I have to disagree with you on this one Torvy. Low interest rates are what caused all the bubbles including the housing market that are now bursting. The bidding wars which led to the inflated housing prices was a direct result of interest rates that were kept too low for too long. The Fed is to blame for this.
....or the money you would have paid cash for it is worth more in an investment in that 5 years. As you said, there is not any places right now that is a great investment. That could soon change but as it stands on the date of this response there isn't. So it is unlikely that the resale value of a compact tractor is going to retain it's sale price value within the first couple of years of ownership. The only reason you were able to flip your tractor and make a profit is because of supply problems. Once that goes away you will see resale values come back down to where they ought to be. It would usually take about 10 years in a normal inflationary period to get back what you paid for a piece of equipment.
Equities can be a slippery slope Torvy.
Torvy has been implying for years now that he can easily go into equities and make a return that outperforms his debt obligations with financing. Where I take issue with that is it is not a guarantee. He says it like it is some guaranteed sure thing that will happen and you and I Scotty both know that is not fact. What he doesn't mention is the very real possibility that his equity holdings don't outperform his finance obligations and he is left holding the bag and then some.
I Think I would have had to take 5K less if demand was “normal”. I knew it was a 50K tractor when I bought it. No idea why it was so underpriced. Name brand, well liked Tractors are pretty darn good at retaining value compared to cars/trucks.
100% false. The 2008 problem was caused by government policies that pushed lenders to make loans that were bad risks. That goes back to the Community Reinvestment Act. Those loans were a house of cards, not because rates were low, but because the loans were made to people who could not afford them. Regulators made banks take unnecessary risks in the name of fairness. That increase in money available to loan drove up prices unnaturally. The people who were given high risk loans were simultaneously less equipped to handle swings in the economy and less inclined to fulfill those obligations. When the cycle started downward, they could not or would not pay. The contraction happened because banks had to eat those losses and literally had less money to loan (supply), which raised rates and made prices plummet. Like many government ideas, they mean well but have no understanding of how those ideas actually work in the real world.