Open Houses Without the Extra $135,000 Mortgage
Here’s an interesting fact: according to the American Automobile Association, the average cost of car ownership and maintenance for a typical car in 2006 was $7,800 a year. That includes all the costs that make car ownership such a drag — gas, parking, insurance, visits to the mechanic. The average family has to earn almost $10,000 in pretax salary, just to pay for one car. Add two cars to the mix (as many families have) and that’s $20,000 of a family’s hard-earned salary going just to feed and maintain two cars.
What’s this got to do with real estate?
Simply this — as real estate developer and professor Christopher B. Leinberger has noted, owning just one car is the equivalent of having an additional $135,000 mortgage in your life after you deduct mortgage interest. Not exactly a recipe for wealth.
So in light of the tyranny of the car, I thought it was worth visiting Brookline open houses this weekend where you could conceivably ditch one or more car, helping to simultaneously clean up the environment, de-stress your life and substantially enrich your bank account. All three of these properties are near the T and bus lines as well as stores and shops.
25 Green Street, #1
Brookline
BEDS:2/BATHS:2
Sq.Ft: 1488
$598K
Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
1070 Beacon Street, #5A
Brookline
BEDS:2/BATHS:1
SQ.FT:972
$439K
Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
922 Beacon Street, #33
Brookline
BEDS:1/BATHS:1
SQ.FT:585
$369K
Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:30 PM – 2:15 PM
Sweet Digs Boston Home
Brighton/Brookline Archives
mike.martin said:
This is really thought-provoking, Pam. I hadn’t seen the numbers, but this is why we still drive a 1998 Saturn (that, incidentally, gets an honest 40 mpg).
Car payments are a gigantic waste of money, and when people buy a new car, they seldom ask themselves if they can afford the residual expenses.
Plus, being the car owners in a group of friends gets exponentially more expensive; we spend an hour after every party shuttling “car-less” city dwellers back to their apartments….
My 2 cents — people’s credit scores jump when they buy a house or condo, and then they invariably get a new car — which is a recipe for trouble. Keep the junker and save your pennies.
Plus, cars depreciate almost as fast as double-dipped mortgage-backed securities….
October 3, 2008 9:26 AM
Where's My Bailout? said:
Now that we’re careening towards a recession, howzabout I wait until prices come down. Then I can have the house *and* the car!!
Woo hoo!!!
October 3, 2008 11:47 AM