I’ve got two neighbors and a good friend out of state that have put their house on the market for no other reason than “they just want to move”.

All three couples have two kids, and all three live in good sized, three bedroom houses.  After pinging each of them that it’s really a great time to buy a house, so long as you can sell your existing one, they all followed with the same response: “we’re just bursting at the seems in our existing house, so it’s time for a change”.

Honestly, I can’t say that I agree that “we’re bursting at the seems” is a good enough reason to sell your house.  Two of the three couples will only get their money back from the initial purchase three years ago, and the third stands to make about $5,000.  And that’s if they get their asking price.

I can’t help but think that these three families are busting at the seems, not because if the increase in the number of kids they have, but because of the increase in “stuff” they have.  One has a basement that is packed so full of stuff you can’t even walk around in it; none of it is kids stuff.

I’ve gone to great lengths to get rid of the “stuff” my wife and I don’t use.  If there’s a box in the storage closet that hasn’t been opened in 5 years, there’s probably no good reason to keep it’s contents around.

What does every square foot of your house cost?

The way I look at storage is in mortgage payment per square foot.  Take the overall monthly house payment (add in taxes and insurance) and divide that number by the total square feet in your house.  Mine comes in at $0.65 per square foot.  So those Tupperware bins stacked up in the basement holding all my wife’s college t-shirts is costing me about $4 per month to store.

When you put it in those terms, those t-shirts sure would make good rags to wash the car with!

Frugal Living, Real Estate housing market, storage

Last Tuesday, Duncan Energy Partners (DEP: chart, web, Y!) announced the fourth quarter distribution amounting to $0.41 per share, an increase of 2.5% over the initial quarterly distribution of $0.40 per share starting in February 2007.

The distribution will be paid on February 7th to shareholders on record at the close of business January 31.

Duncan will also announce Q4 earnings on January 28th prior to the market open.

Falling Stock Price

DEP shares have been falling for the last couple of months, and in part I believe this is due to the low daily volume. Citi was a large holder (over 600,000 shares) and due to recent financial developments, they’ve probably liquidated quite a few of those shares to cover their write downs.

The petroleum/gas pipeline and storage industry has always been fairly robust, and at times a bit lethargic. It certainly doesn’t see the volatility that the crude ($wtic: chart) and natural gas ($natgas: chart) market sees.

Nearly 42% of the float is held by major institutional investors or mutual funds. That’s a fairly strong influence on a thinly traded stock, and when one of those big time institutions wants out and there isn’t a whole lot of money coming into the market, the price per share will reflect accordingly.

Investing commodities, Duncan Energy, pipelines, storage