I’ve been avoiding “issues blogging” for the most part for the past week. (the choice in presidential candidates winnowing down to Hildebeast-ObamaWinfrey-MexiCain can do that to a guy), but one “issue” still turns my crank a bit: the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind’s rampup of economic woes with the mortgage crisis/real estate bust as its poster child.
As a poster child for economic woes, the mortgage crisis/real estate bust has all the appeal of a broken-down whore with leprosy. Firstly, the folks hardest hit by the mortgage crisis/real estate bust are those who went into debt over their heads to buy houses they couldn’t afford. Here are my most sincere crocodile tears for such idiots:
*Boo-freakin’-hoo–yawn*
To all such folks: you reaping what you’ve sown? Good.
Next hardest hit (sorta), the mortgage lenders who shouldn’t have loaned the money to begin with. Again,
*Boo-freakin’-hoo–yawn*
My Wonder Woman asked me what I though the impact would be on our home value. My answer? Who cares? Are we thinking of selling? (Yeh, we still owe a measly couple of grand on the place. Made a 25% down on it and got reasonable rates on a 15-year mortgage–thanks to my Wonder Woman’s money management skillset.)
Rabbit trail:
OTOH, our execrably bad “neighbors” who moved in less than eighteen months ago have their place listed for sale (Yipee and Whooray!). I asked my Wonder Woman how badly I could junk up the outside of our house to drive their selling price down on ’em… *heh* Hmmm… maybe I could buy a couple of junkers from the salvage yard and have ’em dropped in our front yard, ya think? It’d be a few months before the city would ask me to remove ’em, maybe long enough to drive thr price of our “neighbors'” seller down quite a bit…
Nah. Better just to get ’em gone.
But there’s a side to the housing market/mortgage crisis/real estate bust that is getting little play in the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind (and what play it does get is buried on inside pages or whatnot): “Some Cities Are Spared the Slide in Housing”–and this in the Neoo York Slimes, no less! Who’d-a thunk it?
In figures released on Thursday covering 150 metropolitan areas, the National Association of Realtors said that median home prices were falling in 77 markets — but rising in 73.
Real estate statistics must be interpreted with caution, especially when sales volumes are declining, as they are all over the country. But an analysis by The New York Times of three distinct data sets — mortgage data from the government, sales figures from the Realtors’ group and courthouse records from a company called DataQuick — produced a list of 17 metropolitan areas where all three sources of information agree that prices were still rising as of late last year, the most recent figures available.
For another 43 cities, two data sets, from the Realtors and the government, suggested that prices were still rising late in the year. DataQuick could provide no information on those cities.
Of course, since the article is in the Neoo York Slimes, the ariter spends quite some time making sure the reader doesn’t interpret these rosy facts positively. *heh* Still, facts are facts, and the housing market (and mortgage market) in my part of the country, for example, is strong to super-strong right now. Because of strong economic growth in other sectors, of course. Heck, it’s stating to get so built up in America’s Third World County that I might just have to answer my own question to my Wonder Woman (“Are we thinking of selling?”) with a “I want to live somewhere quieter. Wanna sell and move out into the piney woods?”
*heh*
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You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve yelled that very same thing (poor people+realtors) at the TV, radio, and Congress. Thanks a lot, creeps. I am trying to put the cash away so that when the prices come down (which they won’t for quite a while now), I was going to put down the best that I could. (Without anyone being suspicious. I want to have the money to buy it right out, but I cannot. There are reasons.) Thanks a lot, Congress. Grrrr.
Fun as it may seem to jerk the strings on a bad neighbor you did get it right, “Nah. Better just to get ‘em gone.”
On the flip side of that, our neighbors across the street are moving to the country and have been so good I asked if there was anything I could do to mess it up for them just to keep them here. They understood and took it as the compliment it was intended to be. They always kept their yard and house in top shape, were quiet and kept to themselves; but would engage in conversation at the drop of a hat. These are the best kind of neighbors/friends to have. They are about to enter the golden years and wanted to be out of the big city; a well thought out plan being put in motion.
When Lucy and I decide to leave Houston for a place in the country I plan to sell off my houses and pay cash for whatever I can afford at that time, make sure the tax base in the country is reasonable and learn how to relax away from the insanity of the rat race.
Yeh, I know, T.F., but… *sigh* it would have been fun. Oh. Well. *heh*
Saw our former neighbor (who used to live where the “bad neighbors” live) down at the P.O. the other day. He mentioned he’d be dropping by for coffee one day soon. I like that. Garrulous guy. Sometimes a gasbag. But was he a good neighbor or what? He was a (doubly) retired Army/Air Force mechanic. He’d help me maintain our cars and I’d help him maintain his computers. In between, we’d help each other with yardwork… or even share mowing the space between our properties (kind of a wide drive leading to a large metal storage building) when the owner was on National Guard duty.
Some neighbors are gems. The current ones trying to sell have had the whole (admittedly short) street ticked off at ’em for behavior issues from the time they moved in, although since we were nearest, we bore the brunt of their bad behavior.
It’ll just be good to see the back side of ’em.
On the real estate situation – I think cities are being hit a little harder. This is of course due to the insane prices that housing was hitting there. Specifically, I live in DC and a friend of mine just bought a house for about 120K below the asking price a year and a half ago. Outside of the city though, I don’t know if prices are falling and I know that in my home town (in Wyoming) house prices are steadily rising.
The short of it is the classic advice: Don’t buy more than you can afford. Don’t buy unless you intend to live there for many years or maybe if you want to rent the place out. Real estate can decline like any other investment. I agree that it does not mean OMG #$%!!! ARMAGEDDON!
In general, I don’t feel pity for Schmucks!