🚀 go-pugleaf

If you bought a place in 98 for $144K and could sell it now for $176K, I 
would say that's a nice profit even after commission (5% of $176K = $9K), 
lawyer fees (maybe $1500 for buy/sell), LTT (guessing $1500), possible 
interest penalty on mortgage (maybe $2000).  You are still up $32K - $14K = 
$18K.  And if you were living there as your primary residence, that's tax 
free money (basically like making an extra $6-7K/yr for the past 4 years).

But obviously some places have gone up much more than that: We have friends 
that bought a townhome near Algonquin College last summer (about 16 months 
ago) for $100K and now those units are selling for $130K.  Another friend 
bought in Chapel Hill a little less than 2 years ago for $170K, now the 
place is probably worth $215K.  And another who bought in HuntClub in 
January for a bit over $100K and now he's selling (tranferred out of 
Ottawa) for $125K.   Similarly other areas have gone up much less; our 
place has probably gone from $180K in 1998 to $195K now (not much of an 
increase for 4 years) and our townhome (which we rented because we would 
have lost too much money if we had sold it when we bought our home) has 
gone from $120K in 98 to $140K now.

The point I had been trying to make was just that in general, if you are 
going to stay for less than 5 years, it probably makes more sense to rent.  
However if you did buy and were fortunate enough to get in an area that did 
go up, you can make a healthy profit.

Average increases have to be taken with a grain of salt since they are just 
'averages'.  If the economy is going well and several expensive homes are 
being bought/sold, obviously that's going to skew the average price up 
(even if prices haven't actually gone up) and if the economy is going 
poorly and most of the homes that are sold are condos, townhomes and 
smaller homes, that's going to skew the average price down (even if again 
the prices haven't actually changed).

Just my 2cents,
Mike


cx172@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Elat Lerner) wrote in
<9ssje3$io8$1@freenet9.carleton.ca>: 

>Mike (anon@xnews.com) writes:
>> If you are only going to need the house for a short period of time 
>> (probably 4 years or less) it makes more sense to rent than to buy
>> (except maybe in housing markets like Ottawa has been in the past few
>> years where property values have skirocketed in short periods of
>> time). 
>
>Why do you say property values in Ottawa ski-rocketed in a short period
>of time. According to the Ottawa Real Estate Board these are the
>average price increases:
>
>1995        $143,193    -2.9%
>1996        $140,513    -1.9%
>1997        $143,873      2.4%
>1998        $143,953      0.1%
>1999        $149,650      4.0%
>2000        $159,511      6.6%
>2001(oct)  $175,349      9.9%
>
>> If you buy/sell you have to pay real estate agent commission, land
>> transfer tax, lawyer fees x 2, etc.  Not to mention that most of your
>> mortgage payment is interest and not principle.
>> 
>> There can also sometimes be income tax advantages to renting as
>> opposed to buying;  if you buy and then sell a home and it isn't your
>> primary residence (i.e. you have another house somewhere else that
>> is), you have to pay capital gains on the profit from the sale.
>> 
>> Mike
>> 
>> 
>> dlevangie@home.com (DL) wrote in <3be51b9b.1212782352@news>:
>> 
>>>If someone ever gets to the point where they are paying 4000 in rent
>>>then it is crazy to dump that kind of money into nothing...why not
>>>build some equity somewhere....that is all I meant....
>>>
>>>On Sat, 27 Oct 2001 14:25:31 GMT, anon@xnews.com (Mike) wrote:
>>>
>>>>Actually it might be reasonable considering the size/value of the
>>>>home. 
>>>> A $80K apartment probably rents for $1000/month; why wouldn't a
>>>> $320K 
>>>>home (worth 4x more) rent for $4000/month (4x more). 
>>>>
>>>>That being said, I don't know the vendor or the home so have no idea
>>>>if the house is worth that much if it is, it's probably in the right
>>>>range.  How much would you expect to pay for a large deluxe home?
>>>>
>>>>Just my 2cents
>>>>Mike
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>dlevangie@home.com (DL) wrote in <3bdaa26d.526295793@news>:
>>>>
>>>>>I'd like to rent the one for $3900.00 a month please....NOT...
>>>>>
>>>>>Sorry but that is nuts....
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>On Sat, 13 Oct 2001 09:44:50 -0700, "ne1943@hotmail.com"
>>>>><ne1943@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>> ... (msg deleted)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>> 
>
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