Depressing Weekend...
Rachel and I have been living in our townhouse for over 5 years now. The first 2 as renters, the last 3 as oweners. We're ready to upgrade to a single family home, but things aren't looking very promising. Last week I inquired about a single family home I saw listed in an add. The house was listed at $325,000, but it gave very little info about the house. So I got a call back from the real estate agent and he told me the house was only 1400 square feet, which is smaller than the townhouse we have now. I guess he could hear in my voice that I was disapointed, so he asked what price range I was looking to stay in. I crunched some numbers, and figured we could afford a $350,000 home pretty easily, a $400,000 home we could manage and a $450,000-500,000 would be a real stretch. So he sends me a listing of homes in the area, and everything that falls under the criteria of what we can afford is quite old. We went into this not expecting to afford a new home if we stayed in the area. But I was hoping we could afford something a little newer than something build in the late 70's. It's one thing to buy an older house as a fixer upper, but at $400,000 + we can't really afford the house plus another $20,000+ to modernize the place.
The other thing that scares me is that with interest rates going up, I think the real estate market may be close to reaching a plateau. We stand to make a good profit if we sell the townhouse. The same model in my neighborhood is now selling for more than double what we paid for it back in 2001. But my fear is that if we buy a $400,000 home in 2005, that it will still be worth $400,000 in 2010 and 2015. So we're almost tempted to buy a newer home, because the resale value should stay higher. But the monthly payments would just kick our ass. And it's not like we would have to deal with these monthly payments for a year or two, we're talking about a huge monthly payment for the next 30 years!
Now on to the death of the Pope. It was sad seeing him suffer for so long, especially the past month or so, so I'm happy he is now at peace and no longer suffering. But I was still saddened seeing the photos of the Pope laying in state yesterday. I guess seeing someone who seems so dynamic, in such a humbling position is just shocking to me. He looked so small and frail. I didn't realize how much he deteriorated, until they started showing old clips of him when he first because Pope in the late 70's. He looked so alive, so energetic, so healthy. I always thought he had such warm, loving eyes. I never realized how much of that fire and warmth was gone in his final years. I know there are those who will disagree with the Popes stand on modern day issues such as birth control and sexuality, but it's very difficult being in his position in such a science oriented world. Science and medicine have become new religions to people. While some of the Pope's beliefs may be seen as archaic, there is something to be said for sticking to your guns and standing for "standard" family values.
What's odd about the timing of his death is that I happen to be reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown right now. The whole book is about choosing a new Pope. An ancient underground society kidnaps the four cardinals who will be voted on to become the next Pope (the preferati). So I was pretty impressed at how well researched Dan Brown was. A lot of the rituals and proceedures that take place in the book are to take place for real over the next two weeks or so. Oh and for those of you who may have seen the photos of the Pope laying in state, there were strange looking guards standing next to him. They were almost dressed like court jesters. I learned from reading the book that these men are known as the Swiss Guard. They come from a long line of men who for centuries have guarded the Pope and Vatican in general.
The one bright spot of the weekend was that the 2005 baseball season officially kicked off last night. Man it was great seeing the Yankees playing again, but after playing the Red Sox 52 times over the past 2 years, I'm really sick of seeing guys like Kevin Millar, Johnny Damon and David Ortiz. I'm not saying he was on the juice, but Manny Ramirez looks a whole lot smaller than he did last year. Jason Giambi is growing to Balboni proprtions, and damn it was good to see Tino back as a Yankee. The Yankees dominated the Red Sox last night, reminded me of game 3 of the ALCS last year. Now if only they could have looked that sharp in game 4 of the 2004 ALCS or game 5, or 6 or 7 :-(.
One movie I won't be going to see is Fever Pitch. Jimmy Fallon + The Red Sox, need I say more?
The only thing that could be worse would be a story about the Mets starring Russel Crowe and Renee Zelwegger. Uggghhh
The other thing that scares me is that with interest rates going up, I think the real estate market may be close to reaching a plateau. We stand to make a good profit if we sell the townhouse. The same model in my neighborhood is now selling for more than double what we paid for it back in 2001. But my fear is that if we buy a $400,000 home in 2005, that it will still be worth $400,000 in 2010 and 2015. So we're almost tempted to buy a newer home, because the resale value should stay higher. But the monthly payments would just kick our ass. And it's not like we would have to deal with these monthly payments for a year or two, we're talking about a huge monthly payment for the next 30 years!
Now on to the death of the Pope. It was sad seeing him suffer for so long, especially the past month or so, so I'm happy he is now at peace and no longer suffering. But I was still saddened seeing the photos of the Pope laying in state yesterday. I guess seeing someone who seems so dynamic, in such a humbling position is just shocking to me. He looked so small and frail. I didn't realize how much he deteriorated, until they started showing old clips of him when he first because Pope in the late 70's. He looked so alive, so energetic, so healthy. I always thought he had such warm, loving eyes. I never realized how much of that fire and warmth was gone in his final years. I know there are those who will disagree with the Popes stand on modern day issues such as birth control and sexuality, but it's very difficult being in his position in such a science oriented world. Science and medicine have become new religions to people. While some of the Pope's beliefs may be seen as archaic, there is something to be said for sticking to your guns and standing for "standard" family values.
What's odd about the timing of his death is that I happen to be reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown right now. The whole book is about choosing a new Pope. An ancient underground society kidnaps the four cardinals who will be voted on to become the next Pope (the preferati). So I was pretty impressed at how well researched Dan Brown was. A lot of the rituals and proceedures that take place in the book are to take place for real over the next two weeks or so. Oh and for those of you who may have seen the photos of the Pope laying in state, there were strange looking guards standing next to him. They were almost dressed like court jesters. I learned from reading the book that these men are known as the Swiss Guard. They come from a long line of men who for centuries have guarded the Pope and Vatican in general.
The one bright spot of the weekend was that the 2005 baseball season officially kicked off last night. Man it was great seeing the Yankees playing again, but after playing the Red Sox 52 times over the past 2 years, I'm really sick of seeing guys like Kevin Millar, Johnny Damon and David Ortiz. I'm not saying he was on the juice, but Manny Ramirez looks a whole lot smaller than he did last year. Jason Giambi is growing to Balboni proprtions, and damn it was good to see Tino back as a Yankee. The Yankees dominated the Red Sox last night, reminded me of game 3 of the ALCS last year. Now if only they could have looked that sharp in game 4 of the 2004 ALCS or game 5, or 6 or 7 :-(.
One movie I won't be going to see is Fever Pitch. Jimmy Fallon + The Red Sox, need I say more?
The only thing that could be worse would be a story about the Mets starring Russel Crowe and Renee Zelwegger. Uggghhh
1 Comments:
Im really starting to wonder about the Swiss. They use those girly knives and now these crazy uniforms. It's a good think they make fine watches and chocolate, or they'de be my personal Axis of Evil.
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