Random Thoughts Thread

[balthazar]

• Most 'modern houses' are built like crap with crap material. I'd rather a restored old house (pre WW2) for the bones.
• Sales tax in NJ is in the process of going down, from 7.0 to 6.875, now is 6.625%. I like the direction there.
• Property tax is nuts here, yes. I've long said it'll be the thing that pushes me out of state.
• Zillow says the above house sold in 2004 for $432K, it's assessed @ $500K, but Zillow estimates it at $705K market value (I had it a bit off above). Taxes in 2017 were $11,3xx.

[ocnblu]

What is "wee" about 1240 sq ft?

[balthazar]

True- it's not 'wee' for 1 or 2 people. But it's definitely on the small side for Princeton; one customer of mine's house in the same town is 12,900 SF. Yeah, I know.

I love the boxy Art Deco look of it, I'd love to see inside/walk around.

[trinacriabob]

Any relatives I've had in NJ have been in northern NJ (Bergen County, right across the GW Bridge from Manhattan) and I could have sworn there is some provision for property tax relief when people get to a certain age and that my relative mentioned.  He stayed in his house when he retired instead of moving to Florida!  I'm not sure if they have a provision that locks the assessment, like they do in California, so that people didn't get chucked from the homes they bought at 60s and 70s prices, for example.  I thought Prop 13-Jarvis was the right thing to do.  When those houses in Calif. do sell (the next time), their property tax assessment will jump.

[ccap41]

10 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

The dividend yield may be good but the absolute amount is small.  The yield always looks better when the price drops, not that that's been the situation at Ford.  Their stock just seems to hover between $10 and $12.

That's because it is a small dollar stock. You have to buy a decent quantity to get a good amount. But the same can be said for other higher yield stocks. 

If one buys $500 in Ford vs $500 in Pepsi, Ford pays a higher dividend(all assuming the price stays the same, etc. etc.). 

[ccap41]

I'd consider 1240sqft on the wee side of things. It's not actually small but its definitely on the small side, imo. 

[balthazar]

19 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

...I could have sworn there is some provision for property tax relief when people get to a certain age...

I believe that's correct, that you can 'freeze' your tax bill once of a certain age. My MIL lived in the city I mentioned, New Brunswick, and she did so there. Not sure if it's available in all areas or what the qualifications of the program are.  The Gov instituted a 2% property tax raise ceiling recently. My issue is- the cat is already out of the bag and EVERYTHING here is overtaxed.

If one buys $500 in Ford vs $500 in Pepsi, Ford pays a higher dividend(all assuming the price stays the same, etc. etc.). 

Interesting- I've never looked at dividends with investment dollars as the metric, only by 'per share'.

[balthazar]

Birmingham auto, Jamestown NY, Only existent from 1921-23, had several unique features but was unable to generate sufficient capital. About 50 built, none known to exist. Note independent front suspension ~

[G. David Felt]

10 hours ago, balthazar said:

• Most 'modern houses' are built like crap with crap material. I'd rather a restored old house (pre WW2) for the bones.
• Sales tax in NJ is in the process of going down, from 7.0 to 6.875, now is 6.625%. I like the direction there.
• Property tax is nuts here, yes. I've long said it'll be the thing that pushes me out of state.
• Zillow says the above house sold in 2004 for $432K, it's assessed @ $500K, but Zillow estimates it at $705K market value (I had it a bit off above). Taxes in 2017 were $11,3xx.

WOW, Thanks for the update, I do agree with you about old homes having the best bones. 1240 sqft is the average size of Apartments in the greater seattle area for a 2 bedroom. Average home size is between 2000 to 3000 sqft here.

My house was built in 1952, beams are all over kill in size needed, siding on the house is 12 inch nottless cedar siding, very traditional split level 3 bedroom plus office home.

So what is the real sales tax when you figure in city sales tax on top of that? Washington state has 6% but with all the other state / county sales tax average is 10% here on everything.

$11,300 is more than double my property tax. I would agree with you that would push me out of that bedroom state to NY. WOW 

6 hours ago, ocnblu said:

What is "wee" about 1240 sq ft?

As I stated in my reply to balthazar, 1240 is the average for a 2 bedroom apartment here, 1 bedroom run about 900 sqft. avereage homes here are from 2000 to 3000 sqft not including the 2 car garage.

2 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

Any relatives I've had in NJ have been in northern NJ (Bergen County, right across the GW Bridge from Manhattan) and I could have sworn there is some provision for property tax relief when people get to a certain age and that my relative mentioned.  He stayed in his house when he retired instead of moving to Florida!  I'm not sure if they have a provision that locks the assessment, like they do in California, so that people didn't get chucked from the homes they bought at 60s and 70s prices, for example.  I thought Prop 13-Jarvis was the right thing to do.  When those houses in Calif. do sell (the next time), their property tax assessment will jump.

Washington state has the same thing for retires, set property tax level so that seniors do not get pushed out from their home.

[Robert Hall]

Don't think I've ever seen a steel house before, though have heard of them. 

 1240 sq ft might be fine for two people--my Denver condo was 2 bedroom and 1000 sq ft.    My sister's 1952 house in AZ was 1200 sq ft, 3 bedroom and was cramped for 2 people w/ dogs and too much stuff (we still had to have 2 storage units), with no garage (2 carports, 3-4 cars).  

My 1967 house here in the Cleveland 'burbs is a 2700 sq ft split level, 4 bedrooms, finished basement.  Size and storage space is good but I'd like more garage space (the 2 car garage is a bit on the small side). 

Property tax on the Phoenix house was about $4500/yr, about the same has my house here.    Property prices in the Cleveland area are lower than Phoenix but taxes seem higher.    My family farm in Ohio (150 acres, 1857 house, guest house, barn etc) has taxes about the same...my older brother is always bitching about the taxes (but he only has to pay 1/3 of them--he & my sister and I own the property). 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[A Horse With No Name]

14 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

There are no Guidos in Italy.  No open shirts, gold chains, and slicked back hair.  Or, if you see some variant of that, it will be more stylish (almost too much so) than pimpish.   Italian kids look at their Jersey Shore counterparts (age wise) with amusement and derision.   What you will see over there are the wrong parts of town with people that look menacing, so you know that you'd best be moving along.  Any more, a lot of the people occupying these districts might be from other parts of Europe, the Middle East/Asia, and (mostly North) Africa.  The number of undocumented people in Mediterranean Europe is large and creates tension and social problems.

I am pro immigration but it is creating a lot of problems in a lot of places. I currently have an exchange student from Denmark and apparently the number of young men who are immigrants with knives up to no good is rather high.

I bet Italy has a lot of good kids, I have always admired Italy in a lot of ways. Irony of Irony, my student from Denamrk shared  a flight with a girl from Italy when he arrived in Columbus in August.

12 hours ago, balthazar said:

• Most 'modern houses' are built like crap with crap material. I'd rather a restored old house (pre WW2) for the bones.
• Sales tax in NJ is in the process of going down, from 7.0 to 6.875, now is 6.625%. I like the direction there.
• Property tax is nuts here, yes. I've long said it'll be the thing that pushes me out of state.
• Zillow says the above house sold in 2004 for $432K, it's assessed @ $500K, but Zillow estimates it at $705K market value (I had it a bit off above). Taxes in 2017 were $11,3xx.

Property tax cheap here in Ohio, $1800 a year for me...2000 square foot house on a quarter acre lot in a decent subdivision. 

7 hours ago, ocnblu said:

What is "wee" about 1240 sq ft?

Nothing if one is an OOmpah Loompah.   Charlie says he wants the Canyon metallic Ecosport from the other thread back at the factory, pronto.

[Robert Hall]

3 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

 

Property tax cheap here in Ohio, $1800 a year for me...2000 square foot house on a quarter acre lot in a decent subdivision. 

Higher in Cuyahoga County...I have a 2700 sq ft house on a quarter acre lot and its a little over $4200/yr..

Edited February 23, 2018 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[A Horse With No Name]

5 hours ago, balthazar said:

True- it's not 'wee' for 1 or 2 people. But it's definitely on the small side for Princeton; one customer of mine's house in the same town is 12,900 SF. Yeah, I know.

I love the boxy Art Deco look of it, I'd love to see inside/walk around.

I love Art Deco architecture.  And furniture...and the Art Deco Look in locomotives and trains. Delta had an art decoish looking series of tools back in the day also.

13 hours ago, dfelt said:

WOW What a dump, looks like it is ready to be demolished and a new modern house built.

Knowing NJ to have crazy Sales tax, Income tax and property tax I bet the Property tax on the house is between 15-20K. Crazy

Love the Bernie sign in the yard a year and a half after the election.

[balthazar]

33 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Property tax cheap here in Ohio, $1800 a year for me...2000 square foot house on a quarter acre lot in a decent subdivision. 

 

30 minutes ago, Cubical-aka-Moltar said:

Higher in Cuyahoga County...I have a 2700 sq ft house on a quarter acre lot and its a little over $4200/yr..

Ready?? 2030 SF, .9 acres, $12,500 property tax.

- - - - -

Quote

So what is the real sales tax when you figure in city sales tax on top of that? Washington state has 6% but with all the other state / county sales tax average is 10% here on everything.

No city/local taxes in Jersey (that I know of). In fact, there are urban tax zones where the sales tax is 3.5% instead of the 6.625%.

Edited February 23, 2018 by balthazar

[Robert Hall]

Just now, balthazar said:

 

Ready?? 2030 SF, .9 acres, $12,500 property tax.

Wow...NJ is notoriously high for taxes, isn't it?  Probably higher valuation also.   To put it in perspective, the 1200 sq ft house in Phoenix was valued at $320k, my Ohio house at $165k. 

[balthazar]

I believe only CT is a higher cost of living than NJ. Notorious for taxation- yes, but there's a LOT of income/employment here; huge for pharma. I'm in my 12th year of self-employment, work full-time/steady, currently have jobs booked into May, all with ZERO advertising. No web page/ phone listing/ network service/ etc.
Our house is a 25-yr old ranch in VG shape, Zillow says it's worth $450K.

[A Horse With No Name]

7 minutes ago, balthazar said:

I believe only CT is a higher cost of living than NJ. Notorious for taxation- yes, but there's a LOT of income/employment here; huge for pharma. I'm in my 12th year of self-employment, work full-time/steady, currently have jobs booked into May, all with ZERO advertising. No web page/ phone listing/ network service/ etc.
Our house is a 25-yr old ranch in VG shape, Zillow says it's worth $450K.

My house is probably worth $230K...two story colonial, 16 years old.

Ranch homes can be really comfortable.

[Robert Hall]

I know there is a lot of work in NJ/NYC area, I get headhunters pinging me about gigs there all the time.. if I wasn't working out of my house and couldn't find something in CLE/CMH/PITT,  I'd consider looking at the East Coast and fly out and back every week (if I could get a high enough rate to offset travel expenses).  

My sister did that for 15 years from Arizona--traveling all over the country and to the UK...but the life of a road warrior consultant is always intense.   

[trinacriabob]

I  looked up the Post WW2 stucco ranches in L.A. that I grew up in and their prices are scary.   I'm constantly scratching my head as to who can afford them.  Someone must be able to or they couldn't charge those prices.  The supply and demand curves must be intersecting.  My parents couldn't buy those same houses if fairly new to L.A. in this day and age.  Prices are high, but assessments as a percentage in L.A. aren't as absurd as they are in other major urban areas.

As for square footage, 1,200 s.f. sounds like my cup of tea.   I had a Southern styled brick ranch with the open carport at one side when I lived in Atlanta that was about 1,300 s.f.  I loved it.  Not too big, not too small.  Driving by it if and when I'm in town breaks my heart because I don't have it anymore.  I sensed that it was an up and coming area, and I was correct.  They put a spur of their rapid transit system going fairly close by to it because the nearby area turned into a suburban business district.

Well, when living near Seattle, I had to downsize into condo/townhome type living.  It, too, was o.k., but nothing like what I had in Atlanta.  But, OTOH, I had no yard work.

Either way, if you want to buy a detached home in L.A. with 3 bedrooms for about $350K to $450K, it will be in South Central or maybe Compton, the latter of which is not in the city of L.A.  Also, I've heard that some white folks are moving back into the South Central area, fixing up the homes, and living in them.  They'd be smack between downtown and the harbor suburbs, although the area looks and feels sort of banal and doesn't have a lot of trees on the lawn strips.  You fly right over it on approach to LAX.  In reality, South Central has converted from having an African-American majority to having a huge Hispanic population within the last 2 decades.  Let's just say it's still not the optimal part of L.A. to live in for low crime and good schools.

As for art deco, the design of homes/buildings and ships cross-fertilized each other in that era, I believe.

Edited February 23, 2018 by trinacriabob

[Robert Hall]

When I was looking at buying a house in Denver back in '05-07, I was looking at 2500 sq ft split levels and ranches, 60s-70s construction on decent sized lots, in the $350-450k range...same houses now are $500-750k.   

[A Horse With No Name]

I have a 21 year old daughter and a 24 year old son who both ahve fantastic jobs, daughter is making north of 50K son is making north of 60K, both are being priced out of local amrket because house prices in Columbus are going off the chain.  My house has gone up in value $25k in the last two years.

 

[A Horse With No Name]

Almost in a very bad traffic accident this morning, someone in a silver Acura blew a red light at twilight, almost missed them and pulled out into the intersection...had I pulled out, they would have T boned me in the drivers door.  Not good.  Wife gasping in the back seat when she happened to glance up was the only thing that stopped me.

Wife this morning was livid that she had gained ten pounds... and then  realized the family cat was standing behind her on the scale.

Bother in law had a tumor removed, they are not sure if it is cancerous or not.  No one in the Buffalo hospital system can figure out what it is...sending sample off to Harvard medical. NOT the way you want to go to Harvard.  he is my age...not good...additional growth in his abdomen will require surgery.  they think he might have additional growth in his chest, they are doing ultra sound and MRI to figure WTF is going on.

Daughter is going to model UN as part of high school project...I am headed to Michigan to coach/judge in a debate tournament at Hillsdale College in about an hour.  Getting out of Columbus will be a bear.

[Robert Hall]

Almost saw an accident yesterday...going down a major 4 lane street w/ lot of potholes...cop was up ahead, parked in the right lane, lights on, parked behind a car he'd pulled over...partially in the street, partially on the curb...car in front of me dodges a pot hole and almost veers into the cop as he is getting out of his car...

[G. David Felt]

My 1952 house 2000 sqft with 2 car garage, 3 bedrooms, 1 office, 1 3/4 bath on .3 acre lot. Bought in 1999 at $140,000, now valued at $452,800 by the county for tax purposes, $4,300 a year in property tax, but local realtors say it can sell for between $550,000 and $600,000. Washington housing market is crazy!  

223% percent increase in 19 years. Crazy 

[frogger]

Our 1800 sq foot 1916 house was assessed 350k higher than we bought it for in 2017, 2.5 years after we bought it .

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by frogger

[trinacriabob]

I cannot believe the prices in Toronto.  On my 2005 visit, I drove around Woodbridge to see how much newer brick townhomes with nice finishes with 2 levels stacked above the 2 car garage cost and they were about $325,000 to $375,000 (CDN).  I converted that into U.S. dollars (almost always a lower $ amount) and, for some reason, I thought it was sort of high.  Given what I've seen in Toronto prices based on the last R.E. magazine I checked out, I'd hate to see what those townhomes would cost now.

[frogger]

1 hour ago, trinacriabob said:

I cannot believe the prices in Toronto.  On my 2005 visit, I drove around Woodbridge to see how much newer brick townhomes with nice finishes with 2 levels stacked above the 2 car garage cost and they were about $325,000 to $375,000 (CDN).  I converted that into U.S. dollars (almost always a lower $ amount) and, for some reason, I thought it was sort of high.  Given what I've seen in Toronto prices based on the last R.E. magazine I checked out, I'd hate to see what those townhomes would cost now.

Our dollar is worth about 80 cents US these days. It was at par for about 5 years when oil prices were way up there a few years back.

Those townhouses are probably worth around 900k now, maybe 1 million+ if they are luxury.  Lack of supply, GTA has 1 million more people since you last visited and the interest rates have been historically low.  We have a foreign buyers tax now as one of many measures to try and cool the market (they are working somewhat).

We are on a 33x120 lot in the city, typical double brick craftsman that has never been fully gutted.  We pay $6700 in property tax annually but it will be going up over the next few years to account for the valuation increase.

.

 

 

 

 

 

[trinacriabob]

Yes, I remember USD : CDN - 1 : 1

I also remember USD : CDN - 1 : 1.52 (circa 1999 ... Prince said "let's party like it's 1999" in one of his songs )

[daves87rs]

Dang, I'm headed toward the second major job shake up in less than a year. After being laid off last year- I've been working at the old  job while searching for a new one (not another job, but a better one).Found out a few days ago that my position is disappearing and they are hoping they an transfer somewhere else.

This is why I tried hard to get out of retail in general. The industry is dying pretty quickly......

Trying to think positive and not stress out....this also throws of my plan of adding another degree to my current one...

[ocnblu]

Very nerve wracking, understandably, Uncle Dave.  I hope it is resolved quickly.

 

[trinacriabob]

I'm sorry to hear about this, Dave.  All of these shake ups shake us all up.  Crazy stuff.

[balthazar]

Seat belts were newly mandated for '66, so they were automotively topical.

Wonder what/how the other end was attached to in the car.

[daves87rs]

15 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Very nerve wracking, understandably, Uncle Dave.  I hope it is resolved quickly.

 

 

13 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

I'm sorry to hear about this, Dave.  All of these shake ups shake us all up.  Crazy stuff.

 

Thanks guys! Yeah, it's not easy-but positive steps should get me there.....

[balthazar]

Thanks to Ocnblu for bringing this to my attention. Super Duty 455, 1000HP.

[balthazar]

[G. David Felt]

OUCH, Guess even the Mercedes-benz 6x6 is stopped by enough snow.

 

[G. David Felt]

Found a Story about a EV startup that started in 1992 but never made it out of 1992. Very interesting off set seating configuration.

Bertone Blitz 

1430 lbs curb weight

72 hp electric motors

0-60 in 6 seconds.

[daves87rs]

On 2/25/2018 at 11:46 AM, balthazar said:

Thanks to Ocnblu for bringing this to my attention. Super Duty 455, 1000HP.

Just love that look...

Makes me wonder how well it would do if it came back...

[balthazar]

Someone buy me this, plz.

[trinacriabob]

On 2/26/2018 at 12:20 PM, dfelt said:

OUCH, Guess even the Mercedes-benz 6x6 is stopped by enough snow.

 

I've been to Cortina D'Ampezzo.  The Dolomites defy description.  They don't feel like stereotypical Italy.  It's more like being in Switzerland or Austria.

On 2/25/2018 at 11:46 AM, balthazar said:

Thanks to Ocnblu for bringing this to my attention. Super Duty 455, 1000HP.

The wheels and tail lamps say Pontiac and Firebird to me.  When they ran together, I always preferred the Firebird to the Camaro, except in '77 and '78 (owing to the nasty "Smokey and the Bandit" front fascia).

17 hours ago, balthazar said:

Someone buy me this, plz.

It has old school California plates.  That is almost undoubtedly the Central Valley.

Edited February 27, 2018 by trinacriabob

[balthazar]

2 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

The wheels and tail lamps say Pontiac and Firebird to me.

Yah- that's cause it's a Trans Am. Trans Am Worldwide debuted it just recently, I understand it's going into production (no price yet). Video I saw sure depicted it as VERY high quality.

[G. David Felt]

OUCH BUYER BEWARE!

Ferrari approved Dealers rolling back their digital odometers increasing value of a used car.

http://www.thedrive.com/news/18857/lawsuit-suggests-ferrari-may-have-known-dealers-were-using-official-tool-to-roll-back-odometers

[daves87rs]

3 hours ago, dfelt said:

OUCH BUYER BEWARE!

Ferrari approved Dealers rolling back their digital odometers increasing value of a used car.

http://www.thedrive.com/news/18857/lawsuit-suggests-ferrari-may-have-known-dealers-were-using-official-tool-to-roll-back-odometers

Just waiting for the plaid suits now....

[trinacriabob]

20 hours ago, balthazar said:

Yah- that's cause it's a Trans Am. Trans Am Worldwide debuted it just recently, I understand it's going into production (no price yet). Video I saw sure depicted it as VERY high quality.

It's going to be interesting to see if they will run into problems with using the names, logos, and other appurtenances specific to the Pontiac brand.  It has now been ~10 years since it was phased out. 

I read about it.  It's a customization kit set up for the Camaro.  However, to crank out 1,000 ponies, that calls for a very specific engine, which it will have.  When a new engine gets dropped in, it stops being a "kit" in my book.

At any rate, has anyone noticed the recent change(s) in the Yahoo search page?  While I prefer Google, this Yahoo page now features photography from its Flickr wing.  If you love nature and animal photography, some new and stellar pieces of work are being showcased all the time.  I am in awe of many of them.

 

[G. David Felt]

Seems Rome has announced that starting in 2024 all Diesel auto's will be banned from city streets. Last year 1.8 million new cars were sold, 2/3rds of them Diesel.

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/02/28/arrivederci-diesel-rome-to-ban-oil-burning-cars-by-2024/

Seems Milan has announced that no Diesel auto's will be allowed in the city starting in 2030.

[G. David Felt]

Cool Police Department has their first BOLT Police car and a EV Police Bike.

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1112212_is-this-the-countrys-first-chevrolet-bolt-ev-police-car

Another Video I found exciting for when you have 90 minutes to Kill is a tear down of the Chevy Bolt Battery pack.

EV Awesome!  

[G. David Felt]

Stupid Tourist rents brand new $82K Rang Rover, ignors signage of protected beach and gets it stuck and then abandons auto and ocean destroys the auto.

http://www.thedrive.com/news/18863/ocean-destroys-82000-range-rover-sport-after-stupid-tourists-get-stuck-on-protected-beach

The stories here are too funny including this one on a new Chevy Pickup truck gets stuck on the beach, owner rents tractor, gets stuck, talk about major cash loss.

http://www.thedrive.com/news/17360/dude-bros-get-new-chevy-silverado-rented-backhoe-stuck-in-frozen-lake-during-illegal-off-roading-attempt

Awesome Tesla X AWD pulls Semi in snow storm.

 

[G. David Felt]

Another 4 door coupe? Some are saying a Grand 8 series coupe? Why?

 

[balthazar]

^ Because obviously the 6 series grand coupe is setting the charts on fire.

- - - - -
 

Edited March 1, 2018 by balthazar

[Robert Hall]

6 hours ago, dfelt said:

Another 4 door coupe? Some are saying a Grand 8 series coupe? Why?

 

Probably the 8 series Gran Coupe or a 9 series.   The previous 6 series Gran Coupe was a sharp car.