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| First house for a young man |
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| tooki:
--- Quote from: blueskull on July 03, 2017, 03:28:22 am ---Hi all. This thread is to ask opinions about buying my first house. As I'm progressing in my degree program, I'm about to graduate, and I'm expected to stay as a postdoc for at least 2 years. Depending on future situation, I may stay as a faculty, or I may leave and find a real job. I plan to buy a house, for both investigation and to reduce cost of living. As someone might have heard, economy bubble is collapsing in China, and my parents' want me to buy a house in US as a safe deposit in case Chinese currency collapses. In the meantime, here (RDU metropolitan), real estate's value gains about 10% each year, while tax is only 1.03% (Raleigh city+Wake county), besides evaluated taxable value of houses is overall lower than their real market value. So, long story short, I have $260k on hand (my parents sold one of their apartments used for renting, and I sold my 2 small houses for renting, both in China), and my parents can get me another $10k~$20k if REALLY needed. I plan to buy a small townhouse in Raleigh/Cary, NC with this money. My questions: 1. Should I spend all the money (read: ALL) on a house that leaves me no money at all (maybe a few k$ in checking account, but that's it), or should I buy a cheaper house and spare some money in case of emergency? Right now I have 2 choices: a $270k house, including all costs, and a $220k house, including all costs, both townhouses, both are of similar 1700 sqft construction area, both have 1 garage+2 front door parking, the more expensive one has 3 bedrooms (so the rest 2 rooms can generate renting revenue) and is built in 2012, while the older one is a 2006 house with 2 giant bedrooms (despite giant, a single bedroom is worth the same from a tenant's eye). 2. I can generate ~$500 per month revenue per bedroom, and that means each year, I can make $12k from the $270k house, and $6k from the $220k house. Factoring in that, which one is my best choice? 3. Should I buy a house from the first place? I do NOT have a green card or H1B. I'm on F1 visa, but I'm sure if working in university, I have 100% chance to get H1B if my OPT runs out. In the meantime, I have confidence to get 100 paper citations (which qualifies me EB1 NIW green card program). Inputs are very appreciated, as I'm about to pull the trigger very soon. --- End quote --- I agree about stabilizing the visa situation first. The US government is currently showing ZERO hesitation to renege on promises, so until you have the green card in hand, don't even THINK of relying on merely the promise that you qualify. I'd also advise you to buy a detached home if at all possible; in NC this is eminently doable. (My dad lives in Durham, right at the border to Chapel Hill so I know the area a bit.) Townhouses suck, especially in USA where walls are thin. And they're likely to be under an HOA. Detached houses can still be readily found without HOA. |
| tooki:
--- Quote from: blueskull on July 03, 2017, 10:17:15 pm --- --- Quote from: cdev on July 03, 2017, 10:03:25 pm ---there is a perception that the corporatocracy is deliberately letting public education die so they can shift resources to foreign student programs and overseas guest workers --- End quote --- Well, many (state owned) funding sources actually prefer American students, but the point is most Americans don't really like STEM. They seems to have more interest in either a normal, low income but steady life, such as a clerk, or really high income top of the human hierarchical jobs, such as lawyers, doctors or investors. For instance, in our facility, we have ~100 students, mostly PhDs, with a few masters and postdocs. We have about 1/3 Indians, 1/3 Chinese and 1/6 Koreans and Japanese, while the rest 1/6 are Americans and Europeans. --- End quote --- Whoa now, hold on a minute. It's not that Americans and Europeans aren't interested in STEM. It's that the populations of India and China are HUGE compared to ours. Given a similar percentage of people interested in STEM, you will easily outnumber us. Add to this the fact that many Americans cannot afford to go to university, regardless of interest in the subject, and it's no wonder that Americans aren't the majority. China's wealthy people alone (to which you belong, given the circumstances you describe) are enough to outnumber American STEM students. |
| rstofer:
--- Quote from: vodka on July 07, 2017, 06:46:56 pm ---Until that the goverment declare his owner land as "Good of National Interest",so they expropiate his land and they will recompense with small change. Here , we have a theme park "Port Aventura" when it was built , the autonomic goverment expropiated the lands to 450 owners. The swines declared all the lands as "Good of National Interest". Today, the owners follow reclaiming a fair recompense. --- End quote --- In the US, it's called Eminent Domain and it's part of the 5th Amendment. --- Quote ---No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. --- End quote --- The problem is the definition of 'public use'. The law was often used to obtain land for roads and highways - clearly to be used by the public. Public use was degraded public purpose by the Supreme Court such that government agencies can use eminent domain to seize property and then give it to private developers: http://www.sgrlaw.com/ttl-articles/837/ There probably isn't even public access much less public use! |
| cdev:
As real, wealth creating businesses dry up or move their operations overseas, its replaced by churning activities which milk positions of influence for tax money. |
| Psi:
--- Quote from: blueskull on July 03, 2017, 03:28:22 am ---my parents' want me to buy a house in US as a safe deposit in case Chinese currency collapses. --- End quote --- What if the US currency collapses :-// |
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