Why is that insane? Sounds like a good program, what am I missing?
I can see a few ways it could be bad but yeah I do want to hear a commercial banker who works with loans all day explain what’s busted about it. The only thing I see is that it could distort home prices upward for first time buyers.
I’ll never own a home but is the 20% downpayment going to equal the 20% equity in the home when it comes due? Sounds like it could turn out to be a pretty expensive loan. Also, sounds like a free money to the original seller who can bump the price on first time buyers.
Anyone have the deets on the heat pump subsidy? Putting one in (mostly for the AC piece) but will enjoy the heat side as well.
Is this heat pump thing new technology? I thought heat pumps have been common for decades. Why is everyone installing them/getting tax credits for them now?
Old tech, new tax credit, imo.
I think there’s a big push for electrification spurred by concerns about greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas and oil-fired furnaces.
And I think the tech/engineering has improved, and costs come down as the tech becomes more mainstream, so “momentum” is increasing, if that makes sense.
I think I’m just surprised there are so many people without existing heat pumps. I don’t think I’ve ever lived anywhere without one.
New addition to this strategy: it seems like everyone wants to offer pre-offer rate locks now. This seems insane in a world with effectively unlimited loan officers. Banks out here just reverse freerolling themselves. I’ve got my credit union locked in for 5.5% (with a small lender credit), if rates go up no problem, I’m locked, if rates go down goodbye credit union, hello loan officer #1. Rinse and repeat. I don’t know if rates will go up or down from here but I do know I’m going to have someone locked in at the bottom whenever it happens to be. Also sad to say I’m pretty pumped to get back into home ownership with a historically decent rate of 5.5.
The credit union is competing with other lenders right now at 5.5%, and presumably is willing to take a small shave on the possibility that rates slightly increase in the next 30 days in exchange for your guaranteed business if the rate remains flat or increases.
Maybe. Literally anyone else could also compete for my business by offering the same deal after going under contract without the prior commitment though. I imagine if the best rate at the time is 5.75 nobody would do that though, so they’re effectively only locking in my business if it becomes an unprofitable move for them at the moment I need to commit. If it’s still slightly profitable for them but still below what anyone would offer on the free market I’ll take it and be happy for the leverage I wouldn’t otherwise have the pull for. I feel like they must be banking on me not shopping around and coming out well ahead if rates drop, but I’m never going to be that customer for them. It seems like an especially dangerous incentive to offer when the one thing we know about rates in the near term is they’re likely to be volatile. However they frame it from their perspective is fine with me though, from my perspective it’s a freeroll that I’m happy to exploit.
I’ve never seen one, don’t think they’re really a thing in MN or at least they aren’t anywhere I’ve lived.
Well, to put a degree of closure on my tax shenanigans, I did end up talking to a professional, who confirmed that I had everything basically right. I also talked with the IRS, and they said they wanted only my updated Schedule D, the 8949 that accounts for the ESPP nuances, and the 8889 that I should have filed to say that all the expenditures from my HSA were on qualified health care expenses (they were, but I had forgotten to enter them and say they were). So, we may not be quite done yet, at least not until the IRS says I’m done, but I’ve at least got this figured out for the most part.
This did make me go back and review my 2022 filing, and while the bad news is that I made some of the same mistakes, the good news is that I made them in the governments’ favor (state and federal), so I’ll file an amended return and get some more money. I do have to get that in lest I go through this ordeal again, but at least I have a financial incentive to do so. The other bit of good news is that my company switched brokerages in the middle of 2022, and the new one doesn’t do nearly the complicated reporting as the former. I’m not sure why, exactly their reporting is more akin to long term capital gains (but with higher tax rates) rather than a much more meticulous accounting of every step along the way, but for 2023 and beyond this shouldn’t be so bad.
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Home insurance question, I’m getting a quote of $150/month for a 1% ($5500) deductible on wind and hail damage which seems worthless unless a hurricane rips my roof off. It’s $170/month for a $500 deductible. Seems likely it would pay for itself for any reasonable wind damage in 20 years? I don’t get any hurricanes here but 40-50 MPH winds happen several times/year.
I’m not an expert here but I think it’s pretty unlikely that buying more insurance is +EV. That’d be a pretty big mistake on the insurer’s part.
Edit: Obviously that doesn’t mean get none/as little as legal. It means only buy enough to cover yourself to a point in which you can stomach the cost financially of anything below that deductible.
Ibond report in a week, you guys buying again? What thresholds? First world cash problems yeah
I’m still too young for bonds.
I think when my tax return hits I’ll start being ETI/SPDR shares instead of just having money in a savings account.
This is my usual approach but I’m having trouble imagining going 20 years without a wind event that causes $5k+ in damage. I thought getting roof replacements after significant storms was common, unless it’s been so common in the past that insurance has cracked down on the practice. I realize it’s been a borderline scam industry so maybe this is the case.
Anecdotally seems like if you find the “right” roofer they go through a database of weather events to find something that matches some “issue” with your roof and can strong arm insurance to replace so seems pretty likely if your motivated after a weather event that you can get new roof
(I haven’t done this but seems tempting given what I hear lol)
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