Sex In The City And Real Estate
Posted by Donna Niksich | Visited 1466 times, 1 so far today | Leave A Comment »
Most everyone we know loves episodes of “Sex in the City” (ok…fine…most women). “Hello Lover”! I myself am an avid fan and have religiously watched it for years and often find my life running parallel to Carrie Bradshaw. Thus my words of wisdom to other busy, single women who sometimes find themself in the dilemma of needing to do the right thing vs. doing the fun thing… One episode comes to mind while renters are looking for another place to rent or are thinking of buying a place during this time. 
Carrie was trying to buy her apartment and she couldn’t because she realized she had spent too much money on her Jimmy Choo and Manolo Bilanik shoes, which by the way can cost up to over $1000 per pair. WHAT!! “Really Carrie! shouldn’t you do the right thing by saving for that apartment instead of doing the fun thing and buying those HOT SHOES!!” If you remember or didn’t see it, “Big” gave her a check for the down payment but she ripped it up and eventually received a check from her best friend, Charlotte, and all was good. You have to love sisterhood! Then her significant other, Aidan, stepped in to buy the other apartment and began to remodel.
If you’re single, in a big, popular city…New York, Chicago, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco. Are you financially able to buy real estate if you do not have a significant other, spouse, friend, if you have children, or not?? Well, reality is, rentals have increased in price, especially the HOT places.
In San Diego County, you look for a rental in the HOT places that fit your budget, you go check it out, and it turns out to be a dump. Owners who want to rent have the upper hand right now because lenders have such difficult criteria to purchase a home, so most return and give up to renting. Oh, but it’s such a great market to purchase bank owned property right now, so this is said!
Well, most of us love our shoes or whatever. So it’s a toss up. Should we buy shoes that make us look fashionable and HOT, or should we save and buy an apartment….out here in San Diego, it’s called a “home” or “condo”. Well, I must tell you…I’m all about looking hot and sexy and I would go for the shoes, but dreams of owning a home prevails.
Bottom line. If you’re an independent contractor and you have tons of write offs in order to fore-go paying high taxes (in compliance with the IRS I must add), you are pretty much unable to qualify for a loan to purchase a home, unless you want to buy one that is built to apartment specifications, or a tear down or shack somewhere in an unsafe neighborhood. Hello! Single mom or women in these neighborhoods? No thank you. I’d rather buy the Jimmy Choo or Milano Bilanek shoes!!! By the way, this message is for the median income or lower income buyer/renter, not the buyers or sellers out there that make $80K/year or more…whatever lenders are looking for now.
If you have a significant other and one makes a salary of approximately $40K/year, but the other is an independent contractor and has write offs to avoid taxes, you’ll probably have to rent. Then we have the owners and landlords taking advantage of the tough stipulations lenders require to buy a home at this time, so the rents have increased, even if it’s a dump on the coast. So, if the rents are high, how can we save for that 3% or more down payment for that dream home?
So, just forget a’bout it and do the fun thing, buy those fashionable shoes for the time being…you may as well look HOT. “HELLO LOVER” – Carrie would approve!
