Posted on 03/09/2006 4:23:09 PM PST by ex-Texan
I know that I have never in my lifetime seen so many sheriff sales of homes in this small county. Some for taxes and many from foreclosure. My county only has about 30 thousand residents and if memory serves me correct one it's politicians stated recently that there were over 200 homes foreclosed on this past year.
I trade the markets every day all day...mostly forex and treasuries...also natural gas, oil, gold, silver, and capital market futures contracts...
I make money going up or down...I have read enough, seen enough and listened enough to brilliant people, and as of late...
This economy and its capital markets are not as healthy as the FED and the Cherry vendors on CNBC and Wall street tout them to be...
Anyone who is highly exposed to the the capital markets blindly is in for a rude awakening...
Its only an opinion...one side of the argument...but one shared by some pretty savy hedge traders that I know...
Hit the link I post above about the Ponzi Scheme. There is a guy posting on that site who believes this whole mess was started by corrupt politicos bent on getting rich. Politics tied to money people. Whatever, you get the picture. From what I have seen, I suspect he may be on to something. Like any pyramid scheme, the ones that a running the show make major money. Just something to ponder over quietly yourself.
My comment is... do not live LARGE.. buy a home when you can AFFORD one... especially if the chance that your real estate taxes could go up and your mortgage rate could go up... before then... maybe you'd be better off living in your van.. down by the river?
I've noticed that also. We paid $17,300.00 for a single two-story red brick colonial...excellent neighborhood. With a 30-year mortgage, our monthly payment + taxes came to $89.00. That had risen to $117.00 at the time the loan was paid off.
At some point we could have satisfied the loan but it made more sense to hold onto our cash...by then the payments were laughably low.
We're still here and the same basic house now sells for $320,000 on up to $365,000. They're sold in about one month.
Anyone want to guess what year we bought this house? I'll take the winner out to dinner, in my locale!
I would have to say you purchased the home about 1958 from the price you stated. Probably off a number of years though.
That would be a nearly zero percent interest rate and probably done in the 1950's?
Interest only loans are the new "renting". Banks will take the these homes, resell them once again to folks who can't afford them and 5 years later, do it all over again. With inflated prices of building supplies (yeah, high oil takes a toll) housing might not drop as much as you think.
Sure, but that usually only happens when people use their homes as ATM machines and borrow more than they're worth. That's not the same as a drop in housing value...
It is also against FR's rules, to send FLAME WAR FREEPmail; not to mention threatening the person you send the mail to.
Now, for those of you who either don't know what a PONZI SCHEME is, or are more than willing to misuse the term, I'll explain EXACTLY what it is.
In the 1920s, Ponzi expanded on an already known scam, to which his name is attached. It is a PYRAMID con-game, which means that the people on the top, are the ones who make money, through conning more and more people to give money to the get rich quick scheme.
The original conman is either supposedly selling shares of stock or some other kind of nonexistent thing, tells the suckers to bring in more and more people, and the more people, the bigger the pot, but ONLY the first tier ever sees most of the money...with the ones at the bottom, seeing none of it.
Now, in order for real estate to be a PONZI SCHEME, there would have to be NO tangible asset. That is not so.
If someone buys a house 20 years ago and sells it, even in a down turned market, they are still going to make some money on their original investment and the buyer is NOT getting nothing; nor is he/she asked to bring in ten more people, from whom the original owner of the house is going to get any money at all!
The reason that Social Security is called a PONZI SCHEME, is because the first people who received money from it, HAD NEVER PUT ANY MONEY INTO IT; NOT ONE PENNY.
And every one who got/gets money from it, has paid for the people ahead of him/her. The government has always lied about how people are just getting back the money they put into it, but that is false. That money isn't in some "lockbox" as algore said it is. The government has always used some of that money on other things, as well as paying it out to someone else.
All Ponzi Schemes are based on a larger and larger base at the bottom, giving more and more money to those on the top, with the promise that when enough people at the bottom, bring in more and more people, they too WILL someday reap large rewards.
Buying real estate, even as a speculator, is not a Ponzi Scheme at all.
Yes, you THREATENED ME to not post to this thread. You also said some other pretty foolish things, considering the fact that YOU sent ME FReepmail first. As a matter of fact, YOU sent me TWO FREEPmails, and I did NOT write to you FIRST, nor did I flame nor bait nor harass you in any way.
I asked you to explain what a PONZI SCHEME is, and you replied with a post that looked like this:Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Nope, as everyone else here does, I post to threads; except I post facts; unlike you.
Close enough. We bought the house in 1961. Let me know how you decided that. Property values vary greatly throughout the country.
One way or the other, I definitely will let you know where you will be treated to dinner. Jerry 639 may decide to join us!
Here's a hint. We're in a suburb of an historical city.
A historical city in red-brick colonial? Hmmmmm, Charleston, SC comes to mind.
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