![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
It's an Expensive Day in the Neighbourhood
There is a house at the east end of our street north of Washington, DC which was recently renovated and put up for sale. Looking in the windows, it seems a nice place and we harboured (briefly) fantasies of moving up to a larger, nicer house without having to move far.
The thought was nixed within seconds because the soundwall of the Capital Beltway off-ramp for south-bound Georgia Avenue is a mere 20 feet from the back of the house. This means that highway noise would be considerably more intense than the negligible white noise of our current location. It also means that the house is under dire threat of imminent domain demolition if/when the state decides to expand the beltway.
The house is larger than ours: two stories with one extra bedroom, twice the floor space and a slightly larger lot of land but no garage.
$674,995.
That's almost $200k more than I think it's worth, and three times more than we paid for our home only a few years ago. It's a nice house, but considering the flaws of its location, I think the sellers are exceedingly optimistic.
Despite the lack of occupants, I dropped a newsletter from the civic association in the mail slot. It might help the sale to demonstrate there is an active association of homeowners in the area. Besides, anyone with pockets deep enough to afford the place is someone we'd definitely like to have involved in the association.
Interested parties can see the listing here. The photo makes it look much larger than it actually is, but from a seller's perspective, that's probably a good thing.
The thought was nixed within seconds because the soundwall of the Capital Beltway off-ramp for south-bound Georgia Avenue is a mere 20 feet from the back of the house. This means that highway noise would be considerably more intense than the negligible white noise of our current location. It also means that the house is under dire threat of imminent domain demolition if/when the state decides to expand the beltway.
The house is larger than ours: two stories with one extra bedroom, twice the floor space and a slightly larger lot of land but no garage.
$674,995.
That's almost $200k more than I think it's worth, and three times more than we paid for our home only a few years ago. It's a nice house, but considering the flaws of its location, I think the sellers are exceedingly optimistic.
Despite the lack of occupants, I dropped a newsletter from the civic association in the mail slot. It might help the sale to demonstrate there is an active association of homeowners in the area. Besides, anyone with pockets deep enough to afford the place is someone we'd definitely like to have involved in the association.
Interested parties can see the listing here. The photo makes it look much larger than it actually is, but from a seller's perspective, that's probably a good thing.
no subject
And a lot of home sellers on both coasts are being exceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedingly optimistic right now.
Not that that makes me feel any better, mind you.
(I'm not having buyer's remorse; I'm merely pointing out the ironic juxtaposition. Besides, it feels so good when I stop pounding my head onto my desk.)
no subject
Yeah, as you mentioned in many prior postings, a lot of folks have gotten use to 20% --or more-- appreciation per year and don't want to consider the possibility that the party is over (or at least calming down) even if no one is talking about hangovers yet.
I'm so glad I'm not shopping for a house right now. And I'm extremely glad our household income is well above the local average: we couldn't afford our neighbourhood or lifestyle any other way.
no subject
no subject
no subject
You couldn't park Kent's minivan in a bat cave though. You'd need something more like this.
no subject
no subject
Yeah, but then you get them in bed & feel really disappointed. Oh, wait. You were talking about a house. Never mind.
no subject
no subject
Cheaper, and unlikely to be destroyed in an earthquake! :-)
I think there was only three times this winter I needed to worry about frost on the windshield. A pint of room temperature water poured over the windows defrosts them instantly & easily.
no subject
But then you have to put up with the faint smell of corruption issuing from DC. Worse than freeway noise...
Hmm, I wonder if an LJ cut works...
Senator Fannie Mae
WSJ July 25, 2006; Page A12
A strange thing has happened on the matter of corporate scandal: Democrats have discovered the virtues of forbearance. Or at least they have on reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the "government-sponsored enterprises" responsible for some $16 billion in mistaken or fraudulent accounting in recent years. To adapt F. Scott Fitzgerald, the rich in Washington are different; they have more political protection.
And their main protector at the present crucial moment is none other than Senator Paul Sarbanes, co-author of Sarbanes-Oxley. That law imposed vast new accounting costs and potential liability on all of corporate America in the name of punishing a few business crooks who ended up in jail in any case. But when it comes to reforming the demonstrably culpable Fannie and Freddie, Mr. Sarbanes has refused to lend a hand to Banking Chairman Richard Shelby. If a bill fails to pass the Senate this year, Mr. Sarbanes will be the reason.
How to explain this political lassitude? It can't be the financial or legal merits. Here are two companies that Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, the U.S. Treasury, the SEC and countless others say pose a "systemic risk" to the financial system. The companies run huge portfolios of debt, capped by regulators at $1.5 trillion for the moment, using money borrowed at cheap rates because of an implicit taxpayer subsidy. And, thanks to the twin accounting scandals, we now know their internal controls were both inadequate and rigged to yield earnings per share growth that triggered huge bonuses for management.
....
For years, Fannie in particular has also been a sinecure for Democrats (and a few Republicans) who want to get rich in between their government stints without leaving Washington. As the recent report by Fannie's regulator makes clear, those managers were directly responsible for policies that fixed earnings in order to trigger their bonuses. Here's a list of top managers, from the recent exhaustive regulator report, and their earnings over the six years from 1998 through 2003:
• CEO Franklin Raines, $90.1 million in total compensation, including $52.8 million tied to earnings per share growth;
• CFO Timothy Howard, $30.2 million in all, including $16.8 million tied to earnings;
• General Counsel Jamie Gorelick, presumably responsible for the company's corporate governance, $26.5 million in total, including $14.9 million tied to earnings;
• Former COO and current CEO Daniel Mudd, $26.3 million in total, including $14.6 million tied to earnings growth.
We could list many more. But keep in mind that Mr. Raines was Bill Clinton's budget director and was widely mentioned as a potential Treasury Secretary had John Kerry won in 2004. Ms. Gorelick was Hillary Rodham Clinton's eyes and ears in the Justice Department in the 1990s, helped obscure the Clinton Administration's antiterror record as part of the 9/11 Commission, and could be the next Democratic Attorney General. As the regulator's report notes, "The conduct of Mr. Raines, CFO Timothy Howard, and other members of the inner circle of senior executives at Fannie Mae was inconsistent with the values of responsibility, accountability, and integrity."
....
Mr. Shelby has already passed a strong reform bill out of his committee, but it is languishing because Democrats won't promise not to filibuster. Mr. Sarbanes could end that in a minute by giving the word that Democrats can vote their conscience. But if he refuses to budge, then Mr. Shelby and Majority Leader Bill Frist should bring the bill to the floor anyway and force Members to declare themselves. Then Mr. Sarbanes can decide if he wants to end his career as the Senator who abhors corporate scandal except when it occurs on his own front porch.
no subject
I haven't had a real winter in more than 10 years. Well, if the planet keeps warming, perhaps I'll be able to convince Kent to move to Canada after all! :-)
But then you have to put up with the faint smell of corruption issuing from DC. Worse than freeway noise...
But the White House and Capitol exist in their own separate parallel universe, utterly unconnected to our reality anyway. :-(
Another optimistic seller
By the way, zillow.com says your house is worth around $525,000.
Re: Another optimistic seller
Gods. I think that's a bit too optimistic an evaluation too.
Zillow says they use comparable houses in our immediate area but since there is only one house in our neighbourhood which isn't of the same design & year as ours and few have sold any time in the past couple of years, they must be casting a wide net.
Mercifully, the state only values our house at something like $365,000 currently... they re-evaluate every other year and property taxes can rise no more than 10% each year so even this year's increase is still catching up for turn-of-the-millenium property value increases.
It's all simply insane.
no subject
The good news is that one with a similar but smaller floor plan than ours is for sale about 4 doors down for $85k.
Which means we might, MIGHT not lose our shirts when we get out of here.