Sub Prime Mortgages and South Florida Real Estate Economy.
Date: Saturday August 25, 2007Posted in: Credit Loans, Real Estate, Taxes, finance, insurance, legal stuff
As the owner of 2 properties that have temporarily frozen in value, I too have decided to get rid of my teaser mortgages and so I have refinanced them and now I pay at least the full interest payments on my loans. I noticed that even with all of the recent crackdowns in the mortgage industry, Life still goes on. And we are not having a Real Estate bubble!
Homes are still being sold for more than the owners paid.
The profits are not as exagerated as they were 3 years ago, but I have the confidence that the market will continue to move up slowly perhaps at a 5% per year rate
But that could still make you 20 to 25 percent in less than 5 years time.
Now what is happening is that all of those Mickey Mouse Mortgage companies and brokers are going down. They used to approve anybody, using dirty tricks, fake pay stubs etc. Now I am glad that the Banks are cracking down on all of this Fraud. And the truth is that we all should make money honestly and this world would be a much happier place.
Florida Property Tax, is bad for retirement
Date: Monday March 12, 2007Posted in: Real Estate, Taxes, insurance
I was thinking about this, over the weekend. When I retire, even if my house is paid off in full, I will still have to pay almost $1000 a month in property taxes. If Social Security only pays the same amount of about $1000 each month, then we are in big trouble. Oh, and if there is no social security left when I retire, that will also be a big problem.
So as we know, Florida’s population growth is based on almost 50 percent of people who retire from other states and then move to Florida, for our beautiful climate, that we all take for granted. If these people find out, how high the property taxes are, they may go to some other states.
Florida cannot afford to let this happen. This will ruin out whole economy. Real Estate prices will stop rising and more people will leave the State. So, now you know one more reason to vote for a Sales tax increase or any other legislation to get rid of our High property taxes and insurance rates.
Florida Sales Tax Increase
Date: Wednesday February 21, 2007Posted in: Real Estate, Taxes, insurance
This could be the best thing for Florida homeowners and investors.
Before we can complain about the effects of an increase, people need to do some simple math. First let’s assume that the average person only uses less than 50 percent of their income for use on items that include sales tax. You do not pay sales tax on your rent or mortgage payments. So let assume that you make about 60,000 per year. Well then you only can spend 30,000 per year on items that may include Sales tax. So using the current Miami Dade sales tax rate, currently at 7 percent; you may or may not be spending, $2000 a year on sales taxes.
A Florida Sales tax increase, may be too good to be true!
We pay much more for homeowner insurance. The rate is about 2 percent of your homes purchace price. So if you purchaced a home in the last 5 years, you probably have to pay at least $6000 per year assuming that you live in an average $300,000 home. So what would you prefer? With a 3 percent proposed sales tax increase you would only have to pay an extra $800 per year, compared with $6000 annual for property tax. If this is the case, then it would almost be too good to be true.
Also more company’s would move to Florida and that would mean more legal jobs and higher wages, So we would be living more like the do in New York, but with a tropical climate.
So who is complaining? Only some poor people, who might not even be legal US citizens, they are the ones who are complaining. But if you think about it, this law will be the only way to make illegal people pay their taxes. What is wrong with that? And if they have to pay more taxes and there will also be a little less demand for illegal workers, since most legal company’s will prosper, by not having to pay high property taxes.
So maybe these poor and illegal people will have to be the ones that move to other states, instead of us hard working, property and legal business owners.
Real Estate Sales are taking too long.
As I have previously mentioned, one of the best ways that we can help reduce the high cost of owning a home in Florida, and also the ability for people to buy a home, is by reducing taxes and insurance costs. Florida is a hot market. Each day more and more people are considering making a move to South Florida, but as they will soon find out. It will cost them more money for property taxes and insurance, then they have ever had to pay before. If they are coming from New York, they will find that property insurance and taxes are much higher in Florida so they may choose to go someplace else. Why do you think there are so many new advertisements for cheap land and property in Georgia, Texas and even Arizona? These advertisers know that Florida is getting too expensive. But did you know that people in New York pay much higher Sales Taxes. They also have higher wages in New York, but we have a better climate.
