OK, I guess you have to go to the main page first: [link]

Then click on "oops2.jpg" and "rubber_02.jpg"

eta: and "AirtranAir.jpg"

Lookit my cousin! She's all growed up.

All this and I'm still going to try to wake up early enough to make it to the city's house-hunting assistance office tomorrow. May be completely useless,but worth a shot.

I miss mountains.

Bacon bandaids

When I think about a house (actually, a condo, because I will not be able to afford a yard for decades yet), I figure in property taxes as well as the interest when counting up payments. On that assumption, even when I've saved up a 10% down-payment, I would still be paying more than double my current rent in monthly payments.

Now, as these things go, my rent is kinda low. (For one thing, flatmate.) But still -- double? Even if I waited another 3 years and had a 20% down-payment, it would still be close to double. I could go ahead and buy a bigger condo, and have a flatmate, but a bigger condo costs more.

For this reason, I am ardently expecting a crash in the local housing market any minute now. Or, preferably, in 2 years when I have amassed my down-paymetn funds in full.

Yay for your cousin, ita!

Look at her shoulders and thighs. Her physical conditioning is obvious, even in clothing. I bet she could swing one of my kids as easily as she can swing a tennis racket.

Do you have any idea of her practice schedule and any additional work outs, she does? I can't imagine being in the short of shape that could be even hinted in a photo of that quality. I am blown away. And wait. She's 35th in singles and 16th in doubles?

Note to self: don't cross any tennis players

Timelies, all!

Happy Birthday, Betsy!

Too much blood in my caffeinestream. I must recalibrate.

Too much blood in my caffeinestream.

Very dangerous condition. I recommend taking immediate steps before things get any worse.

I'm with Nutty in hopping for a housing market crash just in time for me to afford one. However, I'm sure that the housing collapse will only come with increased interest rates, which will bite me in the ass.

Happy Earth Day, All!

In honor of Earth Day, we're having a tree (autumn flame maple) planted in our yard this afternoon. Just coincidence that it's today -- we bought it a couple of weekends ago.

To complicate the real estate question even further, there are tax implications. Mortgage interest is tax-deductible if you itemize your deductions (and in many of today's real estate markets, if you can afford to buy a home, you're itemizing anyway because of state income taxes). So the real cost of that interest is (interest payment - tax deduction), or put another way, the federal government gives you back a portion (roughly 1/3, for higher tax brackets) of the amount paid in the form of lower income taxes. While you're also paying property taxes on that home, those payments are also deductible.

Alternative investments also raise capital gains tax questions. When you sell that home, you get $250,000 in capital gains tax-free ($500,000 if you're married filing jointly). And until you sell, you pay no capital gains tax whatsoever. Other investments are different -- if you use the money to buy 1000 shares of Microsoft, you also defer the capital gains tax until you sell, but you don't get that $250,000. If you put it in a mutual fund, you pay capital gains every year because mutual funds have to pay out almost all of their gains annually.

In other words, the matter is such a complicated mess that there probably isn't one right answer to buy vs. rent.