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Small claims court is fairly simple. No lawyers allowed -- you tell your story to the judge, the other side tells their story to the judge, and the judge rules. Before going that route, you should definitely attempt to get your deposit back by communicating with the manager. They are playing...

Trooper, yes, I think so, and even then the depreciation would only offset income associated with the investment property, i.e., it would not entitle you to tax savings on your ordinary wage income. Otherwise people would be incentivized to borrow money, invest in real estate, and use the...

Re the tax advantage of the "27.5 yr depreciation," unlike investment property, I don't think you're allowed to depreciate your primary residence.

<p>Allow me to "exaggerate." Chances are the builder has strict guidelines that must be followed in order to get the incentive. The best way for you to find out if you qualify is to call the builder and ask.</p> <p>I'm guessing there are at least two hurdles you will have to clear. First...

<p>I've got an idea. Why not eliminate mortgages completely and require people to pay cash for their homes?</p>

The world is coming to an end!

I think it's a little shortsighted to assume that no one has cash in the bank. Certain of us live paycheck to paycheck, but there are a whole lot of people in the OC with a whole lot of money not parked in their primary residence.

Somebody has been watching too many Robert Kiyosaki infomercials.

<p>You say Turtle Ridge or HB, but the discussion heading says Turtle Ridge or Turtle Rock. Either way, I'd go with Turtle Ridge. With condos, unlike homes, newer is almost always better, because you don't have the option of doing any major remodeling. Sure you can remodel the interior, but...

You mean real estate prices "should be" tethered to rents, but in fact are often not correlated with rents, as we have seen the past few years. In reality, real estate prices are more a function of credit availability.

Asians are very violent. Have you ever seen Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift?

<p>I wonder what the median homeowner income is.</p> <p>Here's a pretty good cost of living calculator:</p> <p>http://www.bankrate.com/brm/movecalc.asp</p>

<p>awgee -- I'm sorry, there really is a lot of misinformation being spread here. I really can't make sense of your convoluted attempt to explain the AMT, but the fact is that the federal AMT allows the deduction of home mortgage interest <strong>and</strong> all charitable contributions. In...

<p>joehomeowner -- sorry, you are incorrect (as is awgee). You are speaking of the AMT. Qualified home mortgage interest is not subject to the AMT (specifically deductible under the AMT is "interest paid on a debt incurred to buy, construct, or substantially rehabilitate your principal...

<p>People with higher incomes get the greatest benefit from the mortgage interest deduction. The deduction does not decrease as one's income increases. As long as the amount borrowed is $1m or less, you can deduct the full amount of mortgage interest paid. Assume for sake of simplicity that...

<p>"The mortgage interest deduction decreases as one's income increases above certain treshold levels."</p> <p>Actually, the opposite is true.</p>

slamdunk73 -- you're wrong about not having to pay property tax on the increased value of your home after improvements. You will have to pay tax on the current value of the improvements (though the unimproved portion of the property will not be reassessed).

<p>I'd like to amend my above comment: If you don't agree with awgee or graphrix, you lose credibility. So profound.</p>

If you don't agree with awgee, you lose credibility. So profound.

Justin -- That chart is great if you want to study the macroeconomic environment, but it presents national data, not OC data. So it would be tremendously foolish to attempt to time the market based on that chart, as IrvineRenter has stated he is doing.