@jteelms.bsky.social
Writer on biz, tech, #realestate 🏡, #homeownership, #personalfinance & #decisionmaking. Fixer homeowner living Plan B. Always have a Plan B.
If you buy a fixer house & can't fix it all in 2 years, you may end up replacing your earliest fixes before you even start on others.
Example: carpet. After 10 years in my fixer house, I haven't yet redone the kitchen because I'm paying cash as I go. But the "new" carpet has died.
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#realestate
The FHFA HPI reports US house prices fell -0.4% MoM & rose 3.0% YoY in April.
MoM changes ranged from -1.3% in the West South Central & South Atlantic census regions to +1.2% in the Middle Atlantic.
YoY changes ranged from +0.5% in the Pacific region to +7.4% in the Middle Atlantic.
#RealEstate
My fixer house needs new carpet, so I'm researching carpet makers. Here's a comparison I made across reviews from Better Homes & Garden, LifeStory Research, Carpet Captain, Houzz & Reddit. The last column counts sources with positive mentions for each manufacturer.
#homeownership #realestate
Charlie Munger on asset allocation:
"If a thing is not worth doing at all, it's not worth doing well."
#personalfinance
"Real estate industry hopes Liberal government steps up its game" as told by @goldinyvr.bsky.social
#bcpoli #vanpoli #vanre
GIFT LINK: www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/ee67d5a...
“Just in the past 10 days, Donald Trump Jr. made stops in Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Bulgaria,” the newspaper wrote.
At the same time, Eric Trump was visiting Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and other Middle East spots promoting the family’s real estate company and crypto plans.
Considering a home purchase in Los Angeles? These neighborhoods are gaining steam in the real estate world. According to an analysis from nonprofit newsroom Crosstown, West Adams has experienced th…
05.05.2025 21:00 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
We got the plans out of Trump on his ideas for Alcatraz! Like in Gaza Trump sees our old dilapidated prison on an island as a real estate play! Always making deals! Mar-a-Lago West !
05.05.2025 21:10 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
San Diego mayor says real estate moves will save city $13M over 5 years
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria announced that renegotiating the lease for the building at 525 B Street will save the city $13 million over the next five years.
Recent data from TD Bank's GTA Condo Market Outlook points towards condo values falling by 15-20% from their peak in Summer 2023 by the end of 2025, with 10% of that decline taking place in this year alone.
Full story: loom.ly/B04RiKs
#GTA #Toronto #realestate #housing
So I give the future new carpet a 10 year max life. That means 2 more carpet replacements to save for before I retire.
Eventually, when it's too late, I'll find out how durable this new carpet actually turns out to be. Home ownership is a never-ending adventure that way. 😁
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Nylon with a low, even-looped pile would last longer. But I'm so traumatized by how badly my Stainmonster nylon carpet stained that I won't consider it.
Nylon doesn't even wear that much longer. My old polyester carpet lasted 8 years. The current nylon carpet was flattened & matted at 10 years. 9/
I've found a polyester carpet from a well-regarded manufacturer that features a mix of short, even loops & short cut pile. Face weight is 38.1 oz. It is also solution-dyed & treated to resist pet stains.
Will it wear? The pile design & face weight SHOULD meet or beat long cut-pile nylon. 8/
"Face weight" captures the durability gain of more yarns per inch woven into a carpet. But it includes the weight of low-durability long pile as well, so it's NOT a pure durability metric. Bottom end is 20 oz.
Of 2 carpets with the SAME pile design, the heavier face weight wears longer. 7/
That leaves the wear problem. Polyester doesn't wear well, but pile design can help.
Cut pile, which is the most common type installed today, thins as the cut ends fray. It also flattens if yarns are long or yarn-count-per-inch is low. Looped pile wears longer. Short, even loops wear best. 6/
Solution-dyed yarns can also help. Solution-dyed yarns are dyed BEFORE being woven into the carpet. This helps the dye "take" better, making solution-dyed carpet more stain and fade resistant than carpet dyed later in manufacturing.
Solution-dyed, pet-treated polyester for the win! 5/
There's a pet-treated nylon that's supposed to resist acidic pet stains 2x as well as regular nylon. But that's not good enough.
There's a pet-treated POLYESTER that's 2x as resistant to pet stains as regular polyester. That's ~4x better than untreated nylon, and it MIGHT be good enough. 4/
The problem was pet stains.
Stains weren't a problem with the polyester carpet in my old condo. Pet stain remover worked.
But I bought longer-wearing nylon for this house, & nylon has a chemistry problem. Acid stains etch it & can't be removed. Pet stains are acidic. 3/
Tile or hardwood are forever. Carpet is not. I chose carpet anyway because it is:
• Warmer
• Softer to sit on
• Sound-dampening
• Non-slip
Price wasn't a factor in this case, but carpet is cheaper too.
I bought quality carpet & figured it would last 15 years. It did not. 2/
If you buy a fixer house & can't fix it all in 2 years, you may end up replacing your earliest fixes before you even start on others.
Example: carpet. After 10 years in my fixer house, I haven't yet redone the kitchen because I'm paying cash as I go. But the "new" carpet has died.
1/10
#realestate
In an analysis of 47 million single-family home & condo sales in 2015-2024, ATTOM found US home sellers got the highest prices when selling in May, with a 9.5% premium over the year's average price. Next highest were February (9.4%) & April (9.1%). #realestate
www.attomdata.com/news/market-...
6. FOOD INFLATION is real. See that purple band widen in 2022 to 2024?
7. FOOD COSTS MORE THAN UTILITIES + COMMUNICATION in California. A favorable climate lowers utility costs. High population density lowers communication costs to vendors, who may pass on savings. Retire to such a place.
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5. IF YOU RENT, you pay the landlord's mortgage + irreducible core costs + profit. At best, these are split across multiple renters & may cost less than home ownership for each renter. But for rent to be cheaper than owning, keep rent < 1/3 of your total expenses & <33% of income.
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3. PAYROLL TAXES PLUS MORTGAGE ≈ half your expenses while working. So your EXPENSES DROP BY HALF if you pay off your mortgage before you retire. This makes living on Social Security possible.
4. PREPAY YOUR MORTGAGE if needed to pay off your mortgage by retirement! It's that big a deal.
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2. #HOMEOWNERSHIP COSTS are ~1/3 to 1/2 of total expenses in California. Even after mortgage payoff, an irreducible core expense remains for property tax, insurance, HOA, & maintenance. This irreducible core is your 3rd largest expense while working & likely your largest expense in retirement.
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Some #personalfinance & #homeownership facts show up best in stacked area charts. I've shown a personal example. Some under-appreciated facts of life:
1. PAYROLL TAXES—including US & state income taxes, FICA & SDI—are your biggest expense by far. Include them in your budget & manage them!
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Trump is & always has been extraordinarily bad for business. Just assume he will break anything he touches.
This simplifies investment planning. 😜
Peter Zeihan shares his take on how tariffs & Trump's ejection of immigrants from the US worsen other demographic trends in the US home purchase market. (~5 min)
#realestate
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J6p...
Consider US Treasury investments like T-bills & bonds. What happens to those if Trump decides to default on US debt?
They become worthless, that's what. So investors are dumping them now.
Would DJT ever default? Has he ever defaulted on debt in the past? 😬
#personalfinance
Index of Consumer Sentiment chart from 2015 to 2025
Covid had an enduring impact on consumer sentiment, per the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment.
The index is measured relative to the year 1966. In 2017-2019, the US consumer level of satisfaction was almost equal to the riotous, protest-ridden 1960s. Then things fell off a cliff.
