GC, it seems so closer but. . .

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GC and Investing on home

It always seems I am close to getting GC, but it again goes far.
Anyway, though this is not a immigration related question, yet many of us are going through this dilemma!!!
Whether to buy a house or not?
Many things that comes to mind are:
1. Raise in mortgage interest rates and peak prices of houses(don't want to be another stock market investing, investing at high and selling at low)
2. Job stability
3. Outsourcing
4. AC21 forcing from clients and employers not agreeing for that and another question of how the iio's interpret the AC21 law
5. IIO's changing the length of processing every month from 18 to 19 to 20 months. . . etc etc . . .
In these dynamic scenarios, how should our buddies react on investing home. Your comments, suggestions as always will be appreciated . . .
 
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Thanks to INS laws, we can invest in stocks, homes etc, prior to greencard. Personally, I feel it takes about 2 years to breakeven with a home purchase (with the US average apreciation rate of 3%).
Last five years are extremely good in real estate and in places like Virginia, the houses apreciated as much as 50% in one year.

With the mortgage rates slowly beginning to go up, real estate nearing the saturation, you are looking at a saturated market. (again, depends on the place where you want to buy).

Buy the house if:
1. If you are sure to stay for atleast 2 years
2. If the real estate is good and if you can quickly sell the house without loss.
3. If the job market is good in your area and you are in a position to use AC21 if required.
 
I bought an inexpensive two-bedroom house (under $200k) with the mortgage comparible to the rent rates (under $1000). Paying mortgage instead of rent gave me three advantages: tax deduction, better use for the money I had lying idly in the bank and much higher living conditions.
If anything happens and I have to leave the country I can always give my house up for rent for someone else and see how that someone pays for it from abroad. If I can come back in a couple of years I will, if I can't I will sell it eventually (when the price is right) through a lawyer or a friend.
If you can't find an acceptable house for under $200k where you live then it would make more sense to continue paying rent as having to pay a big mortgage these days isn't something you'd like to do.
 
My take on this is that the mortgage rates have hit bottom and they don't have any place to go than up. So if the rated start increasing, the property value fall. Look at what happened to bonds. Here is my observation - if everone around you is doing something, don't do it, it is already late. I learnt this the hard way while investing in stocks.

udacha6, I think it is very difficult to find tenants for the house and maintaining it from outside US.
 
my 2cents

With the economy still not showing signs of any recovery and the confidence in the market still real bad Plus added to that there has been heavy job loss, I don't expect the housing market to keep on moving forward ( I am surprised that the housing market is moving forward - accepted that interest rate is low ). Though I don't think there is a bubble there ( but I could be very wrong ). If the interest rates go up ( I would hope that the Fed would like to keep it steady for sometime ) because of some factors, there will a major dullness in the real estate market.

Personally, I didn't have the guts to buy a house even though I was in the same place for about 3.5 yrs
 
Good Question

It has been six years in US and recently I started having same thoughts. In my opinion it is always good to buy a home. Enjoy your life and as mentioned in earlier post buy a house under $200 -$250 and you will be paying more or less equal to your rent.
 
The mortgage rates are not solely dependent on the federal interest rates. The rates are decided by the open securities market. This rate is also dependent on what the economy is going to be 6 months down the line. The recovery is already underway and so the recent increases in bond and mortgage rates. But the job market is the last one to recover and thus the confidence among consumers will be very low till the job market recovers.
 
Buying House

Buying house is very good investment. I did buy house ( duplex two bed room each) blow 200K. And rent it one floor...so it cover my mortgage. for tax, i pay from my packet. Within 6 month, my house appreciated 50% ( i did small changes like painting, spent some money to swimming pool, to make working condition, etc). My mortage payment is less than my appartment rent. and tax benifits. what else want...
 
I had a thought of buying home until recently, because I felt safe with my job. But suddenly from the past 6 months the scenario started changing at my client place. Big Desi company enetered into scenario and I think everyone can see what is going to happen in the coming near future. Eventhough economy recovers and the job market opens, everyone will the facing this problem in the near future. So it is tough to decide whether to buy or not. If you buy a house you will be losing the flexibility of moving. It is not that easy to rent the house. Where will you keep your belongings which grow day by day in the house? How will you manage the contracts? How will you monitor the tenants for maintenance? All this will become a big problem. . .
 
In New York buying a house is not an option. A small frame ranch house on Long Island will start at $350,000. We are trying to leave this insane city.
 
In ATL within city limits the lowest house will be > 400K! Condos cost 200+K!

Commuting from outside the perimeter is hellish to say the least. Even the outskirts cost 250K+.
 
any house okay to live in Boston cost 500k+, good houses are over 700k. Even a house like a toilet size cost 300k.

This market is crazy. Fellow immigrants, don't buy house, if we all hold on, the price will drop, and everybody can buy at low. Don't buy
 
Housing market will not fall

Housing market will not fall in near future at least big metro areas. Reasons are simple

1. Increase in population is higher than the no of new houses built
2. people's lack of faith in Stock market
3. Govt's special interest in holding the price. In this bad economy only housing is holding good.
Only down side is rise interest rate. As a result
4. People's affordability is going down and they are even rushing to catch the (still) lower interest rate before it goes even higher.

Rise interest rate hints at slow recovery of economy. If economy gets back on track (historically) house price will not fall (in fact will rise slowly). But there will be less number of house sold.

Probashi
 
I agree that housing prices will not fall in the hot markets like New York and Boston. It is amazing what $250,000 will buy in the interior of the country - places like Tennessee. For that price you get 3,000 square feet, 5 bedrooms and an acre of land! Maybe a swimming pool - - -
 
My 2 cents :
---------------
Home Prices will rise in the following situation :
Areas having high job potential (Boston, NY, NJ, VA, CA, Chicago etc) if the current price is < 400K . I think the prices above 500K will not rise much.

The houses having price > 350K may see some stability or downfall if outsourcing picks up and a lot of people lose their jobs (and hence forced to sell their homes)

So i would suggest that if you are putting < 350K into your home, then you may not lose much. So buy it if you have a relatively stable job (don't look for absolute safety. This is America).

Buying a house is similar to buying a stock. You can't predict the outcome. You only buy it with some expectation.
 
I am thinking of moving to another city so..buying a house is not a option for me.

Don't you guys feel that u just don't belong to any cities??
 
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Like the famous words "Show me the money", "Show me the GC" then only we can think about buying house.
 
pride of home ownership.

I think that it all comes down to taking the plunge. In markets where house turnaround times are not substantial (you can sell a home in the NJ/NY area within a month) I dont see why we should not capitalize on the lower interest rates and the immense price appreciation benefits that a house offers. Will it continue to do so going forward is of course a moot point that only the future can tell.

But i strongly believe that the feeling of home ownership can give us a sense of belonging that would partly alleviate the feeling of alienation that we all feel while waiting for this never ending Green card process.

This of course is a matter of personal opinion. My spouse and I owned a home ,sold it and bought another one already.

We personally feel a lot of pride in our home ownership. The pragmatic view dictates that we do not make long term investments since everything is in a state of flux till we actually obtain the card. But I am one of those who have lead their whole lives with the "NO Guts No Glory" dictum. So there!!
 
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