My sister, three of her friends, and two of my co-workers have taken advantage of low interest rates and the first-time homebuyer tax credit. Prices have dipped slightly here but do not qualify as “low”. However everyone seems happy with the deal they got – all were planning to buy in the next year or so anyway so the rebate and low interest were really bonus.

-DC

We started shopping in February. Everyone said the market gonna go down more and we should wait, however good houses (i.e. deals) have always gone fast in DC-MD-VA. I remembered that we once asked our realtor for more info on a list of about 5 houses on Tuesday – to show us on Saturday, and by Friday we had only 1 house left available, the rest had already been gone.

We realized one thing: when the market goes up i.e more buyers, the interest also goes up. There will be no such thing calls “going to hit the bottom of the real estate market” because the bottom only shows when we have already passed it.

By the way, if you are resident of /work at the Montgomery county, please check with the Mid-Atlantic Federal Credit Union for the mortgage loan. We had 5% with 1.5 point, just last month.

Good luck with you all still looking for houses.

PS: we learnt that by buying the first house two years ago, we actually had been saving more because of the tax saving what we couldn’t have when we had rented somewhere. By have the first house, we had saved enough to buy the second house for retirement saving. Now, two houses are enough because according to IRS, we can only have tax deduction from mortgage interest on maximum 2 houses.

My husband bought his first home in 2004 (before we started dating); I have never bought a home and my name is not currently on the deed or the mortgage (though I know that by law it belongs to me, too). If we were to move and purchase a new home (selling the current home, hopefully!), would we qualify for the credit because I am a first-time homebuyer? Or does the fact that he’s purchased previously preclude us?

Thanks!

The $8000 credit came after our purchase, but we’ll take it all the way to the bank. (For a while, then it will go toward a new deck, student loans, etc.)

I like the link posts, especially liked the Unclutterer article. I feel like I’m just starting to learn how to reject the idea that I have to be the best at everything.

I’ll be taking the money I was paying on the student loan and adding it to my monthly mortgage payment. It’s amazing how much difference a few hundred dollars extra will make on a mortgage, and I’m already used to not having the money on hand, so it won’t change a thing for my day to day life, but my time to pay off the mortgage will be cut in half.

I was torn on purchasing vs. continuing to rent, but I found a condo that was nicer than my last apartment, and a bit bigger, for pretty much the same as I was paying in rent.

Cross-stitching – My tiny hands were awkward and weak back then, but I have more control over my hands and more strength now. It has taught me how to knot thread and handle needles when sewing up holes in my clothes.

Piano – although I hated practicing and taking lessons, I have a better ear for tunes and can program cellphone tunes if I had a phone that allowed this. I can also make my own music for this video game app I’m working on with my friend. It also helps my singing in karaoke. =D

Drawing – it was equivalent to copying back then, but now I can draw basic stuff for my web sites, logos, icons, etc.

Painting – I took art class for one quarter in high school. Recently, I looked at my room and thought it’s boring, so I bought some canvases, painted and hung up my art. Friends paid me compliments because of it. But I am no Picasso. =)

Web designer – Career-wise, I used to be more artsy so I wanted to design websites, so I learned Photoshop, HTML, CSS, and the like. Afterwards, I found out I’m more left-brained than right, so I’m currently a Java developer. But if I need a web site created, I don’t need to hire anyone else. =D (And I’m artistic enough too)

There was a point in time when I’d regarded these skills as “useless” and a waste of time. The thing is, you don’t know when you’ll use your skills (even if it’s for enjoyment), so it’s a good idea to explore around and keep an open mind.

Try to apply your skills wherever you can, then it doesn’t matter if you’re the “best” or not.

I would just have to leave California, which would suck. But here, even with housing prices down 40%, it’s still out of my price range for at least as long as it takes for the prices to start climbing again.

Decisions, decisions. Buy a house and deal with snow, or rent forever in the sunshine.

“I have to be the best” is probably the wrong attitude a lot of the time, just like Erin suggests. But “I have to be better than I was today” is a really useful attitude to have a lot of the time, and I guess that’s what I was trying to suggest with my post.

There’s always going to be someone better than you, no matter what you do. Look at Tiger Woods–a huge majority of people would say he’s the best golfer on the PGA tour right now. Yet he doesn’t win every single tournament that he enters. Sometimes other people manage to beat him, even if theoretically their skills are inferior to his. And likewise, should Phil Mickelson or Vijay Singh stop golfing, just because Tiger is considered “better” than they are?

What I took away from Erin’s article is that if you decide you’ll only do something if you’re “the best”, you’ll never achieve anything. It may be more obvious in terms of decluttering, or playing the guitar, or running a marathon, as few of us possess a world-class talent in those fields. But even in the business world, you can’t let yourself get hung up on not doing something b/c someone may be able to do it better. Because if you take enough time to look for it, you’ll always find someone who is better than you are.

Not sure how it looks in other areas of the country. I still got a good deal, but its definitely heating up here. The best time to buy would have been about 6 months ago. I guess we will see what happens this winter, hopefully prices stay put when the tax credit disappears.

In Northern CA, where I live, it has seemed impossible that I would ever own a home. I had arrived after the housing boom had begun, and since I brought no equity to the party, I was a perfect candidate for the interest-only types of loans then widely offered. I didn’t look into them very closely, though, because I just couldn’t figure out how I was going to deal with the inevitable huge payment five years down the road. So I kept renting.

Fifteen months ago, lured by the collapse in prices, the first tax credit of $7500,and some unusual tax advantages provided to my profession (I’m a minister), I started looking in a part of the Bay Area hardest hit by the real estate chaos. It was a town I liked and the prices had fallen fast and hard, even though other parts of the region were still doing OK.

Thanks to a smart and experienced agent, my role was educating sellers about the new world order. I ended up finally closing on the fifth house I attempted to buy, and even with a bid the sellers found insulting, the appraisal came in at exactly my first offer. The sales price was 54% of what the owners had been offered two years previously, when they decided to wait rather than sell.

Since I bought the house, prices have fallen further. I’m not underwater, thanks to putting 20% down, and even though I’ve lost value in the first few months, the rate of decrease is far less than it was before I bought. I’ve no doubt that within five years it will have climbed back up enough to allow me to break-even, and if it doesn’t, I don’t really care. I LOVE having my own home and yard — it’s a 1939 English-style cottage with roses, wisteria and fruit trees of every sort, and it’s my castle and my keep.

On the finance front, the mortgage, taxes, etc. are about $150 more a month than I was paying in rent; while I can afford the payments, I chose to invite a friend who needed housing to become my roommate. I have someone I like helping with the house and yard and paying a good chunk of the mortgage, which means I actually ended up saving money by buying a house.

One final financial note — to show the bank I had enough for the down payment, I had to sell some stock in my Roth IRA. It was stock I’d purchased during the 2001 recession at a little more than $2 a share; when I sold one chunk of shares, it was at $27. I hated having to sell it, but it proved a lucky break. By the time the closing happened at the end of October, the stock was down to $11. I just wish I’d sold more!

All in all, I feel very, very lucky to have had this opportunity, and to be in a home I love at a price I can afford.

Don’t feel bad about the 4:30 group. I finished my first marathon last year in 5:41 and my hip hurt so bad I didn’t run for ten months. I did a half marathon in my but again, hip was killing me. I mentioned this book in another comment, and thought you might be interested. I have no affiliation to the author but I grabbed the Kindle version a month ago. It’s called Chi Running and as the title suggests, it uses Chi phisiology to improve your form. It honestly appears to be helping me. Thought you might be interested.

Nancy, your comment about picking up the bass guitar in your 20′s struck a chord. I decided to pick up the guitar and teach myself to write songs and sing at age 34 (that was two years ago). I get such a kick out of creating my own music and playing small coffee shops. It’s so easy to record a CD and get some printed up and I was so proud when my inventory came in the mail. Nevermind that my skill level will never be beyond intermediate. I find true happiness in just doing these things for myself.

I am hoping to now parlay my creative juices into a book, that I will self-publish. I don’t care if it ever sells a copy, but to just have my ideas in a book, sitting on my bookshelf would make me so happy, I can’t really explain it. Sounds silly, but hey, who cares?

- Charley

The price of the house is in our price range and with the tax credit and incentives from the builders, the numbers looked good for us.

The same metrics of success don’t necessarily apply to personal enrichment, and so for running, or ballet, or guitar, she’s right — it doesn’t matter how good you are at these things unless you’re trying to make a living with them.

Not everything is a competition, but competition does play a role in how we define ourselves as successful.

This is the reason I keep plugging away at my goal to run a marathon. I have a friend who is very competitive and seems frustrated that I’m not more interested in pursuing running as a competition. If I were to do that, I’d only end up miserable. Instead, I’m running for the sake of running, and I love. (Well, except for the fact that I end up miserable anyway: I get injured!)

As I get older, I’m realizing that the only thing that matters is whether I’m enjoying myself and learning and loving. Who cares whether I’m the best runner or the best chess player or the know the most about comic books? All that matters is that I spend time doing what I love and that I’m able to share it with others.

I get such a tremendous sense of satisfaction running with the 4:30 marathon training group. (That’s four hours thirty minutes, not 4:30 miles.) We’re all old or fat or injured — or all three. We all know we’re just out there for the joy of it.

Anyhow, Erin’s point is applicable in other aspects of my life, as well, even my financial life. I used to get frustrated when I didn’t do things perfectly. That’s not true anymore. I just do the best I can, and keep moving in the general direction I know I want to go…

I started playing the guitar without any demands–I didn’t join a band, I didn’t go crazy with rehearsing, and I just played music *I* wanted to play. It was great fun. I had to stop taking lessons when my son was born, b/c I didn’t have time to dedicate to it anymore, but I still look for opportunities to do stuff “just because”, without trying to be the “best ever” at doing it.