My point, Hired Goon, was that anyone can write anything on any form and who is going to challenge them. Statistics can be made to read from any angle. And if no-one answers the door at that house on census night, is it assumed no-one lives there?
As far as return and risk are concerned, well I don't really know about houses other than my own neck of the woods, but just one which we purchased for $156K ten years ago and which we have spent about $30K on progressively over that time has just been revalued at $690K+.
I know the knockers will say "but it is not worth that until you sell it for that". But the house three doors away, same size block of land, same street just sold for $810K and will be knocked down for a rebuild. Even if prices fall, this house is still a little gem.
So when the knockers talk about a capital gain being only on paper and not "real", I don't listen because this house has proven itself to us.
I am no good at maths, but from $190K ($156K plus $30K progressive reno) to $690K+ seems to be a bit more than doubling in 7 to 10 years. Rent has more than doubled in that time too.
So, we don't care what rate of return we are getting. We don't bother doing any calculations.
If we had not bought this house ten years ago because someone told us that houses prices could not possibly double in the next ten years, wouldn't we have missed out on a huge gain?
Wylie
As far as return and risk are concerned, well I don't really know about houses other than my own neck of the woods, but just one which we purchased for $156K ten years ago and which we have spent about $30K on progressively over that time has just been revalued at $690K+.
I know the knockers will say "but it is not worth that until you sell it for that". But the house three doors away, same size block of land, same street just sold for $810K and will be knocked down for a rebuild. Even if prices fall, this house is still a little gem.
So when the knockers talk about a capital gain being only on paper and not "real", I don't listen because this house has proven itself to us.
I am no good at maths, but from $190K ($156K plus $30K progressive reno) to $690K+ seems to be a bit more than doubling in 7 to 10 years. Rent has more than doubled in that time too.
So, we don't care what rate of return we are getting. We don't bother doing any calculations.
If we had not bought this house ten years ago because someone told us that houses prices could not possibly double in the next ten years, wouldn't we have missed out on a huge gain?
Wylie