Woes over stocks and mortgages
I have lost some weight in the past year, physically, thank goodness, and in the past month, quite a bit fiscally, alas. The latter dip is painfully mindful of some five years ago when I shed a great deal of the fiscal kind of weight because of the infamous tech and dot-com crash of the stock market back then.
True, like most dieters, I had since managed to gain most of the monetary value back, but now this. Which reminds me, I have little sympathy for the various political efforts to bail out folks who got home mortgages too large for their pocketbooks and now face tough times or foreclosures.
Has anyone stepped in to bail me out of my investments that have gone south? Yeah, right. But I really deserve consideration, being a senior citizen and all. After all, I’m entitled to a special parking space, reduced state income taxes, and cheaper McDonald’s coffee.
Even so, it’s a truism that when things start to pinch, people whine. Thus, since the real estate bubble has burst and has now been blamed for stock market tribulations, I suppose my pain is tiny compared with home owners who have been foreclosed or can't sell. The stock market may again perk up shortly—I keep telling myself--but not the real estate market around here, I would guess.
The continuing travails of real estate mortgages and their financing have become a major drag that has ultimately rubbed off even on innocent souls like me, via that cussed stock market.
I’m happy not to have needed to sell my home, for I would estimate that its sales value has shrunk a lot since its outlandish reappraisal by the county two short years ago. That’s not so bad, unless my heirs try to unload it anytime soon—not that I want that to happen anytime soon, for obvious reasons. True, if I had to sell, any replacement I’d like should also be cheaper than before. And that situation may prevail for some time. Read this gloomy assessment in a late-August Wall Street Journal story:
“While new-home construction tumbled in July to the lowest pace in a decade, supplies remain high and demand keeps dropping—giving the market more room to fall…[The credit situation] also may halt some mortgage lending and keep more buyers on the sidelines, pushing the housing market down further.”
Existing home sales nationally continue downward, and are now nearly a tenth below year-ago levels.
As for Stafford home sales data, comparing July this year with July 2006, total sold dollar volume was down 15 percent, average sales price was $376,000, down 2 percent, and days on market averaged 107 versus 69 last year. Even so, we can take solace in the fact that our homes here are huge bargains compared with what house hunters must endure nearer Washington, D.C. Even with the slack sales, a Wall Street Journal piece featured a picture the other day of an ordinary split-level tract home, circa-1960, with a one-car garage in Bethesda, Md.. The asking price: $825,000.
Gosh. That kind of money would buy you either of the NVR or Augustine model mansions now on display in the new Hills at Aquia development next door to Aquia Harbour.
Regardless, until the home market stabilizes, here’s the best advice: Don’t sell and don’t buy, yet. And don’t weep too much for folks who have had to sell, especially if they’ve lived here for a while. In just the first seven years of the 21st century, Stafford home values more than doubled, from an average of $164,000 in 2000 to $395,000 in 2006.
So we retirees sitting here are doubly blessed. If we don’t like the dip in dollar appreciation currently, we can pick up and move to Florida and net lots of money in the pocket, that is, if you like hurricanes and big snakes. I would lean towards my old home town in Texas. What bargains. In a newer suburb of Abilene, a truly upscale new home lists for about Stafford’s average in July, at $375,000: All brick, Four bedrooms, 4,000 square feet, on a corner lot.
Also, remember that all this short-term weeping over the Stafford real estate market is water off a duck’s back if you are like me and other homeowners, over half of whom nationally are said to own their homes free and clear.
In contrast, it’s a worrisome time for the investing Americans, over half of whom are dependent to one degree or another on the stock market, with its continued sagging, churning, and zooming (hopefully in that order before winter).
*****
To access other recent Bensblurbs, go to blogger.com/home and click on "You should see this!"
True, like most dieters, I had since managed to gain most of the monetary value back, but now this. Which reminds me, I have little sympathy for the various political efforts to bail out folks who got home mortgages too large for their pocketbooks and now face tough times or foreclosures.
Has anyone stepped in to bail me out of my investments that have gone south? Yeah, right. But I really deserve consideration, being a senior citizen and all. After all, I’m entitled to a special parking space, reduced state income taxes, and cheaper McDonald’s coffee.
Even so, it’s a truism that when things start to pinch, people whine. Thus, since the real estate bubble has burst and has now been blamed for stock market tribulations, I suppose my pain is tiny compared with home owners who have been foreclosed or can't sell. The stock market may again perk up shortly—I keep telling myself--but not the real estate market around here, I would guess.
The continuing travails of real estate mortgages and their financing have become a major drag that has ultimately rubbed off even on innocent souls like me, via that cussed stock market.
I’m happy not to have needed to sell my home, for I would estimate that its sales value has shrunk a lot since its outlandish reappraisal by the county two short years ago. That’s not so bad, unless my heirs try to unload it anytime soon—not that I want that to happen anytime soon, for obvious reasons. True, if I had to sell, any replacement I’d like should also be cheaper than before. And that situation may prevail for some time. Read this gloomy assessment in a late-August Wall Street Journal story:
“While new-home construction tumbled in July to the lowest pace in a decade, supplies remain high and demand keeps dropping—giving the market more room to fall…[The credit situation] also may halt some mortgage lending and keep more buyers on the sidelines, pushing the housing market down further.”
Existing home sales nationally continue downward, and are now nearly a tenth below year-ago levels.
As for Stafford home sales data, comparing July this year with July 2006, total sold dollar volume was down 15 percent, average sales price was $376,000, down 2 percent, and days on market averaged 107 versus 69 last year. Even so, we can take solace in the fact that our homes here are huge bargains compared with what house hunters must endure nearer Washington, D.C. Even with the slack sales, a Wall Street Journal piece featured a picture the other day of an ordinary split-level tract home, circa-1960, with a one-car garage in Bethesda, Md.. The asking price: $825,000.
Gosh. That kind of money would buy you either of the NVR or Augustine model mansions now on display in the new Hills at Aquia development next door to Aquia Harbour.
Regardless, until the home market stabilizes, here’s the best advice: Don’t sell and don’t buy, yet. And don’t weep too much for folks who have had to sell, especially if they’ve lived here for a while. In just the first seven years of the 21st century, Stafford home values more than doubled, from an average of $164,000 in 2000 to $395,000 in 2006.
So we retirees sitting here are doubly blessed. If we don’t like the dip in dollar appreciation currently, we can pick up and move to Florida and net lots of money in the pocket, that is, if you like hurricanes and big snakes. I would lean towards my old home town in Texas. What bargains. In a newer suburb of Abilene, a truly upscale new home lists for about Stafford’s average in July, at $375,000: All brick, Four bedrooms, 4,000 square feet, on a corner lot.
Also, remember that all this short-term weeping over the Stafford real estate market is water off a duck’s back if you are like me and other homeowners, over half of whom nationally are said to own their homes free and clear.
In contrast, it’s a worrisome time for the investing Americans, over half of whom are dependent to one degree or another on the stock market, with its continued sagging, churning, and zooming (hopefully in that order before winter).
*****
To access other recent Bensblurbs, go to blogger.com/home and click on "You should see this!"
posted by Ben Blankenship at
5:24 PM
