Good things come to those who wait ⏳️

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I am often reminded of back in 2009 and 2010 when I started looking at replacing my Ford Ranger with a bigger, newer truck. I decided to hold off a few more years and was able to get a nicer truck with more money saved, and relatively low prices due to do the recession. I had originally looked at getting a stripped down work truck or something used, but I decided to throw some more money at the Ford Ranger, and keep it on road for a few more years, despite pushing over 140k miles and needing more parts and repairs. But I ended up getting Big Red, and then lifting it with a 6-inch lift during the beginning of 2015.

I so want to buy a house, and I’ve been looking but I concede I don’t want to buy or build in New York State if I can avoid it due to the gun laws and burn ban. Plus most of the houses locally are your run of the mill, plastic-coated, vinyl-sided suburban houses with gas heat and grid-tied electricity on a tiny piece of land. There are a handful of rural houses that pop up on the market, but they are mostly a variation of the suburban house some in neighborhoods that smell like cow shit with a longer commute. But if I hold out for a bit longer until I’m 55, I know I can have something much better.

I’ve been watching how much battery, inverter and solar technology has improved over the past decade, and it’s truly remarkable. With advanced electronics and LiON batteries – it’s such a different world then old fashioned lead acid batteries and old-style MPPT controllers like Midnight Solar ones. It’s only going to get better and cheaper in the next decade. Combined with more money saved, I can build or rebuild really the ultimate off-grid homestead that I actually want, not some crap suburbanite-lite house with a big blue bin and grid-tied solar panels on the roof and Tesla Swastika-Car on driveway. I don’t have to stay in Albany or New York forever, if I don’t buy here but just focus making through age 55.

Housing as an appreciating asset 🏚️

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In recent years, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and watching videos trying to understand homeownership and investing more generally. One of the most common claims is that a home is an appreciating asset sort of like many stocks are – they often go up in value over time. But does the house go up in value, or just the land? Or are they somehow connected?

The physical building – is unlikely to be an appreciating asset on it’s own. Human-made structures are regularly attacked by the forces of nature and wear and tear. Indeed, I find it hard to believe that a house is actually an appreciating asset, although a building combined with land — housing — often is an appreciating asset, as people will pay more for a house over time, as land gets allocated to housing and a growing population seek housing close to work with a shorter commute.

I find the paradox to be quite fascinating. How a depreciating underlying asset – a physical building that is getting worn out and needing repair and replacement – can appreciate in value when maintained and upgraded due to it’s location. Maintenance and upgrade cost can be quite substantial – 2 to 3 percent of building’s entire value each year. A lot of tearing up, throwing away and buying new. Maybe that’s what I don’t like about suburban houses, with so much of their fragile material that quickly becomes landfill.