Uh, increases in the valuation of our homes has never been a part of our GDP, which is a measurement of the goods and services PRODUCED by us.
Good lord. Try fathoming the total valuation of all homes, businesses, structures, infrastructures in this country!
The sum is HUGE!
What is the valuation of a piece of real estate (home and land) going to be now if 60% of the wage earners can never even think of the purchasing of such?
I'm just curious at the amount of 'shrink-back' coming in real estate prices (values), the delay period for the 'next recovery / growth period', and will the local gov's and insurance companies scale back their valuations accordingly (I know that's a pipe dream in reality)?
Just a concern now.....
The US dollar will continue its slide through the Nov. '08 election, meaning, imports will cost more, especially crude oil, gasoline, natural gas, which, in turns, increases the costs of domestically made goods / food, etc.
The dollar weakness now is a result of too much consumer debt and the Fed's refusing to stop printing up so much cash when we have serious trade deficits w/ respect to OPEC and China....
I ain't gonna be pretty.
In a good rel estate market here in NC, I noticed a new subdivision going in and the sign originally said "Starting in the $270's". That was on Friday. This morning it read: "Starting in the $240's"
Uh, increases in the valuation of our homes has never been a part of our GDP, which is a measurement of the goods and services PRODUCED by us.
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Not Quite Right....
If you were to back out economic activity supported by Home Equity withdrawals the US GDP would have been FLAT over the last 5 years or so ... with home values retreating that piggy bank has run dry and people are having to shell out more for everything with fuel prices ,, the doubling of credit card minimums and (in my case ) the state is demanding more and more in property taxes to make up for slowdowns in other collected taxes ... People are being squeezed 9 ways to Sunday.. now although that “economic activity” is part of the GDP ,, it isn’t that people WANT to spend more ,, they are going to have less for non-essentials and margins on all consumer items will tighten,, near luxury goods should be hardest hit, true luxury items will be ok,, commodity items (sacks of rice ,, etc. etc.) will be hit a small amount.
I’m not being negative ,, I’ve always found that being honest makes for the least problems in life ,, fooling yourself doesn’t change reality... I just bought 4 pieces of rental property in a country whose economy is “primitive/agricultural” (lots of european retirees with fat retirement checks in euro’s and aussie dollars) and isn’t greatly affected by energy prices, their currency similarly is unaffected by downturns in the world economy ,, I expect my rental income to increase nicely as the dollar slides.