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What your house is really worth

Posted September 15, 2008 - 19:14 by Philip Brewer

Real Estate and Housing

A nice house

There are several things you can do with a house that you own. During the housing boom, most of the attention was focused on two of those things: You could sell it, or you could borrow money against it. Now that the bust has arrived, it's easy to see the limitations of that particular model. Happily, there's a more stable, more useful way to value your house.

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Renting is cheaper

Posted September 4, 2007 - 12:38 by Philip Brewer

Frugal Living, Real Estate and Housing

Framed house

Everybody has seen a rent-versus-buy analysis. On one side you add up the mortgage, taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs (being sure to adjust for the tax write-off of the mortgage interest). On the other side you add up, well, just the rent, really. Then, at the end of 30 years the homeowner has a house and the renter has... nothing. Here's a different way to look at it.

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