Re: AKICIF: "X-Kaspersky:" header

On 30 Mar 2008 12:22:51 -0400, "Keith F. Lynch"
<kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Karl Johanson <karljohanson@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> I haven't done 'inflation to housing costs' studies in depth, ...
>
>The results may be different in the US and Canada anyway, since they
>have different currencies.
>
>> At the same time, I could likely sell this place and buy several
>> places in Midlleofnowhere Northern Saskatchewan.  If I brought my
>> firewood pile, I could afford to heat one of them for one week of
>> the winter.
>
>Look at the bright side:  The same firewood pile could probably heat
>that house for a whole month in the summer.
>
>Similarly, I've heard that you can get a *free* house in North Dakota.
>I might be tempted if I could afford to ship it somewhere livable.

For some values of "free," and assuming there is anyplace more
livable than NoDak.  I gather you've never been there.

>> When one has a mortgage on a house, any money you spend is money you
>> could use to pay down your mortgage.  Buying on credit or with cash
>> works about identically.
>
>Good point.  But I'm pretty sure that in the US, due to the tax code,
>it seldom makes sense to pay down one's mortgage in less than 30
>years.  Anyhow, it doesn't address whether it's *rare* to never borrow
>money, since it doesn't apply at all to someone who rents rather than
>buys a home.

Like many of the things you are sure about and of which you have
no personal experience, you are again mistaken.  It _always_
makes economic sense to pay down a mortgage as quickly as
possible.  Mortgage interest isn't deducted from taxes owed, but
from gross income.  There are some unusual circumstances that
dictate borrowing against a dwelling in order to make other
purchases deductible, but in and of itself, the faster a mortgage
is paid, the less it costs.
-- 
Doug Wickström
har fiol, vill resa