The Washington Post recently posted this 3 part article on the housing bust. You will have to click on the three different days and read each part to understand what has happened with first the boom and finally the bust. Good article. Will take you time to look at it, but you will walk away with a better understanding of what has happened. How has your family been effected? What do you think about this crisis?
5 comments:
Lets face it the housing industry is going down hill for more than one reason. We have a large part of the population that is done buying houses and now we have to wait for our generation to need housing. Then you have the increased prices of gas and living in general. You can't expect people to go buy large costly houses when it is more affordable to live in their old fix me ups that suit them just fine.
It is obvious that the market for housing would be suffering. People just do not have the money to buy houses, when many times bills go left unpaid, and hungry kids are starving at the dinner table. So many more people are living with their parents even when in college to avoid paying money for a place to live. Truthfully, it's the smart thing to do. I agree with Aaron. It is much cheaper to fix up a house than to buy another one.
The housing market represents another large portion of the economy. Land ownership has long been a staple of American wealth. Many of our countries largest depressions were cause by the over speculation of land, houses are no exception. There isn't money to buy them and so they don't get sold. This is why the charts show a bust.
All that is being bought right now are fix me up houses. People with money fix them up to rent out to people and once they make thier money back they will eventually sell for three times what they bought it for plus the rent money they make. People can't get loans because credit is so bad. Which means people rent. So in other words the rich get richer and poor get poorer. My mom was a realator for a long time and she taught me a lot about it so I should know as much as anyone how the market works. If you own your own business and have money lying around invest in houses right now so you will have income when you retire. I know a lot of people who do that.
The market for housing is suffering but people can't really afford to buy houses now a days. Many people are now either renting houses or are still living in their old houses. People do not really need to buy new houses if they already have a place to sleep and to be safe.
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