Mail Bag: I’m Thinking of Buying a House in Florida. What Should I Consider?

When looking at home purchases, it is best to compare median household income to median home price for a local economy, then factor in a few other projections.  Though not perfect, it improves your odds of avoiding serious trouble.  There are also a few other things that are worthy of consideration, including future interest rates, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

A Perfect Example of Why Most Investors Have Terrible Returns on Their Money

This morning, there was an excellent article in The New York Times called Housing Prices Fell in march for Eighth Straight Month. Susan Lindsey, a San Diego software programmer, was once eagerly waiting for the housing market to crash. She said she would have no guilt about swooping in on some foreclosed owner who had [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Home Affordability Now Cheapest It Has Been in 35 Years

You may have noticed that the folks involved in finance were concerned long before America thought there was a recession and we’ve been telling you that it is getting better long before you’ve seen it in your day-to-day lives.  This is because most of us look at data and are closer to that data than [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Mail Bag – Why Do Some People Say It Is a Bad Idea to Pay Off Their Mortgage?

Today’s mail bag question comes from DCFDD who asks: Joshua, I sometimes hear people say they don’t pay off their mortgage because of the tax deduction.  If someone borrows $500,000 for a house at 5%, they pay $25,000 a year in interest to the bank.  The best I can figure, even if they are in [...]

from Joshua Kennon

$13.5 Million Ocean Side Estate in British Columbia

9344 Ardmore Drive North Saanich, British Columbia Canada is on the market for $13,500,000 CAD.  The down payment would be $2,700,000 and the mortgage $10,800,000. Of course, I don’t think you should buy a property like this unless you can do it with much more equity than 20%, but that is just me.  Anyway, at [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Why Do People Try and Buy Huge Houses They Can’t Afford?

A family member of mine was looking at houses and I started thinking about Charlie Munger when he said it is important to keep a lot of the “silly needs” out of your life.  (This particular family member is doing a great job managing his budget, but in general, it made me wonder about society [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Woodway Bluff Estate

There is something about the exterior styling of the Woodway Bluff Estate that I enjoy a great deal. You could put it in the middle of a significant plot land, gate the entire thing so it wasn’t visible from the road, and spend your days managing a mutual fund or hedge fund from the in-home [...]

from Joshua Kennon

47 Park Street Mayfair Village London

I know I’m giving free advertising here but this is a great idea and so I wanted to highlight it.  A company has renovated 47 Park Street in Mayfair Village London as a collection of partially-owned residences.  If you have to travel for business or pleasure, you can buy the right to use one of [...]

from Joshua Kennon

If Monopoly Were Real Life, How Rich Would You Be If You Owned the Entire Board?

If you wanted to be as rich as Mr. Monopoly, how much would it take?  How high would your annual income be?  Your net worth? Those are the question that I pondered sitting at my desk this morning.  Out of pure curiosity, I began to adjust the values of the Monopoly property rents for inflation, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Protected: Mansion and 126 Acre Estate In the Small Farm Town Where I Grew Up

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

from Joshua Kennon

When Trying to Get Rich, the Early Part of the Journey Is Always the Most Difficult

This is a 223-unit, 15-story high-rise luxury apartment tower in Silver Spring, Maryland called The Bennington.  It is 292,000 square feet and was built in 2004 for a cost of $27 million.  The architect was A.R. Meyers Architects and the general contractor was Foulger-Pratt (motto: “We build to last”). Today, presuming the property was rationally [...]

from Joshua Kennon

One of the Mansions In Charlie Munger’s Secret “Mungerville” Up for Sale

Given that I wrote about Charlie Munger so much this week (re-reading part of his biography caused him to be on my mind), I thought this was interesting … Years ago, through a tiny property subsidiary called MS Properties (or something along those lines), that is a subsidiary of Wesco Financial Corporation, that is a [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne Certainly Know Their Real Estate

When it comes to real estate, business acumen, and interior decor, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne have my admiration.  Not only are their properties flawless in appearance, they use them as cash generators. According to one of my favorite blogs, Mr. and Mrs. Osbourne purchased this 4,500 square foot, 5 bedroom, 5 bathroom beachfront property in [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Housing Crisis Isn’t All Bad …

As Warren Buffett pointed out in this year’s letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, for every house that falls in value and pushes one family into bankruptcy, another American family benefits from the lower prices as new households are created due to the younger generation graduating from college, settling down, and moving out of their parents’ [...]

from Joshua Kennon