A couple of my acquaintance recently struck up a conversation in a store. They asked how real estate here in Eugene, Oregon was going. They expressed a wish to buy a home someday....when they could get a down payment together.
I'd heard this from my renter friends before. But at this moment I had just watched them buy a pack of Marlboros each. So, ever so gently, I suggested I knew where they could get a down payment. Of course, wide-eyed, they asked where.
My answer was given with a smile: "You could quit smoking." 
Their eyes showed shock.
That was understandable: It was an ambush of sorts.
But I went on to tell them that if they diverted the money they spend on cigarettes into a savings account, they could have a down payment within a year or two.
They thought about that suggestion for ....maybe ten seconds. Then they hurried off to continue their smoke-filled lives.
But that got me wondering:
a down payment?
So I did a little research at that Albertson's store:
The cheapest cigarettes (Pyramid brand) were $4.13 per pack. At a pack-a-day that's $1507 per year for one smoker.
The most expensive (American Spirits) were $6.99 per colorful box. That's $2551 per year for that big-spender.
The average of those two prices costs $2029 per year.
My friends' Marlboros cost them $5.45. That's $1989 X 2 people or $3978 per year.
In this area, the median home price has now slid below $200,000. Let's just use that nice round number. A minimum down payment for that median-priced home might be 3.5% or $7000.
That would take my nicotine-addicted friends one year and nine months to save up - if they stopped smoking tomorrow.
A single Marlboro man could knock out the down payment for a $100,000 home (say, a three & one REO) in that same one year and nine months.
Now there are lots of good reasons to quit smoking. This is just one. But despite numbers like these many smokers will go through life harming not only their health but their pocketbooks, content to
rent for life.
The dollar cost of smoking goes well beyond the lack of a down payment for a home.
If one person smokes a pack-a-day from age 18 to age 68, that fifty years of smoking will, at today's Marlboro prices,will cost $99,450 ....a Kool $100,000.
Two people X that $100,000? In my market, they could completely pay for that median-priced, $200,000 home.
Alternatively, my married friends with the matching habits could pay cash for
a new ($20,000) car every five years for the price of their addiction.
Let's face it. Smoking is a real drag.
These are good, hard-working (indeed, workaday) people. They deserve better than their habit gives.
Do you suppose the person who offered them their first cigarette (allowing the Camel into the tent) explained the long-term cost of sucking on that little stick?
Probably not.
You probably aren't living in Eugene, Oregon. But the concept is the same.
Most people don't buy their cigarettes by-the-carton anymore...too expensive. But I witnessed a gal buy two cartons of Marlboros the other day. She was here from Connecticut, where she said cigarettes cost $8.50 a pack. (That's $3103 per year, $155,125 per lifetime - assuming one starts when it's first legal and dies of lung cancer at 68 ....instead of smoking on into retirement.
Oh, speaking of retirement: Just think what a person who already owns a home and a car could salt away, if only.....
***********************
Jim Hale
Principal Broker / Owner
Graduate, REALTOR Institute e-PRO
2012 Member, Million Dollar Club of Lane County
2012 Member, Real Estate Brokers Million Dollar Club
actionagents.net
1715 Linnea Avenue
Eugene, OR 97401-1962
Office: 541-484-0219
Direct: 541-543-9991
Fax: 541-485-8068
Eugene Oregon Homes / Real Estate jim@actionagents.net
All statistical market data is based on information from the RMLS of Oregon for the dates indicated.
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