A year ago, a group of investors offered $20 million to buy the Pontiac Silverdome, the seldom-used, dome stadium that used to be the home for the Detroit Pistons and Michigan Panthers. The deal eventually fell through. In a sign of the state of the commercial real estate market, the winning bid for the Silverdome in auction this week was $583,000.
It cost $55.7 million to build the stadium 35 years ago, but today the location where Pink Floyd surprised fans in 1994 by playing Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety for the first time since 1975 is worth less than the new houses down the street from me.
The lucky buyer is a Canadian company that is said to want to bring soccer to Detroit, but Major League Soccer disavowed any knowledge of these plans.
The whole situation seems suspect. What happened in the last year to drive the market price down from $20 million to less than a McMansion? Did the Canadians get a deal that’s too good to be true? Or should this be expected considering Pontiac’s proximity to Detroit, a city in desperate need of economic recovery?
Photo credit: Dave Hogg
Silverdome sale price disappoints, Mike Martindale, November 17, 2009
It’s official. Today President Obama will sign a bill into law that extends the $8,000 First Time Home Buyers’ Tax Credit, recently set to expire on November 30, until April 30 next year. The tax credit, originally part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was intended to stimulate the real estate industry, and Congress has been talking about extending the credit for months.
1.8 million home buyers have qualified for the $8,000 first time home buyers’ tax credit so far or will qualify by the end of November. According to the National Association of Realtors (who have a vested interest in seeing the credit be extended and expanded) says 335,000 of those home buyers would not have purchased a new house if not for the credit.
With house prices still lower than their highs and not much activity in the market, the industry wants more stimulation. And the industry is getting more than the $8,000 stimulus. Formerly, the tax credit was available only to home buyers who hadn’t owned a house in the past three years. The new bill adds a $6,500 tax credit for current home owners who buy a new house, and who have lived in their current house for at least five years. The extensions comes at a cost of $10.8 billion over 10 years according to the Joint Committee on Taxation
In order to qualify for either credit, the purchase contracts need to be signed by April 30, 2010 and the closing must take place by June 30, 2010. The value of the purchased house must be less than $800,000. There is an income limitation as well, but it has been increased with the passing of this bill into law. If your adjusted gross income is above $125,000 (single filers) or $225,000 (joint filers), the maximum credit you are allowed to claim is phased out.
The extension of the home buyers’ credit was included within H.R. 3548 (Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009), a bill which increases unemployment benefits for Americans for up to 20 weeks.
Do you think this extension is a good idea or with the economy beginning to improve, should we cease creating more stimuli?
Photo credit: pnwra
If you are reading this article, it is almost completely guaranteed that you are human. And if you are human and do not have a major cerebral deficit, you have emotions. Perhaps have is not a strong enough word; everything you do, and every decision you make, is controlled by your emotions. Even the strive to take a logical approach to life is an emotional desire. Despite this, and even with the knowledge that you can never fully leave your emotions behind, the best financial decisions are made when you are aware of your emotions, control them to a point, and compensate for the effect they might be having on your decision making.
Emotions in negotiations
In this Sunday’s Consumerism Commentary Podcast, one of our guests is Herb Cohen, a master negotiator who advised Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan on dealing with the Iranian Hostage Crisis. One of his suggestions, framed around negotiating a major purchase like a house, will be not to fall in love with the object.
If you want a good deal, you have to be willing to walk away. If you let your emotions control your decision, you are much more likely to pay more than you should. The salesperson — or anyone else with whom you negotiate — will know right away if your emotions are controlling your decisions and will use this fact to their advantage. Your emotions give your power away.
Emotions in debt
Many otherwise smart people find themselves in unmanageable debt as a result of their own decisions. Not everyone is in debt for this reason, but some who are have made decisions fueled by emotions, where “want” and “desire” were the operative words. When it comes to getting out of debt, you could take an emotional approach or try to put your emotions aside.
As humans are emotional creatures, I can see why some people would argue that an emotional approach to getting out of debt would be successful. And it just might be in the short term. But unless this example individual, in debt due to emotional spending and using emotional decisions to get out of debt, changes their mindset drastically once they are in better financial shape, there is a good chance their emotional decisions will lead them back to debt.
I like to tell people about the Debt Avalanche method of debt reduction because it takes a more mathematical approach to getting out of debt. This approach helps people get used to separating emotions from financial decisions as much as possible. On the other hand, the Debt Snowball method relies on emotions — the same emotions that might have allowed us to find ourselves in trouble and might cause us to falter again. The Debt Avalanche does have emotional components, but it does steer us away from using emotions to guide actions.
Emotions in investing
The only way to make money in investing is to “buy low, sell high,” but this is the exact opposite of what actual trading behavior looks like. Most investors decide to buy after a stock or other investment has shown a confidence-inspiring pattern of price increases. They also decide to sell when the price has declined; if everyone else is selling, causing the price to go down, they must know something that we don’t know. We lose confidence in the investment, and we sell. “Buy low, sell high” is a mantra that all investors know, so why do we ignore this in practice?
The answer is our emotions. Rather that making decisions based on an investment’s underlying value and expectations for the future, we are affected by the media and the stock market. News and price movement inspire fear or excitement, and it takes these emotions to encourage someone to resist inertia and decide to buy or sell.
We can’t fully separate emotions from our ability to make decisions. However, just by being aware of the effect they have can help mitigate the bad choices. How do you deal with your emotions when making financial decisions?
A few years ago, a coworker formed an investment partnership in speculative real estate. He promised investors a 10 percent annual return and was using the capital to invest in Florida real estate, earning 15 to 20 percent overall. As most of the real estate had not even been inhabited or built yet, the investments were pure speculation. I haven’t been in contact with this individual, but I am wondering how this business is doing in this real estate market.
If you have a mortgage on a house you purchased recently, there is a good chance you now owe more on this loan than your house’s market value. These chances are even greater if you bought into the speculative markets in Arizona, Nevada, or Florida like my former coworker.
Owing more on your loan than the house is worth is not the worst financial situation, but it is risky. If you need to sell your house, you would still have to raise more money to pay off the remainder of the loan. If, on the other hand, you are lucky, you can remain in your house long enough to continue paying off the loan and to wait for home prices to return to the average rate of appreciation of about 3 or 4 percent. Eventually you could come out ahead.
If you find yourself in this position and you care not to be, you can make the time work harder for you rather than against you by increasing the payments towards your mortgage. A pure analysis of the numbers might say that it’s better to invest in the stock market rather than pay off your mortgage faster, but that doesn’t account for the risk of staying in a house whose loan is under water, and that risk can be measured differently by different families in different situations.
Robert Kiyosaki popularized the idea that a house is a liability. He is, of course, technically wrong. A house, and anything you own is an asset, while a mortgage, and anything you owe, is a liability, despite any marketing materials that try to redefine the words. But when your mortgage is higher than the market value of your house, you have negative equity, and that asset is not looking so helpful on your balance sheet.
This negative equity is mostly a result of speculative investing. The news that so many homes are under water invites criticism of home owners who bought a larger or more expensive house than they could afford and have now suffered the effect of a downturn in the real estate market or interest-only mortgages than have now adjusted to include principal payments. But that is only a small problem in this market, it is the speculative investing that accounts for the under water loans.
The areas that were identified as the largest contributors to the total number of home loans under water were the locations that saw some of the biggest increases in home prices as investors gobbled up as much property as possible. These investors intend on selling more frequently than a typical home owner, so they are more vulnerable to the market downturns that result in negative equity.
Are you under water with your home loan? Are you doing anything about it now or are you waiting for home prices to return?
Almost one-third of home loans under water, Emily Glazer, MarketWatch, August 13, 2009
Photo: respres
In this episode of the Consumerism Commentary Podcast Tom Dziubek and I discuss home purchasing and ownership with David Crook, editor of the Wall Street Journal Sunday and author of Complete Home Owner’s Guidebook and Complete Real-Estate Investing Guidebook.
Within today’s podcast, David Crook shares his evaluation of today’s real estate market and offers suggestions for buying and managing a home.
To listen, use the player above (Adobe Flash required), download the podcast here, subscribe to the podcast RSS feed, or use the iTunes link. Note: open links in a new window (Ctrl-click or Command-click) to avoid interrupting the podcast.
[00:00] Introduction from Flexo and a reminder about Money Quantum
[00:44] Interview with David Crook
– [01:24] Collapse of the real estate bubble and its effect on home buying
– [01:41] Borrowing money to finance a house in the current market
– [05:59] The emotional aspect of purchasing a house
– [08:15] Buying vs. renting
– [11:35] Tips for first time home buyers
– [14:40] Owning and managing a home in a troubled market
– [15:40] — for first time home buyers
– [16:20] — for those who have purchased a home in the “early cycle”
– [16:42] — for those who have owned a home during the “mid and late cycles”
– [19:48] Government assistance for “early cycle” buyers affected by the market
[24:01] End
We always welcome feedback from listeners. If you have any comments for this episode or for any other, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, please leave us comments here or email us at podcast at this domain name.
For those of you who have filed or are planning to file an amended income tax return (form 1040X) to receive the (up to) $8,000 first time homebuyer tax credit this year rather than waiting for next year, there is some good news.
Although the IRS is more than likely overwhelmed, the refunds are currently taking about eight weeks to receive. Here is a recent comment from a Consumerism Commentary reader:
Just wanted to let you know that I received my $8,000 (plus interest) from my 1040X by mail yesterday. I mailed my amended return around June 25, so I feel the turnaround was very acceptable. Even though our original refund came by direct deposit, this one came by check; I don’t know why.
There are a few interesting notes to take away from Kimberly’s experience.
The IRS is providing interest payments as if they owed money to the taxpayer since April 15. This is the normal case when the IRS underpays a refund. It’s good to see they are providing interest in the same manner here even though the law was not created until after many people had filed their 2008 tax returns.
Six weeks is a reasonable time frame to expect your credit. Many people I’ve spoken with expected the credits to take much longer, prompting some to suggest waiting until the 2009 income tax return is due. I see no reason to wait that long. Plus, it’s unlikely you’ll receive interest if you wait until April 2010.
Keep in mind that if your paperwork requires manual intervention, like an address change, or if the information you provide does not match what the IRS has on file, your credit could take longer to receive.
The refunds are sent by paper check. I warned of this in earlier articles. Even though you may have designated a bank account for direct deposit when you filed your original tax return, the IRS is sending the refunds through the U.S. Postal Service as if we were still living in the twentieth century.
Have you received your first-time homebuyer tax credit yet? How long did it take?
The real estate recession doesn’t discriminate. While foreclosures have soared to one out of 84 households over the course of the first six months of 2009 and the Obama administration is considering more aid to help families in this situation, the threat is also affecting famous properties.
The owner of the famous Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., Monument Realty, has defaulted on its loan. The lender, PB Capital, wasn’t able to agree on new terms for the loan, and the city’s foreclosure notice expires today according to the Washington Post. The property, made famous by President Nixon, is going up for auction next week.
Are you bidding? I see a lot of potential in this property, despite the fact it has been empty for a while, due to its iconic status. And if I see the potential, there is a good chance a number of savvy real estate investors do as well, driving up the price on the auction block. But who has the money?
Photo credit: brownpau
Kerry K. Taylor, author of 397 Ways to Save Money and creator of financial blog Squawkfox joins Tom Dziubek today to discuss her book, currently available from Amazon.ca. Kerry explains how she paid off $17,000 of debt in six months and how to make drastic life changes. She also shares some of her favorite tips from 397 Ways to Save Money.
To listen, use the player above (Adobe Flash required), download the podcast here, subscribe to the podcast RSS feed, or use the iTunes link. Note: open links in a new window (Ctrl-click or Command-click) to avoid interrupting the podcast.
[00:00] Introduction from Flexo
[00:39] Interview with Kerry K. Taylor of Squawkfox
[01:33] — Paying off $17,000 of debt in six months
[03:34] — Negotiating your first salary offer
[04:47] — Maintaining a student lifestyle and standard of living
[05:57] — Using any available tax credits and saving for retirement
[08:18] — Moving to an organic farm and making other drastic life changes
[11:36] — 397 Ways to Save Money
[13:55] — How renting an apartment can make you rich
[17:00] — How management fees deplete returns from your investments
[18:07] — Other surprising tips from 397 Ways to Save Money
[19:06] — Is the recent popularity of frugality just a fad?
[25:20] End
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