Homes are Becoming More Affordable; Minorities, Poor Hardest Hit
It is interesting that with home prices and gasoline prices going in opposite directions, the media can declare both trends to be disasters for Americans. Via Scrappleface:
The U.S. housing crisis reached fever pitch this month, with potential foreclosures up 48 percent compared with May 2007.
The devastation of receiving foreclosure notices has now swept
through a full 2/10ths of one percent of American homes. About 1/10th
of one percent of owners may lose their homes. For some of those
people, it's actually their primary residence in jeopardy, rather than
a second home, rental property or vacation condo.To add insult to misery, mortgage rates skyrocketed this month to
6.32 percent, a shocking figure a full third of what it was during the
Carter administration.As a result of the flood of homes on the market, real estate agent
commissions have dipped precariously, and home buyers increasingly
wrestle with the guilt of paying bargain prices for excellent
properties.Market analysts say home prices could plummet as much as another 10
percent by the end of 2009, leaving first-time home buyers to face the
specter of owning a more spacious residence. The additional square
footage inequitably boosts the burden of cleaning, heating and air
conditioning.
Tim:
I am very, very confused by this article. Guilt of buying a great house at a low price? Yougottabekiddingme! I have no guilt what-so-ever. And what is this about the "specter" of owning a bigger house and having to clean and heat it? Are we still on Earth? ...is this thing on??? Last time I checked, nobody made anybody HAVE to buy a bigger house just because they were less expensive than, say 18 months ago.
I was selling real estate in my spare time 2 years ago. I don't feel bad for the people that bought then or the people that are selling now. We all make our choices, some turn out good, some turn out bad. We take our lumps, or not, as the case may be when the Feds decide to bail someone out.
I must have missed the /sarcasm switch.
June 13, 2008, 1:17 pmtim:
Ok, my bad. Satire. I get it. Boy, is my face red.
To my credit, sometimes stories like this are serious. I think that if I drank a little less caffine and did a little more work instead of reading Coyote every half hour, I would be much better off.
...and now back to work...
June 13, 2008, 1:23 pmEric:
Coyote, thanks for the link — this site is hilarious! I can't believe that I have never seen it before.
June 13, 2008, 10:03 pmCB:
Glad I read the comments. I am so frustrated with bleeding heart reporters that I fell for it. Worth catching up on some of the other articles in the link - like Obama's use of teleprompters at home.
June 14, 2008, 2:29 amLuis Dias:
I don't understand this post. It's as it is a good thing for houses to fall prices... are you gone mad? I mean, it's the only thing the market can do right now, but it is killing something called the economy, haven't you heard?
If you build a house for a million and can only sell by 500.000, that's a problem for the builders/sellers.
If you lend money for a house worth a million and its value decreases to 500.000, that's a problem. The owner simply stops paying you and goes to buy a second house with the same characteristics for half the price. And you lose 500.000. There go the banks.
If the house prices are descending, that means that fewer people are buying. Is that also a good sign?
I mean, when I get to see "liquidation" prices in my country I am happy for myself. But I am also worried about the local economy.
So, if anything, the sarcasm tone in this post only hides ignorance or arrogance. I've yet to decide which.
June 16, 2008, 2:56 am