Randy_H's Q&A

The prices may still drop but we have no way to know and the more the prices drop the more competition you will have.Prices *will* continue to drop until they fall in line with historic affordability.  Actually, a bit less than historic affordability, due to the fact corrections always "overcorrect".I have a way of knowing this.  How?  Historical data.  You cannot find a single case where this was _not_ true in every single previous correction cycle since 1890.  If you think this time is different, then the burden of proof falls on you to show me and everyone else why we now live in some new world paradigm.Competition?  Sure.  I'll take that risk.  Meanwhile, I suggest you study the economic history of bubbles.  Was there a lot of "competition" for any asset after that asset bubble popped?

All I would add to it is that if you are looking in to staying in that place for at least 10 yrs. that YES this is a good time to buy....BUT if you are looking to buy your dream home for the long term then this is one of the best times to buy. Public Notice:  Used house salespeople do not, as a general rule, understand finance, opportunity costs, or time value of money.  Apparently this is rubbing off on marks (...I mean, would-be buyers).The longer you plan to stay there, the ***worse*** off you are _if you pay too much to begin with_.  It's really not that hard of a concept folks.  This is not a matter of opinion.  It's not up for debate.  It's mathematically demonstrable.

Now take jal74's scenarios a step further:* Assume you _don't_ lose your job, and you _can_ continue to pay even though you're down $63,000 (scenario 2) compared to your neighbor who's rented the past 3 years, and only in year 3 buys a comparable house.* He takes what he's saved net of paying rent compared to your mortgage payments.  He puts that into a nice 529 plan for his kids' college tuition.This is the part realtors never tell you when they do their little "for the long term" dance.  Even if waiting only gives you something like a measly $250/month extra over 20 or so years, do the math and figure out how much you'll build up in your kids' 529 compared to the $0 your neighbor has put aside.And at the end of it, your houses will be worth the same amount.  It's not as if your neighbor's becomes magically more valuable just because he was an idiot, listened to the used house salesman, and overpaid for the privilege of buying 3 years earlier.

You don't have to pay to keep your citizenship.  You just have to pay to keep yourself from being designated a criminal.  In fact, you can't shed your citizenship without a lot of pain and suffering.  Basically you have to become a citizen of another country which the US recognizes as having valid citizenship standards (ie not a country that sells citizenship).  Last I read (which was over 10 years ago), even if you do all that the US may take years to actually grant you release from your citizenship.

I can assure you that my sushi habit is not in jeopardy.  Many more people are exceptionally smart with their money than you give credit.  It's a minority of "six figure suits", but more than you think.  I know people with half million+ family incomes plus significant wealth who have long since sold their homes, their investments, and are renting sitting in cash&treasuries.  They'll be the last ones at the sushi counter.I can't wait.  Cheap sushi. 

Yes, expatriate is apparently the preferred spelling.  I always just wrote expat, so I assumed expatriate was the verb and ex-patriot was the noun.  But ex-patriot means "no longer loyal to", apparently.Thanks for pointing out the correction.

As for Czech, I don't know if you'd pay more taxes.  Right now expats are complaining that they're all paying more taxes, so I'd look into that.  Something about foreign paid tax credits...but these rules change quite a bit.I was more saying you aren't going to be able to simply xfer all your wealth to Czech without forfeiting most of it to the US gov't, unless you have a convincing way of proving legitimate intent.  Having a home in each place might be enough if you have some sort of ties.For someone like me, I'd have a hard time proving to Uncle Sam that I have any kind of legitimate reason for transferring a bunch of my wealth to Czech.  They'd call BS, or worse, wait until later and then decide I owe them tones of back taxes.

To clarify, you _can_ move lots of money out of the US.  Both for personal and corporate reasons.  The corporate path is easier, so long as you have a real going concern company.  Personally, you can move $ for legit reasons.  The deal is convincing whatever governing authorities are involved that it's legit.For people building/buying houses in a foreign country they're working in, they get some kind of documentation from their employer about why they're their, and maybe proof of sponsorship.  For leisure purchases, like vacation homes in France, the gov'ts involved have a formal way to pursue that.It's all about having everything on the record so the US knows why you're moving $, and how much of a risk you pose towards tax evasion. 

Being an ex patriot usually just means you're authorized to live and work in a different country for an extended period of time.  Corporate folks become ex patriots when they are assigned to work overseas for a few years, for example.  There are special tax laws that apply to ex patriots.  It's a huge area of contention, because the rules keep changing.  The US taxes you any difference between the local taxes you pay to your host country and what you would have paid to the US.  It didn't used to be that way when I was overseas more often.  No other country I know of does it that way, btw.As for taxes, the US reserves the right to prosecute tax cases globally.  Many countries don't cooperate with extradition (Switzerland for example will only hand over US citizens whose alleged crimes would also be crimes in Switzerland).  But, you can get arrested while visiting or transiting through any cooperating country.  That's why the Czech Republic won't work (they cooperate with the US heavily anyway).  You'd get arrested when changing planes in Frankfurt or Paris.They keep you from taking your money out through banking laws and int'l treaties.  Try to wire $150K to an Austrian account today and see what happens, if you want to test the system.  Or, try to go to Switzerland and withdraw $150K from your US account to an overseas bank...

nvchazPerhaps you should read more of my position and analyses before concluding what "fallacy" you imagine I might suffer from.  You're the first to accuse me of being not intuitive enough.  I'll take that as a compliment.