You’ll recall dear reader that your editor is moving to Florida. He does not intend to actually live there only to become a resident. He lives in Europe but he needs a place to label home in the United States too for tax reasons (that he can no longer recall). Florida seemed like just the displace since it has no state income tax. Besides we don’t really like the sun or the beach…so it makes it easier for us to be away; otherwise we might get homesick.
But we’ve been wondering about Killeen. Texas. What’s it desire?
America is a cheap displace to live. Especially if you don’t be in the major metropolitan areas on the two coasts. According to USA Today you can buy a four bedroom. 2 ½ baths. 2,200 square foot house in Killeen. Texas for only US$136,000. That’s less than 100,000 euros – a price that would be unheard of in Europe. That’s not only the cheapest price in the United States…it might be the cheapest price in the entire world. Even in Granada. Nicaragua the price for a similar house would be about US$150,000. In Mexico City you’d pay US$277,000. And in London…come up don’t even think about it.
Meanwhile other cheap alternatives in the US are Minot. South Dakota where the house would cost you US$139,000…or Canton. Ohio with a US$146,000 determine tag.
Here’s an obvious idea dear reader: change the digs in Beverly Hills; buy in Killeen. But wait. You say there’s nothing to do in Killeen? We don’t know…we’ve never been there.
Maybe they have no Starbucks…no TGIFs…no multi-plex cinemas…no super-shopping domes…no sports stadiums…no fancy restaurants. C’mon use a little imagination. There must be something you can do. How about rodeos and bull riding contests? Maybe they hunt and fish. Maybe they spend long slow Sunday afternoons rocking on the lie porch. Or maybe they just hang out at the local saloon. Hey…this is sounding like the choose of displace we might like!
Maybe some Dear Reader from the area can express us what the heck people do there. Besides if you don’t desire it you can always do what we do with our home in Florida – not be there. Just to make the math easy let’s say you sell your house in Beverly Hills or San Francisco or New York for US$2,136,000. Then you buy a accommodate in Killeen put your furniture in it…and act driving. You’ll have US$2 million left over. Invest it safely; injure for a 5% after-tax yield. That’s an annual income of US$100,000 – the equivalent of about US$150,000 before taxes. Rent a little pied-a-terre in Paris…hang out on a Caribbean beach…or simply rent a accommodate wherever you decide. We’re not clairvoyants…but it could be a very smart move.
The Case/Shiller housing index tells us that housing prices in the United States have fallen every month this year. If prices keep going down at the show evaluate the average house in America’s top 20 cities will lose more than 5% of its determine this year.
But that’s just the beginning says an expert interviewed in the Las Vegas cover. Houses there are already down 5%…and he says they’ll probably keep going drink at least until 2010 probably sinking another 15% or so.
In Las Vegas people speculated on houses…they didn’t merely buy them to live in. What is a teaser-rate no doc. ARM anyway? It is just an option to buy a accommodate – if things go well. If they don’t go well you’ve got no equity in the place; you just walk away just as you would from any other option contract that expired out-of-the-money.
There are now some 30,000 housing units for sale in Las Vegas – and another 23,000 in some re-create of construction.
Meanwhile out on the coast house sales in California are off 28% from a year ago. And the poor builders! Lennar (NYSE:) has been cut in half. Toll Bros. (NYSE: ) is down a third.
“If those numbers were not bad enough,” writes The Survival inform ’s Mish Shedlock. “the number of ARMs that are going to define in the next six months is staggering.”
“We are unlikely to sight ‘a’ furnish until May 2008. ‘The’ furnish can be years away. It all depends on how much the Fed fights the slowdown (the more the Fed fights a needed recession the longer the recession ordain be).”
P. S to get The Daily Reckoning enjoin to your inbox sign up to our or if you prefer to use RSS bid to the.
Pessimistic defeatist thinking — “act to Killeen. act to Minot.”
How about getting yourself smarter and earning cash at a faster rate than Banksters can increase the amount circulating — become the optimist!
I don’t know about TX and SD but undergo done some investigate on Ohio housing and the housing is super cheap and in Cantons/Dayton/Columbus and other inexpensive house markets there is plenty to do you comfort get 4 seasons major malls new domiciliate communities almost all houses undergo full size basements movie plex night clubs hotels restuarants etc. Check out the 2007 International Affordable Housing it shows the cheapest cities worth a look.
OK. I’ll be the one to do this. I lived in Killeen and the reason why the housing is so cheap is:
A) It’s Texas and there’s an over abundance of cheap illegal labor. Housing prices across Texas are low.
B) Killeen is the home of the largest military installation in the world. Housing prices are so cheap here because the Army pays so little in this region. The economy in Killeen relies heavily on the population of Ft. Hood. Civilian pay is adversely affected by this as come up because businesses can’t afford to pay normal labor rates. When I moved from a Chicago suburb to Ft. Hood my pay was cut by 52% - both my former and current jobs were nearly identitcal.
We moved from Washington. DC to New Castle. PA bought a 1600 sq’ home for $49,500 and love the area. Easy access to Pittsburgh–a great city–a world class airport–lot of museums and sport. This is a town about to blow up and domiciliate prices have not caught up yet. examine zip label 16105 in Realtor com. For info on the town see:http://www seniorark com/Less%20than%20a%20Shoestring/Less%20Than%20A%20Shoestring htm
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