Abberly Crest Blog

Many people can tell you a list of reasons why you should buy a home. But as with everything else, it depends on who and where you are, in your life as well as your career. Despite the prevailing assumption that everybody, everywhere should settle down and buy their own home, research shows there are actually times and circumstances when renting might be better than buying.

Will you put in the time?
In any investment, there's no such thing as a sure thing. What usually makes real estate a better risk than most is time. The longer you commit to a property, the better your chances of seeing its value appreciate.

If it is likely in any way that you will move, change jobs or stay in the house for a short period of time, buying may not be a good idea. Letting go of a property before it has appreciated enough to cover the costs and commissions is not pleasant and if you bought with less than a 10% down payment, it could be brutal. Commission and closing costs will likely wipe out appreciation gains, if there were any. If the purchase was made with an even smaller down payment, chances are you'll come out at a substantial loss.

Will you like the neighborhood?
If you are new to Maryland, you should take ample time to acclimatize before investing money in a house and its neighborhood. If you are relocating to a place you hardly know, spend at least a year in an apartment community until you're certain where and how you want to live.

Will you be happy giving up the freedom?
Initially at least, renting is less financial pressure than buying. Paying a first and last deposit doesn't compare to the big chunk of change required for a down payment on a house. And even if you have enough savings, you could invest it otherwise and hope for significant capital gains. With current market volatility that may not seem prudent, but just imagine if you'd invested a typical down payment amount in the stock market ten years ago.

Renting gives you the freedom of time as well, with no yard or home maintenance projects. Renting is also lower risk because natural and other disasters the problems of the landlords.

Even though rents tend to increase by 3 percent a year, unexpected maintenance costs or sudden property tax hikes don't concern you either.
 
Relocating to Southern Maryland? You should look at apartments in Lexington Park, MD. Original article salary.com

When deciding whether to rent or buy, you are making the choice to rent an apartment home or renting the capital needed to buy a home. Most Americans don't consider that they are renting equity (from the bank) to buy a home. As you are aware, very little equity is built in the first few years of paying a mortgage. Many people are surprisingly still very unaware of this fact.

This following article explains how renting is financially better than buying in about 75% of cases!

For the Past 30 Years, Renting Was Generally Better Than Buying

If homeownership is the American dream, then the nation had better wake up. That's the message from a new research paper that examines whether buying or renting a home was a better financial decision over the past 30 years. Most would find the result surprising: over the period Americans were better off renting between 65% and 75% of the time, depending on the investment alternative.

The article essentially looks at eight-year periods and assumes that a person invests the money he or she saves by renting. Since buying is generally more expensive than renting, renters have extra money to invest. It also makes a number of assumptions favorable to homeownership, including gains from the mortgage interest tax deduction, the option to refinance, and the ability to walk away -- loss-free -- from an underwater mortgage. Still, renting wins approximately three-quarters of the time.

The staff at economic research organization e21 explains why this result actually shouldn't be so shocking:

Counter-intuitive as the finding may be to some, it is actually quite logical. Unless someone possesses the cash necessary to buy a residence, he or she will be renting one way or another. The choice is between renting the property directly or instead renting the capital necessary to buy the property. The amount of capital to be rented is a function of house prices, while the bulk of a mortgage payment is interest, which is the rental payment on this capital. After 2 years, the typical 30-year amortizing mortgage balance has been reduced by less than 3%. This means that a household that took out a $300,000 mortgage with a 5% interest rate to buy a home has only reduced its mortgage balance by $8,600 after two years despite spending nearly $39,000 in total over this period.

Housing advocates may respond by pointing out that at least the $8,600 in this scenario went towards home equity rather than simply being squandered on rent. But, as demonstrated in the Real Estate Economics article, the principal component of each mortgage payment - i.e. the portion of the mortgage payment that goes towards reducing the principal mortgage balance instead of interest - is an added expense renters don't have.

This turns the real estate industry's biggest talking point on its head: you aren't throwing rent into the wind each month, you're casting away equity.

Of course, that equity also provides a potential benefit. The analysis's eight-year rolling methodology appears to miss the biggest reward of owning a home: living rent-free once the home is paid off. After that 30-years is up, the longer a family remains in that home rent-free, the more buying pays off. Taking this into account would almost certainly change the result in some, if not all situations. Renting may be a better option initially, but there's no eventual reward.

An important point still needs to be made here: buying a home that you don't plan to live in for an extended period of time probably isn't a great idea. The rent you pay in the form of interest on a 30-year loan for five or even 10 years won't be any better than if you had just rented outright. But if you're planning on living in a home for 30-plus years, then you could potentially get some benefit from buying rather than renting.

Original article by By Daniel Indiviglio, The Atlantic

Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals were happy to defeat the New York Rangers in the quarter finals of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But this is not their only success in these NHL Playoffs. Autism Speaks, the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players' Association have partnered for Face-off Against Autism. This is a unique fundraising initiative that allows hockey fans to support autism research and support their favorite team and player throughout the playoffs.
 
In five games the Washington Capitals have earned themselves some time off before the next round of play, they’ll end up with at least four days without a hockey game and maybe six or seven. The Capitals are now on a quest to have their most successful season in at least four years, and they haven’t made it through the second round of the playoffs since 1998 and all of Washington D.C. and Maryland are very excited!

During these playoffs, Face-off Against Autism will highlight a key NHL player from each of the 16 playoff teams, transforming his photo into a digital puzzle. Fans can purchase pieces of the puzzle for $10. Every fan who buys a puzzle piece gets a 20% discount off their next purchase at the NHL Store and will be automatically entered to win one of four autographed jerseys. So, buy a puzzle piece Capitals fans, because one of the jerseys has been autographed by NHL Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin.
 
Face-off Against Autism is featuring the Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, who is currently leading the NHL puzzles. The campaign will run through the end of the playoffs. Now there is more than one reason to cheer for the Caps!

Hello Abberly Crest!Are you ready for a super-natural night? Last year Kip Williams brought you one of the scariest movies of 2009. If you saw the first movie you probably experienced some sleepless nights afterwards. Well, Kip Williams has doen it again in Paranormal Activity 2. Get ready for more spine-tingling horror stories that will leave you breathless. Lexington Park Movie Theaters