Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Greatest Wealth Transfer of All Time?

If American's biggest investment (overhead) is their home, and folks can now buy a home for 40% LESS than 2 years ago... Isn't SOMEBODY benefitting?

You bet.

Young people, young families, people without "family money", will not be strapped to the gills with both parents working 3 jobs just to get into their first home.  

This is a crisis?

It is, if your wealth is represented in financial assets, because ALL financial assets have at their base the credit and mortgage market.  If your wealth is derived from a butcher shop on main street... not so much.

The problem for the system and the financial markets is that at the same time that the collateral value of real estate to the banking/lending market is declining, the demand for automobiles - the other major demand for debt - is contracting rapidly as well.

This does NOT have to be your problem.  

Arranging your life in a very local way can help you to lower your personal overhead much faster than the economy can drop your income.  

Good luck!

Mentatt (at) yahoo (d0t) com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep, the careful are benefiting. My daughter and son-in-law just got a good deal on a house. With the prices now, they didn't have to swamp themselves in debt to get it. Also a good time to refinance and get that payment down, or shorten the term, or both. Rates are lower again.

Regards,

Coal Guy

bureaucrat said...

No problem with families of fewer means finally finding affordable houses, huh? To get to this point, someone had to loan the $500,000 for the overpriced house, and when the occupant has to sell for whatever reason, the loaner loses whatever on the deal -- $250,000, etc., a loss that was and is on bank balance sheets and in lots of pension funds. And NOW the geniuses think that the problem can be avoided if we just transfer the losses to the dopey Fed and dopey Treasury, at an amount that now surpasses $8.5 trillion, on top of the Federal debt which is already at $10.6 trillion (That's $19 trillion). It was $5 trillion when Bush can into office. The happy, poor, young family thinks they are ahead. But in this economy, because of the massive amount of debt now piled on already, has put them way, way, way behind. Jeffers will get his inflation .... I hope, someday. And it is gonna be massive.