Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Think of the Possibilities

In the fall of 1996, I was trying to decide between buying some property or going to G-school. I believe I made the right choice, especially since I could, no way no how, come up with the scratch to buy this house even at the 1996 price.



But man if I had, would I have kept it as is, converted into kick-ass SFH or sold to become condos, as is the most likely scenario.  It's ridiculous to speculate about what could have happened without a Delorean but let's play along.

This site says the Mortgage Interest Rate was around 8.5%.  Sites like CribChatter were not a thing back then and I was not a savvy buyer and didn't know anything about real estate.

According to the CCRD, this property sold in October 1996 for $315,000.  That means 20% down payment of $63K plus closing costs was very much out of reach for me on a $30K year paralegal salary.  But let's say they would give you a loan back then for 5% and there was some boutique lending program that let you roll up the closing costs or otherwise figured out how to help first-time buyers out.



HUD lowered down-payments from 20% to 3%, in 1995 and then to 0%. The Clinton Administration ordered Fannie and Freddie to expand their quotas of risky loans from 30 percent of portfolio to 50 percent.

The question then becomes could I have come up with $15-20K to buy this house.  Again, most surely NOT.  And if had, my life would not be the life I live today, which means no Nightingale, Natasha or Boris.  I think I'm in the better timeline.  

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