Buy vs. Rent part 3

A new press release by Trulia gives up to date information on Buy vs. Rent Ratios:

http://info.trulia.com/index.php?s=43&item=123

Strategic Defaults next door

Another New York Times article points out that homeowners with mortgages over $1M are almost 2x more likely to stop paying their mortgages. They highlight Los Altos in the article which is next door to us in Palo Alto and should definitely impact prices in the areas we are looking like Mountain View.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/business/economy/09rich.html

Congress has decided not to extend unemployment benefits (more info). Here are some graphs showing unemployment in my area. This may increase the foreclosure rate.

Mortgage interest deduction going away?

An interesting article from the tax policy center says it should:

http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/blog/_archives/2010/5/27/4538831.html

I agree with this in spirit. However, I want any changes in the mortgage deduction to happen before I buy so that the price drop associated with this move doesn't hit me after I make the big purchase.

Buy vs. Rent part 2

The NY Times just put out another interesting article debating buying vs. renting. It specifically says some interesting things about the bay area. I liked the rent ratio metric that they discuss, it was new to me. I also like the mortgage calculator on this article better than the other NY Times mortgage calculator I link in a previous article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/business/economy/21leonhardt.html

Megan's law

I was talking to a friend who just sold his house. He was telling me that he almost sold his house a few weeks earlier, until the couple checked the area for sex offenders. This is an important aspect to consider, especially if you have or plan to have children. In California, you can see all registered sex offenders on a map through the following website:

http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/

Finding Good School Districts

One area that perplexes me about california is how drastically the quality of a school district can change in just a few miles. The contrast is exemplified by the difference between Palo Alto, and East Palo Alto. These are literally bordering school districts on opposite ends of the spectrum. I was looking around today for a way to visualize where the good schools are located and found the following tool that displays all of the schools on a map with ratings:

http://schoolperformancemaps.com/ca/#37.431796%2C-122.131577%2C11%2C1

and more up to date info:

http://www.greatschools.org/