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JH
2014 Apr 26, 10:20am
Prices don't have to go up if they build more homes to match the increase in demand.
Outstanding strategy in 2003-2007. Worked like a charm.
Strategist
2014 Apr 26, 10:21am
Prices don't have to go up if they build more homes to match the increase in demand.
Outstanding strategy in 2003-2007. Worked like a charm.
How would you bring down home prices?
JH
2014 Apr 26, 10:25am
How would you bring down home prices?
Build a time machine, not bailout banks, stop printing money, raise interest rates to historically normal levels, and don't write stupid ass loans.
If you want to be socialist, create disincentives for non owner-occupied housing.
If housing were simply supply-demand and there was no fed intervention, it would be wildly different and these solutions wouldn't do much.
bubblesitter
2014 Apr 26, 3:43pm
Housing "Recovery"
Sure. Been there before few years back. Overbidding frenzy got far only to certain extent and most people here know what happened next.
hanera
2014 Apr 27, 10:44am
. Overbidding frenzy got far only to certain extent and most people here know what happened next.
SFBA: House prices decline drastically, many foreclosures, recover spectacularly and then back to overbidding frenzy.
Lesson learnt: Be ready to buy
Strategist
2014 Apr 27, 10:45am
Wow Jazz, how can you say that. Remember.......there is a reason no one wants to leave America.
hanera
2014 Apr 27, 10:59am
Wow Jazz, how can you say that. Remember.......there is a reason no one wants to leave America.
Exactly. In fact, many want to come. Despite some flaws, America has the most fair and equitable system.
Strategist
2014 Apr 27, 11:09am
Wow Jazz, how can you say that. Remember.......there is a reason no one wants to leave America.
Exactly. In fact, many want to come. Despite some flaws, America has the most fair and equitable system.
Many immigrants tell me coming to America is the best thing that ever happened to them. Some Middle Eastern students from my college days did not like America, but even they did not want to leave.
JH
2014 Apr 27, 12:52pm
I disagree with you. I get your point and even agree with it, but all that adds up to not a free market. It is a market with the regulation set to benefit the elite. The elite may regard it as freedom, but 99% of us regard it as license to kill. E.g. some will die when they could live if red states, who already take more than they give states would allow medicaid expansion instead of trying to close the emergency clinic loophole by which the poor sometimes do gain access to medical treatment if their case is sufficiently dire.
Nice post. As I posted earlier, I would think that a democratic free market might behave differently, but as you outlined, we do not have a government that represents the majority of the people.
JH
2014 Apr 27, 1:02pm
Remember.......there is a reason no one wants to leave America.
Uh. Ok. Sure there are more people from 3rd world that want to come here, but there are plenty who leave and want to leave.
Despite some flaws, America has the most fair and equitable system.
Surely you've seen this article by now:
After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada — substantially behind in 2000 — now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.
Catch that "after tax" statement?
Reason 1: Education Problems in USA
Reason 2: Cash hoarding by corporations in USA
Reason 3: Aggressive redistribution of income in Canada
America's stance:
Solution 1: Cut funding and make sure all teachers drive Pintos
Solution 2: Inject more money into the system, because, you know, corporations are people, my friend
Solution 3: SOCIALISM!!!!!!!!!
Result:
After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada — substantially behind in 2000 — now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.
Wow Jazz, how can you say that. Remember.......there is a reason no one wants to leave America.
Exactly. In fact, many want to come. Despite some flaws, America has the most fair and equitable system.
You need to get out more.
hanera
2014 Apr 27, 2:46pm
Wow Jazz, how can you say that. Remember.......there is a reason no one wants to leave America.
Exactly. In fact, many want to come. Despite some flaws, America has the most fair and equitable system.
You need to get out more.
Btw, I was not born in USA and has been in USA for less than 20% of my life.
JH
2014 Apr 27, 2:55pm
Btw, I was not born in USA and has been in USA for less than 20% of my life.
Immigrants don't want to leave. They came here for a reason. But some of us who have been here for multiple generations are sick of the bullshit. Happy you found something better. Truly. But we are not satisfied, because we see it deteriorating.
bubblesitter
2014 Apr 27, 3:11pm
Lesson learnt: Be ready to buy
Abslolutely. Buy at a foreclosure auction. That's the plan.
JH
2014 Apr 27, 3:16pm
Btw, I was not born in USA and has been in USA for less than 20% of my life.
Immigrants don't want to leave. They came here for a reason. But some of us who have been here for multiple generations are sick of the bullshit. Happy you found something better. Truly. But we are not satisfied, because we see it deteriorating.
But maybe this is what America is and always has been all about. The wealthy class allows in enough immigrants to take low- to mid-paying jobs, providing the opportunity of many lifetimes to families (like mine in the 1800s), while siphoning the wealth of the immigrants, their kids, their kids kids, their kids kids kids....... The exceptions are the few who escape that cycle of siphoning and break into the upper class.
Many middle class people like myself are fortunate to not still be from poor European (or insert your continent here) families, but we realize we aren't going anywhere now, the 1% are holding all the wealth they can get their hands on, and the rest of the first world middle class is catching up as it redistributes its wealth.
America, the land of opportunity....just not too much opportunity....
Eman
2014 Apr 27, 3:19pm
Lesson learnt: Be ready to buy
Abslolutely. Buy at a foreclosure auction. That's the plan.
If you know how. Be sure don't walk away with a useless piece of paper and no house.
Wow Jazz, how can you say that. Remember.......there is a reason no one wants to leave America.
Exactly. In fact, many want to come. Despite some flaws, America has the most fair and equitable system.
You need to get out more.
Btw, I was not born in USA and has been in USA for less than 20% of my life.
How exactly does that make the US the most fair and equitable system? Are you saying you've experienced all the other systems.
bubblesitter
2014 Apr 28, 12:31am
If you know how. Be sure don't walk away with a useless piece of paper and no house.
Again, you seem like you only know what you are doing. But, thanks for the tip. I'll be careful like how you are. :)
bubblesitter
2014 Apr 28, 12:32am
Good luck with that.
What's the problem with that? You see all the money behind that penguin?
Strategist
2014 Apr 28, 12:50am
Wow Jazz, how can you say that. Remember.......there is a reason no one wants to leave America.
Exactly. In fact, many want to come. Despite some flaws, America has the most fair and equitable system.
You need to get out more.
Btw, I was not born in USA and has been in USA for less than 20% of my life.
Welcome to America!
Strategist
2014 Apr 28, 12:54am
...there is a reason no one wants to leave America.
Outdated or limited applicability to your statement. America is 17th on the list of preference by citizens. Google it. (was it NY Times?)
Number 16 is Mexico!
Almost all retirees are investigating and following through with life in other countries. This is similarly verifiable, and also through my personal experience talking to other old guys. both on the west coast and on the gulf coast.
Regular people do leave California and they do leave the USA for quality of life.
Illegal immigration to USA from Mexico is a much smaller problem any more because times have changed in USA for the worse.
If Mexico is a happier place then USA, why are we the ones having a problem with illegal immigration and not them?
Would you want to emigrate to Mexico?
Strategist
2014 Apr 28, 12:57am
Wow Jazz, how can you say that. Remember.......there is a reason no one wants to leave America.
Exactly. In fact, many want to come. Despite some flaws, America has the most fair and equitable system.
You need to get out more.
Btw, I was not born in USA and has been in USA for less than 20% of my life.
How exactly does that make the US the most fair and equitable system? Are you saying you've experienced all the other systems.
It's the opportunities. Starting from day one when they loaded up the Mayflower with people looking for an opportunity to practice their own religion.
They haven't stopped since.
Late 2008/2011 was an opportunity of a lifetime.
I would think opportunity of a lifetime was before the scam-laden peak. That gave the opportunity of selling very high if you were willing to live in a house for well less than a decade. So much for settling-down.
2008-2011 is just the most recent better looking opportunity and in the Bay Area it still meant buying a place for 8-10 times an unusually high take-home income.
Now if I was trying to retire and hadn't sold my house during 2004-2006, I'd be really pissed at myself.
It's the opportunities. Starting from day one when they loaded up the Mayflower with people looking for an opportunity to practice their own religion.
They haven't stopped since.
There is a lot more opportunity other places. The problem is that other places require you to have education and/or skills before letting you in. US residency is a lottery for the poor in the third world. Something like 30% of immigrants to the US don't even have a high school diploma and 60% don't have a college degree. You can't get a residency at all in other first world countries without a hs diploma. Most places you can't get residency without a college degree or a specific recognized skill. So the US is the only option if you're poor and uneducated. They come here because they can.
Strategist
2014 Apr 29, 7:15am
Jazz, check this out. I don't know how the East India Company comes into the picture.
http://stufffromthelab.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/why-did-the-pilgrims-come-to-the-new-world/
Who writes stufffromthelab? I didn't see an "about" section or any other way to determine whether the writer had studied the subject with any rigor.
« First « Previous Comments 21 - 47 of 47 Search these comments
Dear Boomers,
I was wondering if everyone over forty could please stop calling exorbitant home prices a "recovery," or hailing prices as "stabilized" only when prices are almost as high as the year that brought us the bubble burst. Since most of you over forty bought your home when a median home was twice the median income, I find your euphemisms patronizing, at best they reek of propaganda or spin doctors at play.
Great, most boomers feel house rich and secure, and those of you in California with Prop 13 feel like you won a lotto. I'm happy for you, truly, but if you get pleasure from this feeling of security than maybe you will understand my plea for understanding.
I know you all worked hard, but we have too. Consider that we are not only expected to pay for a median home with three or four times the median income, but closer to six times in most areas and in the Bay Area ten times that. If someone under forty owns a home they are probably in the 1%, received money or an inheritance from family, or they got into a loan that could possibly make debt slaves of them, or cost them the loss of the home and their savings. There are a few people under forty who owe home ownership to anything but the above three scenarios, and when we hear about the few who didn't follow the above it feels like hearing about a unicorn sighting.
And what about renting? Have you seen recent rental prices? We are back to slum lords at best.
Also, consider that statistics show that a the majority of boomers over 55 bought their home with ONE income. No one under forty can do that without being in the 1% or family money. We also have far higher student loan debt. We are also not expected to receive a pension in most jobs and unions are being outlawed, along with our other civil liberties, so we have few ways to fight back. There is talk that we will not receive social security. We also inherit a trillion dollar debt, that is mostly to China; an evil communist/plutocracy and a private bank (called the Federal Reserve) which is the very institution helping the demise of the middle-class and turning our republic into an oligarchy. We are also going to have to do something with the landfills, pollution and general environmental destruction we are left to clean up.
We are humans just like you. We want the same things: security, safe living spaces, a living wage for work, a quality education, real food, clean water and air.
The middle-class is dying, and this practice of exorbitant home prices is shoving the middle-class right out the door. The middle-class in America is going to die with the boomers if we don't make changes.
All I am asking is that people take responsibility and simply admit that the housing "recovery" is for the boomers, the mega rich, real estate agents and foriegners. Admit that's what you mean by "recovery" and admit we have it tough. Go ahead keep up your "grab all" living, I am not asking you give up your high standard of living in sacrifice for the next two or three undeserving generations, all I ask, with a heartfelt plea, is that you admit people under forty have it rough, give us some credit, and stop using the term recovery or stabilized.
Sincerely,
Someone who cares about the future
#housing