Reality Check
I really do think that America is getting a kind of strange reality check with the houses. To fill you in on the back story, selling your house in America is becoming a serious problem. This affects quite a few people. Real estate is no longer a sure business and getting your real estate license is not a good fall back job anymore. Contractors, carpenters, and electricians are losing a hell of a lot of business, as are mortgage officers and land developers. These were all, at one time, good jobs that would pay in the high five figures and in many cases six figure salary.
What killed house prices was three things: first of all, it costs too much to move. Whatever you had to pay for the house, you had to tack on an extra thirty grand to get your stuff there. Second, a lack of job security in America almost insured that you'd have to do the whole thing again in five years. Third, the recent trends in loans was so short sighted as to be criminal, and without loans, very few of us can buy a house.
End result? Few people of my generation can buy a home. My wife actually pointed out that if we had to spend $850,000 to buy a house (a reasonable price for a home in the bay area), we might as well just rent. We're never going to own the house anyway. What's happening is all these homes are owned by baby boomers who bought the home for 60,000 and now want to sell it for 600,000. They aren't willing to come down a hair. What's worse is that the entire national economy has now inflated itself accordingly.
Mind you, I understand the baby boomer's mentality in all this, as well as one can understand a baby boomer in any case. If the house down the block sells for 600,000 then you want 600,000 too (or more). But here's the rub. It's on sale for 600,000. It isn't sold. And no one is going to buy unless their stupid or desperate. I mean if you have to move, you have to move, but any moron could tell you that next month the house will sell for 50,000 less. So there you are, a whole neighborhood of people attempting to sell their houses for 600,000 and no one selling anything...even the guy whose dropped his price down by fifty thou.
Meanwhile, no one's telling the contractors that the existing houses aren't selling, so they're still building, but for whom, I could not tell you.
But of course, no one is going to just up and say, "I think I'll sell my house for 300,000 and reap a 600% profit rather than a 1200% profit," not willingly in any case, and so the market does initiates this reality check all on their own.
My best wishes to people selling their houses, especially my parents. God bless you and watch over you, but you know, it's kind of hard to chear. After all, these people have houses and I don't. The people can sell their house and buy another house and I can't buy a house at all. Once I get out of my program and am earning a college professor's salary, I'll probably be able to start thinking about buying a house, but it depends. If I get hired in some areas of the country, I will simply have to be resigned that I won't be able to buy a house until I encounter some kind of crazy windfall. What kind of B.S. is that.
So this is the kind of crappy part of it. I actually, have to root for these people's equity to fall apart so that I can have my stake in the American dream or I have to hope for a windfall which normally means the death of a relative...and you know what? I like my relatives.
What killed house prices was three things: first of all, it costs too much to move. Whatever you had to pay for the house, you had to tack on an extra thirty grand to get your stuff there. Second, a lack of job security in America almost insured that you'd have to do the whole thing again in five years. Third, the recent trends in loans was so short sighted as to be criminal, and without loans, very few of us can buy a house.
End result? Few people of my generation can buy a home. My wife actually pointed out that if we had to spend $850,000 to buy a house (a reasonable price for a home in the bay area), we might as well just rent. We're never going to own the house anyway. What's happening is all these homes are owned by baby boomers who bought the home for 60,000 and now want to sell it for 600,000. They aren't willing to come down a hair. What's worse is that the entire national economy has now inflated itself accordingly.
Mind you, I understand the baby boomer's mentality in all this, as well as one can understand a baby boomer in any case. If the house down the block sells for 600,000 then you want 600,000 too (or more). But here's the rub. It's on sale for 600,000. It isn't sold. And no one is going to buy unless their stupid or desperate. I mean if you have to move, you have to move, but any moron could tell you that next month the house will sell for 50,000 less. So there you are, a whole neighborhood of people attempting to sell their houses for 600,000 and no one selling anything...even the guy whose dropped his price down by fifty thou.
Meanwhile, no one's telling the contractors that the existing houses aren't selling, so they're still building, but for whom, I could not tell you.
But of course, no one is going to just up and say, "I think I'll sell my house for 300,000 and reap a 600% profit rather than a 1200% profit," not willingly in any case, and so the market does initiates this reality check all on their own.
My best wishes to people selling their houses, especially my parents. God bless you and watch over you, but you know, it's kind of hard to chear. After all, these people have houses and I don't. The people can sell their house and buy another house and I can't buy a house at all. Once I get out of my program and am earning a college professor's salary, I'll probably be able to start thinking about buying a house, but it depends. If I get hired in some areas of the country, I will simply have to be resigned that I won't be able to buy a house until I encounter some kind of crazy windfall. What kind of B.S. is that.
So this is the kind of crappy part of it. I actually, have to root for these people's equity to fall apart so that I can have my stake in the American dream or I have to hope for a windfall which normally means the death of a relative...and you know what? I like my relatives.
posted by Monstro D. Whale at
11:44 AM
3 Comments:
I don't know... Someone's buying all the elaborate new housing out there... I went golfing on Monday at huge a local country club. Twenty-seven holes, surrounded by more 7-figure homes in one place than I've ever seen. I never thought we had so many wealthy people in Pittsburgh, but I think being a millionnaire is kind of commonplace nowadays. (Although, I also believe the average person is an idiot; so I'm experiencing a fair amount of cognitive dissonance over the fact that there are SO many friggin wealthy people and I'm not one of them.) Who ARE all these rich people, and why am I not one of them???!!
To be truthful, even though those many thousands of 7-figure homes were nice, I wouldn't want one of them. They seemed a little boring to me -- gigantic beautiful homes, but very little privacy. If I had a million bucks, I'd probably buy 500 acres somewhere and put my house in the middle.
Two things:
First off, wealth is not about privacy. Poverty is private. Wealthy people want to have their house featured. After all, what's the point of all that wealth if you aren't going to flaunt it.
Second, it's hard to tell with the seven figure homes. I mean, no matter what happens, the thoroughly rich will remain thoroughly rich. Nonetheless, it isn't the seven figure homes that need the reality check as much as it is the 300-800 thou homes. People can't sell their homes in this price range and yet they're making more. If you can't sell your home, you can't move into a new home. On the other hand, if you're super wealthy, you don't need to sell your home in order to buy a new home. Furthermore, in many of those cases, you don't need to live right next to where you work. There's less pressure.
And then you have the $140,000 entry-level cookie-cutter clapboard housing reminiscent of depression-era shanty-towns, except for the fresh coat of paint. On an eighth of an acre or less, with no yard. This dens of despair will fall apart within a few years, fulfilling their destiny as pre-determined ghettos.
Many Americans descended from European immigrants who were fleeing landlords and rental situations. Those ancestors wanted the landlord monkeys off their backs.
Where will we flee to this time? Will the moon and Mars be ready soon enough?
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