Free and clear, out right ownership

How many people really own their own home?
I did some searching around and the articles I came up with said up to around 30% of americans own their own home out right, free and clear, no rent no mortgage and only pay property tax to keep it.
Allegedly half the people in my age range own their own home. Problem is I have never known anyone my age or younger who actually owns their own home with out some arrangement of paying someone else to stay in it.
US center of commerce says that up to "70% of people own their own home" but we know what that means (the bank really owns it in most of those cases).
US census provided the data saying who owns their home free and clear. Maybe some of the people who answered the question don't have any understand of the meaning of "owning something out right" due to lack of experience of really owning anything at all. I think its a case of mass delusion or misunderstanding and these people are simply confusing possession and ownership assuming they mean the same thing.

The only people I know who own their own home are mostly in the 60+ age range and the others all in their late 50s.
I also find that people under 25 supposedly have a 20% free and clear ownership rate. HA! I was born at night, but I wasn't born last night. I don't think I can believe that.

My wife and I own our own house only because of an inheritance. The wife complains that its a small piece of shit, but its our piece of shit. We could sell it and it would make for a down payment on a normal house and we could "afford" a $250,000 loan for 30 years but I really don't feel like putting the economic slavery chains on working my ass off just to be forced to retire just in time to be broke, disabled and have 1 foot in the grave.
So I am going to be investing in turd polish.
The way I figure it, I could take a year or 2 worth of mortgage payment interest (no barrowing any money) and fix the place up to what ever we want.
Then take the $9,000 or so dollars per year I would be paying the bank in interest on an over valued rat race home and spend it on stuff I want, I mean stuff that my wife wants. Either way its better than giving it to the bank.
I am sure one day will move, but my plan is buy a place with cash and fill any of the cash gap using a loan secured with something other than the property its self.
Our piece of shit house is only worth about $25,000 to $30,000 to the bank. Just the piece of mind of peace of mind of owning your own house and not having to work a bunch of over time all the time "to get ahead" is invaluable.

 

I'm one of the lucky ones. Everything is paid for. Zero debt. $500 in property taxes each year.

 

Zero debt, but always looking over my shoulder for as long as we have to pay property taxes, we can never really own our property, but only renting from the government.

 

No debt here until my wife buys a car in the next year or 2. Even then I think I have here talked into a lease turn in as opposed to new with 0 miles.

 

None of The Above, applied to this Monkey .

 

No debt, not one cent, I own my truck and car and everything else. And, I own my home 100% and didn't even put Home Insurance on it until we had 2 wildfires get a bit too close last summer so this summer I'm insured. Idaho property tax isn't too bad and I paid $1400 in property tax last year but - of course - it is going up this year as property value went up.

Wife keeps telling me also that house is too small but it really is all we need as just the two of us, it's well-built, and sits on beautiful acreage - and it's paid for!

 

According to government at various levels our property is always in hock to them...don't pay the taxes, they take it. Even try to charge you more if you don't pay ahead. This is why we are all "debt slaves" - we live in perpetual tax debt.

 

$1400 isn't too bad? I guess we got real lucky then. Our annual property tax is $36. Think we might just stay here

 

I pay $2800 a year...and we pay less in this area than most of the rest of the state. We got fair roads that rarely get plowed...no storm or sanitary sewer system, no fire hydrants, no city water, no curb, gutter or sidewalk, no mosquito control, no local police force (don't need or want one), part of a regional volunteer fire district that is undermanned and equipped...but we got lots of nice new schools! I hear we even got teachers for most of them!

I've seen the same disconnect in every community I have lived in....we really make a hell of an effort to provide good schools...if only we made the same effort for our critical infrastructure and economic development, the kids who graduate those good schools might stick around, rather than running off to find success and security elsewhere.

 

About $1200 per year property tax on my place and that's because we just built a small addition and attached garage

 

Not bad, Not bad at all.
1 place we have near the big city runs about 850.00
2 nd. place just went up to an estimated 125.00 or so, 15 acres designated as Timberland , All I have on it is a cabin and not under Homestead exemption.

 

I have owned 3 different homes in 3 different states. The one our family is living in right now is the first one that we have owned "free and clear" of debt.

Even my first house, which I bought when I was 26 or 27 years old, I was paying at a rate that it would have been paid off in 22 years rather than the 30 year loan. I used Excel to help me calculate what to pay every month. One can use an online calculator to do this now (more on that in a minute)
I absolutely hate debt as well monthly fees -- which is why we canceled cable back in 1999. I figure that we have saved between $19,300 and $24,000 by not using cable TV in the last 17 years.
Back to the house -- we moved from that house to another state only 3 years later, but it still meant that we had more money to put down on the next house. I don't recall the loan terms but I figured out how to get another 8 or 9 years off that loan by paying an additional amount each month.

• Call your mortgage company and see if there is any penalty for paying another $200 each month on your mortgage. Often there is not. If you are signing papers for a new loan, ask (and demand) that in advance. Most banks (in my experience) do not charge an extra fee.
• Use the calculator that I found at Early Payoff Mortgage Calculator to Calculate Goal Payment Amount. It is very simple to use. The last field, labeled "New loan term in number of years" is where you put the number of years that you want to pay off in. Try a few different numbers in there -- then check the field for "Amount to add to payment to achieve payoff goal" and see if you can afford that.
  
• You will save literally thousands of dollars off your mortgage over the years. See my example, below, which shows a savings of $38,415.08 in interest payments! That is $38,415 that you DO NOT have to pay, since you are paying off the loan early. In that example, one only has to pay an additional $167 per month on the mortgage.

Numbers talk, that is all I have to say. Here is an image of the example I cited.

Mortgage_payment by hitchcock4 posted Jun 29, 2016 at 9:41

 

Our property tax is 300-400 a year, can't remember the exact amount. Of course if I build my dream home, it will probably triple at least. Because that's what annoys me, there's no 'standard' property tax, it's based on the value of your home/land. So if you have a piece of crap, you pay less. WTF is up with charging people more for having a nicer home?

 

@hitchcock4 "I absolutely hate debt as well monthly fees -- which is why we canceled cable back in 1999."
Yes! Me too! I refuse to get cable or satellite TV and constantly am bombarded with flyers and telephone calls to sign up - not going to happen. First, it's too darn expensive and second one get hundreds of channels that I don't want and will never use. So, when they can sell me ONLY the channels I want and charge me ONLY for those which would be probably 4-5 channels then I might consider it for a much reduced price.

@VHestin "...there's no 'standard' property tax, it's based on the value of your home/land. So if you have a piece of crap, you pay less. WTF is up with charging people more for having a nicer home?"

Yeah, I don't get it either. My property value goes up - big deal - so do my taxes. Talk about rigging the game so one can't get ahead... And, if you improve your home then BING-BAM-BOOM - taxes increase plus they charge ridiculous amounts for permits for any improvements. The game is rigged.

 

Since property value inspectors don't come in your house, in most places, yet...
Make the inside nice and leave the out side kind of meh.
Make the place look like a palace and they tax you accordingly.

 

Quote from OP4: New "How many people really own their own home?
I did some searching around and the articles I came up with said up to around 30% of americans own their own home out right, free and clear, no rent no mortgage and only pay property tax to keep it.
Allegedly half the people in my age range own their own home. Problem is I have never known anyone my age or younger who actually owns their own home with out some arrangement of paying someone else to stay in it."

"own your own home" but pay yearly rent on it? "...own their own home out right, free and clear, no rent no mortgage and only pay property tax to keep it.". "No rent" but then you say you pay rent to your master to "keep" it? Sorry, lost me there. " I have never known anyone my age or younger who actually owns their own home with out some arrangement of paying someone else to stay in it." I'm sorry, WTF? If you OWN it, then armed thugs can not come along and take it and you do not pay yearly rent to your master to use it. You are only RENTING from your master, you do not "own" anything.

 

The difference between the bank or someone else owning your house compared to paying only taxes is with the bank or land lord, you miss a few payments and you are out of there.
Miss paying taxes for a year usually nothing happens, let it go a few years yeah you will really be hearing about it, but it can take up to 10 years of zero payment for them to kick you out depending on where you live. Even if you just pay something they will let you stay and just put a lien on your property. Not allowing you to sell it to anyone unless the buyer agrees to pay the lien in full or you give the property to the state.
Much better than dealing with a typical land lord or the bank and only a tiny fraction of the cost.

For example, taxes are about $360 per year. A mortgage would be at least $300 per month on that house and you still have to pay taxes. I know which one I would rather have.