Abberly Village Apartment Homes

As home values fell again in 2011, more and more people are looking to renting as an affordable, flexible lifestyle option. In response to this news, Apartments.com conducted a national survey to more than 3,000 of its January website visitors to find out the reasons they are moving and why they are renting versus owning.

Supporting a growing trend, 33.6% of respondents looking for an apartment this year said they are previous homeowners (up from 20.5 percent in 2011). Respondents who said they are homeowners looking to rent, 26.3% are doing so because they believe renting is a more affordable option and 21.2% prefer the flexibility renting offers in choosing where to live. Apartments.com provides the five most popular responses why their website visitors are choosing to rent versus own in 2012:

• Renting is a more affordable option: (26.3%)
• Flexibility to live where I choose: (21.2%)
• To relocate for employment: (20.5%)
• Cannot afford to keep up with homeownership expenses: (10.5%)
• Lost home due to foreclosure and change in marital status: (less than 4% each)

"It's more important than ever for apartment seekers to be informed and savvy shoppers by utilizing all the online resources available to search for apartments within their budget," says Chris Brown, vice president of product management, Apartments.com.

More than 35% of respondents said they are moving out on their own, which may be a sign of an improving economy and job market, especially in the rental demographic.

The number one reason for moving in 2012 is for relocation for a job opportunity. However, the desire to have more space, to save money and to live in a more desirable neighborhood also topped the list.

Relocating to South Carolina’s capital? For information on renting an apartment in West Columbia, SC, we encourage you to contact Abberly Village Apartment Homes.

Market Watch- Wall Street Journal

Perhaps you are relocating to West Columbia, SC and you have just started the search for a home.  Regardless of where you are in your home search, consider some questions before you decide between renting and owning a home. Buying a home is a big commitment both financial and otherwise, so take the time to weigh pros and cons.

Here are a few questions you should ask yourself:

Will I own it for at least five years?

The  most important question you should ask yourself is whether you will own a home for a long time. People buy homes to increase wealth and five years, maybe even more today, is about the break-even point for earning appreciation in value. If you don’t plan on holding the property for longer than five or more years, don’t buy it! Renting a home is NOT throwing money away. Buying and selling quickly will usually leave you worse off financially.

Can I afford it?

It is more expensive to own a home than you think.  Even if the mortgage lender qualifies you for the loan amount, you need to make sure YOU can afford it. Consider home maintenance costs, child care expenses, health care expenses, expensive lifestyles and habits, on top of the monthly mortgage payment. So make sure that you can comfortably afford your housing payment, still pay your other bills, and still save at least a little more for retirement. Also, if you are not sure of your continued employment situation, don’t buy a home.

Do I know about the neighborhood?

Did you do adequate research, look at enough properties, and learn the neighborhoods. If you just moved into town or if you don’t know the area, rent an apartment in West Columbia, SC for a while. Get to know the city.
 
For information on Abberly Village in West Columbia, SC, contact us.

Excerpts from Onlinesentinel.com

In today's real estate market it's not surprising if people are a bit gun shy about buying or owning a home. Some questions that potential homeowners are considering:

• What if I can't afford my mortgage in the future?
• What if my home loses so much value that I eventually owe more than it's worth?
• What if I have to move in a few years and can't sell my home?

If you've ever asked yourself these questions about home ownership, it could be time for you to look into renting versus buying a home. Believe it or not, sometimes it makes more sense to rent an apartment in West Columbia, SC rather than own. Here are 3 tips to help you figure out which option—renting or buying—makes the most sense for you.

• Evaluate whether you have a steady income to support paying a mortgage..
• Make a time line of how long you plan to stay put. If you anticipate staying in a home for only one or two years, it is unlikely that you will see a significant financial return on your investment.
• Crunch the numbers before making your decision. When buying a home, you have to take into consideration your mortgage payments as well as real estate taxes, insurance payments, and the maintenance costs. With renting, calculating month-to-month housing expenses is as easy as inquiring about the monthly rent and average utilities.

Bottom line: buying doesn't always make sense. For information on our apartment community in West Columbia, contact Abberly Village.

Original article - Home Goes Strong

Nearly 40% of foreclosures today involve a single family house, condominium, or other housing rented out by its owner. When this occurs, the renter can lose their lease and be forced to move on short notice.

This is just one of many reasons why it is smarter to rent an apartment in West Columbia, SC from the professionals at HHHunt than a private individual! HHHunt is a professional management company that gives their residents peace of mind, great apartment amenities and customer service. And Abberly Village is conveniently located right outside of South Carolina’s capital.

One of the most important aspects of renting at an HHHunt Apartment Community is our amazing on-site maintenance teams. With an individual owner, you will typically have to wait for contractors or your landlord to address any issues. Single family homes rarely have a pool, fitness center, or a full-time management team to answer questions. Lastly, many private owners and landlords do not understand your rights as a resident; our teams are well-trained in this area.

Peace of mind is our goal for you. We hope that you choose to rent smart in West Columbia, contact Abberly Village.

In today’s stagnant housing market, real estate brokers would have potential buyers believe that there is no better time than the present to buy a home. Prices are down and mortgage rates are at all-time lows.

Unfortunately for the brokers, many clients are not persuaded by that logic. Instead, in increasing numbers, they are choosing to rent rather than buy — unconvinced that the housing market has yet hit bottom.

With apartments in West Columbia, SC offering amenities that can’t be found in homes, renting is a great option for many. There is also a broad mix of tenants:  younger residents and families and empty-nesters that no longer have homeownership on their wish list.

For more information on renting in West Columbia, SC, at Abberly Village Apartment Community contact us.

Although there are many reasons why people can tell you to buy a home, the decision to buy or rent a home depends on your personal situation; that you are, where you are, your career, your financial goals and how you want to spend your time. There is a prevailing thought that everybody should buy their own home. But research shows there are times and circumstances when renting might be a better idea.

Do you have the time?

There is no such thing as a sure thing in any investment. Usually what makes real estate a better risk than some investments 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, less than 10 years, 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 fun and if you bought with less than a 10% down payment, it could be costly. Fees and closing costs can 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 West Columbia, research suggests you take ample time to get to know the area before investing money in a house and its neighborhood. If you are relocating to a place you hardly know, spend a year in an apartment in West Columbia until you're certain where and how you want to live and that you are going to stay at your job.

Will you be happy giving up the freedom?

Initially 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. If you do have enough savings for the down payment, you could invest it elsewhere and hope for significant capital gains. 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. Natural and other disasters make renting a lower risk.

Even though rents tend to increase by 3% per year, unexpected maintenance costs or sudden property tax hikes will not affect you as a renter.

One of the most popular home ownership myths in West Columbia, SC is that owning a house is a huge tax break as compared to renting.  I don’t know how many times people have personally told me that they want to buy a home because they NEED a tax deduction!  I just shake my head in disbelief because I have done the math.  

If your mortgage interest and other qualifying expenses such as charity contributions aren’t more than the standard deduction, ($11,600 for joint filers in 2011), there is no tax advantage to owning a home as opposed to renting an apartment in West Columbia, SC.  Assume that you buy a $200,000 house with a 5% downpayment at a 6% interest rate.  Your mortgage interest for the year would be $11,336.  The Standard Deduction for joint filers is $11,600.  

In this example, there is NO TAX BENEFIT.  Even when there is a tax benefit, you most likely paid much more money to maintain the house than you are saving in taxes.  If your mortgage interest is more than the standard deduction and you choose to itemize, there is little to no advantage.  

For example, assume that your mortgage interest in 2011 is $15,000.  You would get to deduct an additional $3400 if you itemize BUT you spent $15,000 in mortgage interest to save $850 on your taxes (assuming 25% tax bracket).    

Don’t forget that you would also have all of the other expenses of home ownership that you would not have incurred when renting an apartment in West Columbia, SC in an HHHunt community.

If you are relocating to or moving within South Carolina, consider renting an apartment in West Columbia, SC. There are many economists out there that believe renting might be better than buying.

Here are some reasons for renting. Businesses are great investments while houses are poor ones, so I'd rather rent the latter and own the former.

Stocks versus houses: Returns

Shares of businesses return 7% a year over long periods. That’s subtracting for inflation, gradual price increases for everything from a can of beer to an ear exam. (After-inflation, or "real," returns are the only ones that matter. The point of increasing wealth is to increase buying power, not numbers on an account statement.)

Shares have been remarkably consistent over the past two centuries in their 7% real returns. In Jeremy Siegel's book "Stocks for the Long Run," he finds that real returns averaged 7% over nearly seven decades ending in 1870, then 6.6% through 1925 and then 6.9% through 2004.

The average real return for houses over long periods might surprise you: It's zero.

Shares return 7% a year after inflation because that's how fast companies tend to increase their profits. Houses have their own version of profits: rents. Tenant-occupied houses generate actual rents, while owner-occupied houses generate ones that are implied but no less real: the rents their owners don't have to pay each year.

House prices and rents have been closely linked throughout history, with both increasing at the rate of inflation, or about 3% a year since 1900. A house, after all, is an ordinary good. It can't think up ways to drive profits like a company's managers can. Absent artificial boosts to demand, house prices will increase over long periods at the rate of inflation, for a real return of zero.

For house returns over the next 20 years to match those over the past 20, the government and private lenders would have to "up the ante" by relaxing borrowing standards further. Given the recent attention paid to swelling foreclosures, that seems unlikely. Real returns will probably turn negative over most of the next two decades.

Original article by smart money on MSN