OT govt. regulation (troll food)
 

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...


Interesting times - interesting times.


Heh .... I just checked the old farmhouse that my mother lives in. It's
the old house at the end of our driveway.
According to Zillow, it's one of our best, most stable investments. It's
value has fluctuated, but overall has maintained an upward trend.

It was built in 1800! John Adams Sr. was President, having replaced George
Washington. Adams was succeeded a year after the house was built by Thomas
Jefferson.

Eisboch

OT govt. regulation (troll food)
 

Eisboch wrote:
"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...

Interesting times - interesting times.


Heh .... I just checked the old farmhouse that my mother lives in. It's
the old house at the end of our driveway.
According to Zillow, it's one of our best, most stable investments. It's
value has fluctuated, but overall has maintained an upward trend.

It was built in 1800! John Adams Sr. was President, having replaced George
Washington. Adams was succeeded a year after the house was built by Thomas
Jefferson.

Eisboch




Not to quibble, but the 2nd POTUS was John Adams, not John Adams,
Senior. His son, John Quincy Adams, who also served as POTUS, had a
slightly different name, so neither was a "senior" or a "junior" to each
other.

BTW, property values in all the areas covered by Zillow have not declined.

OT govt. regulation (troll food)
 

"HK" wrote in message
. ..
Eisboch wrote:
"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...

Interesting times - interesting times.


Heh .... I just checked the old farmhouse that my mother lives in.
It's the old house at the end of our driveway.
According to Zillow, it's one of our best, most stable investments. It's
value has fluctuated, but overall has maintained an upward trend.

It was built in 1800! John Adams Sr. was President, having replaced
George Washington. Adams was succeeded a year after the house was built
by Thomas Jefferson.

Eisboch


Not to quibble, but the 2nd POTUS was John Adams, not John Adams, Senior.
His son, John Quincy Adams, who also served as POTUS, had a slightly
different name, so neither was a "senior" or a "junior" to each other.


I stand corrected. Actually, I meant only to establish him as the "first"
John Adams president, and not the "second", being John Quincy.



BTW, property values in all the areas covered by Zillow have not declined.


I don't know about changes in the historical data because I wouldn't know
what it was. Obviously, values in places that have not had unrealistic
increases in the past few years have remained somewhat stable.

I know one thing. We sold the house we had in Florida about 15 minutes
before the bottom dropped out on values in that area.
Talk about lucky timing. If it had not sold when it did, we would probably
still own it.

Eisboch

OT govt. regulation (troll food)
 

Eisboch wrote:
"HK" wrote in message
. ..
Eisboch wrote:
"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...

Interesting times - interesting times.

Heh .... I just checked the old farmhouse that my mother lives in.
It's the old house at the end of our driveway.
According to Zillow, it's one of our best, most stable investments. It's
value has fluctuated, but overall has maintained an upward trend.

It was built in 1800! John Adams Sr. was President, having replaced
George Washington. Adams was succeeded a year after the house was built
by Thomas Jefferson.

Eisboch

Not to quibble, but the 2nd POTUS was John Adams, not John Adams, Senior.
His son, John Quincy Adams, who also served as POTUS, had a slightly
different name, so neither was a "senior" or a "junior" to each other.


I stand corrected. Actually, I meant only to establish him as the "first"
John Adams president, and not the "second", being John Quincy.



BTW, property values in all the areas covered by Zillow have not declined.


I don't know about changes in the historical data because I wouldn't know
what it was. Obviously, values in places that have not had unrealistic
increases in the past few years have remained somewhat stable.

I know one thing. We sold the house we had in Florida about 15 minutes
before the bottom dropped out on values in that area.
Talk about lucky timing. If it had not sold when it did, we would probably
still own it.

Eisboch



I know the feeling. Apparently you lucked out with the sale of your
boats, too.


How about a photo of the historical marker that must be in front of that
old house? :) Must be quite a treat to have a house that old.

OT govt. regulation (troll food)
 

On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:21:35 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:


"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
.. .


Ah - I understand now. Let me go look.

Hmmm - that's interesting. The house peaked about 4 months ago at
$250K and it's now $224K which I expected, but as I remember it it was
$265 back then.

You know what they may have done is readjust the historical data to
reflect actual market conditions at that time. To tell the truth,
that house was never worth $250K. It does have a high assessment
because it's an unusual house lot - the apartments are huge - the
total house is like 2,780 square feet.

The house we're living in now peaked at $450K - it's now down about
$385K. - which is kind of bogus - the land is worth more than the
house. :)

Interesting times - interesting times.

It is. I also agree, I think Zillow had everything overvalued for several
years.
No big deal. Eventually this whole mess will straighten itself out, along
with inflation, consumer prices and income.

I've always viewed inflation as a necessary evil. Looking out ten
years, inflation actually is your friend in terms of "real" dollars -
meaning dollars now, not compared to then. Yeah, you could buy a
gallon of gas for .05¢ in 1930, but so what - you don't live in 1930.

The oil bubble will burst, prices will readjust, inflation will take
care of itself in the long run.

The result will be an overall "correction" for the phony valuations over the
last couple of years and the economy will stabilize.

That's exactly what has to happen. You should reasonably expect a
decent return over time on real estate, but it's like anything else -
you get bubbles, they correct and six to eight months (sometimes up to
a year) later you pretty much reset values and the market is in
balance. On average, real estate will return 50% gain over 15 years -
that's historical data and it's pretty much fact. Even with this
recent correction, we've made decent money gaining on average 8% a
year on real value and on income, heh - apartments ain't cheap.
Everybody has to live somewhere 'ya know? :)

I read a really interesting piece of data the other day that was sent
to me by somebody who is heavily invested in REITs. One REIT that
he's involved with reevaluated their holdings on a cyclical basis
starting at year one and moving forward against historical data
nationally. What they found was very interesting.

Apparently there is a seventeen year cycle - give or take six months
in aggregate - and it's an exact match to previous housing cycles and
matches up to the last data point which was six months ago. In
effect, the bottom was coming and it's bottom plateau is now.

What was particularly interesting from an economic standpoint was that
every decline in value was precipated by differing economic conditions
in every cycle.

I think eventually, the realisation by banks and mortgage companies
that if people can pay $900 to $1,200 a month for an apartment, they
can afford to pay the same for a home. 30 year fixed mortgages for
average value homes are exactly in that ball park. Given decent
credit, the markets will begin to pick up again.

I hope.

No hope needed - it's basic economics. It's a shake out which is
good.

When you evaluate data sets like Case-Shiller, nationally the decline
is only 3% on average. There are hot spots where it's higher and hot
spots where it's lower, but on average, that's not so bad.

Which means it's not as bad as media would make you think.

OT govt. regulation (troll food)
 

On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:42:00 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:


"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
.. .


Interesting times - interesting times.

Heh .... I just checked the old farmhouse that my mother lives in. It's
the old house at the end of our driveway.
According to Zillow, it's one of our best, most stable investments. It's
value has fluctuated, but overall has maintained an upward trend.

It was built in 1800! John Adams Sr. was President, having replaced George
Washington. Adams was succeeded a year after the house was built by Thomas
Jefferson.

Amazing isn't it? The last rental home we have was built in 1920 -
chestnut joists, 1/2" white oak floors, etc.

Cost $1,820 to build. :)

The original three buildings in South Woodstock that were built in
1720, little tiny salt boxes, were built before there even was an US
of A.

History dude.

OT govt. regulation (troll food)
 

"HK" wrote in message
. ..



How about a photo of the historical marker that must be in front of that
old house? :) Must be quite a treat to have a house that old.




No marker. It's not on any historical records, other than local knowledge
and town records. A couple of times the town historical committee has made
noises about registering it, as have other town officials. I've ignored all
interest and inquiries.

Even so, a couple of years ago I had our land surveyed with potential
interest in putting up another barn. I jokingly mentioned to the surveyor
(who is a local native and well versed in town politics) that it would be
easier to move my mother out, demolish the old farmhouse and build a barn on
it's lot.

He told me I'd have a major fight with the town on my hands if I tried to
get the permits to do so. They would immediately declare it a historical
building and I'd have to go through all kinds of grief to get the permits.

The "barn" section of the house doesn't have a single nail in it's basic
construction. All wood beams with wooden pegs.
The entranceway room of the house was the original Duxbury Post Office.
When we bought it, the room still had a customer counter, behind which was a
floor to ceiling, pigeon hole shelving unit. Every town resident had a mail
slot.

A few years ago I met one of the decedents of the family that built the
house. It had stayed in his family until the "farm" was sold in 1996 and
the land was subdivided. There's a huge, silver maple tree behind the house
with a trunk that is about 4-5 feet in diameter. He told me that the tree
was planted by his great, great, grandfather when the house was completed in
1800.


Eisboch

OT govt. regulation (troll food)
 

Eisboch wrote:
"HK" wrote in message
. ..


How about a photo of the historical marker that must be in front of that
old house? :) Must be quite a treat to have a house that old.




No marker. It's not on any historical records, other than local knowledge
and town records. A couple of times the town historical committee has made
noises about registering it, as have other town officials. I've ignored all
interest and inquiries.

Even so, a couple of years ago I had our land surveyed with potential
interest in putting up another barn. I jokingly mentioned to the surveyor
(who is a local native and well versed in town politics) that it would be
easier to move my mother out, demolish the old farmhouse and build a barn on
it's lot.

He told me I'd have a major fight with the town on my hands if I tried to
get the permits to do so. They would immediately declare it a historical
building and I'd have to go through all kinds of grief to get the permits.

The "barn" section of the house doesn't have a single nail in it's basic
construction. All wood beams with wooden pegs.
The entranceway room of the house was the original Duxbury Post Office.
When we bought it, the room still had a customer counter, behind which was a
floor to ceiling, pigeon hole shelving unit. Every town resident had a mail
slot.

A few years ago I met one of the decedents of the family that built the
house. It had stayed in his family until the "farm" was sold in 1996 and
the land was subdivided. There's a huge, silver maple tree behind the house
with a trunk that is about 4-5 feet in diameter. He told me that the tree
was planted by his great, great, grandfather when the house was completed in
1800.


Eisboch





What a great story..thanks.
That tree is almost as old as tom.

OT govt. regulation (troll food)
 

"HK" wrote in message
. ..


I know the feeling. Apparently you lucked out with the sale of your boats,
too.


Anything will sell if you price it attractively. It took well over a year
to sell the Navigator and I reduced the price a couple of times.


How about a photo of the historical marker that must be in front of that
old house? :) Must be quite a treat to have a house that old.




I wouldn't call owning the old house a "treat". We bought and renovated
parts of the interior mainly for a place for my wheelchair bound mother to
live after my father passed away. She does ok and is basically independent,
but needs watching and occasional help with stuff.

The barn section is unique, but obviously old and musty.

I am not into "historical" buildings and will gladly sell it when the day
comes that my mother finally has to move to assisted living. Surprisingly
there are people into these old buildings and we have a waiting list of
interested potential buyers.

Eisboch

OT govt. regulation (troll food)
 

"HK" wrote in message
...


What a great story..thanks.
That tree is almost as old as tom.


Hmmmm..... come to think of it, the great, great grandfather bought the
sapling from a guy named Tom.

Eisboch