Property Pricing in your area - gone up or down?

[dfrecore]

Maybe we should do away with the idea of home ownership as the American Dream? While I didn't read any of the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" series, I was told that the author does NOT consider homes an asset. (Which other asset do you own that you have to pay to maintain?)

Instead, communities should encourage the building of high-quality apartments. Places where you'd want to live because you don't hear you neighbor because of sound-proofing, someone else maintains the yard, etc. There would be enough units that there wouldn't be crazy rent wars. Then, when economies cycle, folks who want to find work can leave the area because they won't hang around hoping and praying that they'll get back their "investment" in their home. It makes for a more mobile workforce.

First, no one is saying that the American Dream is home ownership. Each person gets to decide for themselves what their own American Dream is. For some people, it's home ownership, for other's, it's owning their own business, and if you ask a refugee or immigrant from some war-torn nation, I'd be willing to bet that their dream was freedom and safety.

As for Kiyosaki (RDPD), I have read a couple of his books, and he doesn't share the same views as most people I know. There are plenty of assets you pay to maintain; cars, boats, rental properties, stocks (you pay fees if you own any mutual funds), etc. If you consider your body an asset, you pay lots of money to maintain it (food, shelter, clothing). I would argue that EVERY asset you have needs to be maintained in some way with money, but feel free to tell me I'm wrong, and give me a couple of examples where this is not true.

No thanks to a high-quality apartment! Besides the fact that rent goes up every year (on average) and your monthly house mortgage does not, there is no way I'm living in an apartment complex like that. I saved up money to get AWAY from that lifestyle, thank you very much. I like having a yard, having space in my house, being able to put in a pool, being able to remodel to make it exactly what I like, etc. I ENJOY all of that, and wouldn't give it up for anything. And, by the way, over the last 10 years we have rented several times while moving around, and we rented a HOUSE each time, never an apartment. Oh yeah, and we were plenty mobile while doing this - we moved 30 miles away to closer to family when my kids were little, and then 500 miles away to follow a job.