary does increase.

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elec Yeah, you still have to live somewhere. Your house can be worth a million bucks but that helps you not one bit if you sell it and can't buy another for less than a mil. It's mainly an advantage if you plan to sell it and move someplace cheaper. If you can sell your Cali house for $1M and buy basically the same house in Texas for $250k (and don't mind moving there and don't plan on moving back etc etc), you've done pretty well. The opposite is also true. I have a coworker here in the DC area who is trying to sell his house in rural Ohio. When it sells, he hasn't got a chance in hell of getting a comparable place here with the proceeds from the sale. Makes it tough to go from cheap place -> expensive place, even if your salary does increase.

Yeah, and in California, there's the whole Prop 13 thing. Your taxes will skyrocket if you sell and buy another house in Cali.

-Ed