Quote from Smart Money:
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Quote from Dumb Money:
They'll all rent. And rents will go up.
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But there will be all these vacant houses, which will eventually revert to rentals, so that's not supportive of the rental market either. Too much capacity in the overall housing market means rents can only go one way -- down.
Real mature on changing my name. Can't you carry an argument without resorting to that? Next will you tell me I'm rubber and you're glue? With the exception of a few markets that are significantly overbuilt, there will be one family or person displaced for every vacant house. They gotta live somewhere. And for the homes to be rented out, they have to be purchased first.
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When rates went down, rents when down because the demand for rental property was low.
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Hmmm. I thought an abundance of new properties in the market caused that to happen.
Depends on whether you mean "and abundance of new rental properties (available) in the rental marketplace" or "an abundance of new properties (in general) available in the real estate market". Rental rates tend to be more driven by supply and demand for rental property, not the overall market. If supply for rental properties is tight, and a whole bunch of McMansions are constructed and relatively cheap (for a McMansion), it wouldn't effect the rental market much because that isn't a viable alternative for the rental market participants.. Fact is, that demand (for rentals) went down because buying (owner occupied) was a good substitute and that lowered the demand for rentals. There was also more new Landlords being created all the time because of the real estate craze.
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So if rates go up, rents go up.
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Sure, in the long run, as eventually excess housing supply dries up as existing stock disintegrates and population perhaps grows. But this is a gradual process, and won't happen overnight, especially since theres millions of vacant homes and its still quite economic to continue construction on more at current prices.
So you agree that when rates go up, rents go up? Then the question becomes, will rates go down or up from here? I think they'll move up.
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Seems like if you really believe that mortgages are going to go to 10% or 15%, the smart move would be to buy a house for yourself now. Even if you believe that housing prices will come
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No, that would be dumb. Why? Because at 10-15% mortgage rates, the valuation of existing houses would drop like a rock, and you could pick something up for almost nothing. Any good investor knows that its best to buy interest-rate sensitive assets when interest rates are high, in anticipation of future lower rates, rather than buy interest-rate sensitive assets when rates are low, in anticipation of future higher interest rates.
Yes. But these aren't bonds. View it from the perspective of monthly payments. When rates went down, the valuations did move up, but not enough to compensate for the rates. Even though home prices were way up, they were still....on a monthly payment basis...less expensive for the average Joe. This is why so many people demanded new housing, even at higher prices. Agreed? Then (at least to me), this implies that if rates go up, prices of homes will drop (as you say), however from a monthly payment perspective, the price drop won't be enough to offset the higher monthly payment. That means in hindsight, folks will be glad if they buy now, which is my argument. I especially believe this in light of the inherent stickiness of real estate. People don't like to sell at a loss, and if they sell, they have to live somewhere. This keeps demand up, and supply low even in uncertain times.
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down further, if you don't buy, you're subjecting yourself to ever rising rents in that scenario. Its not all about what the house costs...its also about what your monthly payment is.
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Exotic loans are what created much of this mess; what really matters is the return on investment that is being provided by a house purchase, and that has little to do with what the monthly payment is. People need to focus on the basics of investing, and that is, don't 'invest' into something that doesn't provide a return of less than your cost of capital. But unfortunately, too many people couldn't even get that right, aided by things such as neg-amortizating loans, teaser ARMs, option ARMs, and a belief that short-term mortgage money would remain 'cheap' forever.
[/B] What is the return on investment of renting? I agree with you here, but for a different reason. I think that people were receiving no return from renting, and saw that homeowners were receiving enormous returns from owning. And in some cases, there were people making infinite return rates because they invested nothing. And those people...understandably...wanted a piece of the action. I don't think their downfall was a misunderstanding of ROI. Instead, they didn't insure themselves against the downside. Businesses go under all the time for this reason. Lots of traders lose their ass because they don't cover the downside risk. And there isn't even a margin call on a home purchase. During the mania, I knew, and most homeowners here knew, that rates wouldn't stay low forever, so if we refinanced, we locked in the rate. Unfortunately, financial literacy is the snake oil of our era. Instead of Shysters selling snake oil out of the back of a covered wagon, todays equivalent are the payday loan people, the credit card providers, and mortgage companies that would help the applicant lie their asses off to make the deal go through without explaining the "what if".
In summary, I still say this is a damn good time to buy a house from the monthly payment viewpoint. I don't think that prices will drop enough from here to justify waiting around because then you run the risk that interest rate increases will offset that lower home price. And as rates increase, rents will go up, exascerbating the loss. Mark my words, right now the story of the day is people losing their houses. And that is sad. But for the cycle to go full circle, the landlords have to have their day from a cash flow perspective. That day will be here, and then the story of the day will be about how fast rents are rising and how screwed people are because of it.
SM