Posted on 01/19/2009 9:06:20 PM PST by jazusamo
Those are excellent observations.
>> The ultimate irony is that increasing government intervention in the housing market over the years has generally made housing less affordable than before, by any standard.
The gov’t demanded the lenders provide mortgages they would not offer through the course of regular commerce. The intervention created unrecoverable fractures and opportunism. Many typical first-home buyers suffered from this exuberant ‘seller’s market’ — the artificial housing boom created by free-n-easy mortgages. I bet many young responsible couples paid a serious price for a volatile housing market they could not possibly understand.
bttt
My wife and I followed the same general pattern, renting and moving up till we bought a house we could afford. Now the govt. wants to bail out people and companies who don’t have any responsibilty. We have 2 daughters in college, and God knows we don’t get much of a break because we “make to much”.
We make to much because my wife went back to school and got her degree, while working full time and raising 2 lovely children. We make to much because I get up at 3:00 AM to put in extra 12 hour shifts at plant where the temperature is frequently 125. We work hard,pay our bills and we played by the rules. Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for the way the Lord has provided for us. And I don’t mind helping the truly needy. We give freely to our church and other charities, because as Christians we are called to help. But, I am tired of hearing that I need to pay more to help people that wont help themselves. If you reward bad behavior, you are guaranteed to have even more bad behavior. So now, I can look forward to ever more taxes while the “downtrodden” live on fruits of my labor. I am PO’d beyond belief. Thanks Leaders. Appreciate it. Also- Thanks for feeding my children your PC crap- it kept me on my toes trying to work overtime and undo your damage.
I was going to apologize for my rant.But, I’m not sorry. I am angry.And I think I have a right to be angry.
On the other hand, if you are Jimmy Carter, evidently you can get away with building them to fall down in a few years. :-)
Frankly, there is less need of engineering now, as the quality and uniformity of the materials is so much better and consistent.
Just for a single example. Adhesives. We didn’t have them and now they are just fantastic, especially at the frame/sheeting level.
Anyways, what I was getting at was a small, cozy little shack, or ranch, a kind of basic, safe shelter is by size, shape, form....illegal.
So, what modest workers could afford, on their own, are now driven into triple cost, union/public built housing that the taxpayer has to be taxed for.
People might not like having a part of town of small houses, close together, but it is way way better to have people paying for their own shelter than everyone being taxed, forever for government housing, that the people will never own, will not be cared for or improved upon and which will require taxes forever.
Yes, you do.
For most of my life I’ve not had even an average income. My family definitely does not now (pay cuts at my old job, followed by everyone being laid off, and now I am struggling to start a small business.) But I bought my family’s current, very modest home with CASH, by saving for it. For a few years I used to commute 80+ miles to a job - they’d let me basically camp out there, a few days at a time, and I often slept on a TABLE in the break room. My car was a Honda CRX (lasted over 250k miles) and every car since then has been a smallish high mileage model (except I also have a rarely used van for heavy hauling, and my wife has a minivan “for the family”.) I also saved up for every car, since that CRX. Today, we are getting by because I saved money for a “rainy day”. Do we get help for doing the right thing? No, in fact, we are penalized for it.
Now... Obama’s policies will probably help us, financially, at least in the short run. But I’d rather they do not get implemented, because they will damage my country, and our daughter’s future...
I think there’s plenty of anger and dismay out there - the question is how to direct it into something positive, and into a better future for the USA and our children.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/15/autos/bcg_electric_car_report/index.htm?postversion=2009011511
None of this is new to freepers, of course. But, what gets me is what is left unsaid: Just where, exactly, is the gov't going to get the money "needed"?
We all know...
We bought 2.3 acres of sand hill on an agreement for deed when we were in our late 20s. We lived in a park-model trailer on that land and built a small house ourself.
We built the house in $600.00 dollar increments. That is, we planned the construction so that we could do each phase with $600.00. The only work I hired out was the initial ground leveling ($600.00). I dug footers by hand and poured a monolithic slab ($600.00).
Every time we could set aside $600.00, we would complete another phase: Frame material ($600.00); roof covering ($600.00); Rough plumbing ($600.00); rough electrical ($600.00).
I learned to do the work myself, and sometimes would get friends in the different trades just to check my work or give me advice. By the time I finished, I had a small library on home construction built up, and a whole lot of experience. I made mistakes and learned to correct them.
We never went to the bank for one dime.
Later we sold that house, and we bought a second house, debt-free. No mortgage. We never had a mortgage on the house we own now.
My sympathies run very shallow for able-bodied people who depend on government for “affordable housing” or complain about banks.
I agree. I am on temporary layoff, but we to saved for a rainy day and we are fine. I want for our children a safe, secure and free future, even if we have to sacrifice now. This is our responsibility and duty. But how do we direct our anger into something positive? I honestly don’t know, but our freedoms and future are slipping away at an alarming rate. Perhaps discussing it is a start, but if I am completely truthful with you Paul R., I am losing faith in the American people. I just hope to God I am wrong.
JM
You said “for a while”. I believe Zero thought he would cook the goose that lays the golden eggs and he and his buddies would enjoy roast goose for some time to come. I don’t think they anticipated the goose might just move on down the road and he and his buddies would be left with nothing. I think folks in this country who still have some wealth have been smart enough to put it out of his hands. Unfortunately in so doing it is also not working in the economy. I don’t think any one anticipated just how rapidly this shock could apply the brakes and bring things to a halt. Right now most are buying only food, fuel, and ammo. Zero can print all the money he wants if folks are hunkered down they won’t come out of the bunker.
Dr. Sowell was, iirc, mainly a photographer for the Marine Corps. He’d been a hobbyist before his service.
Ah yes! You are correct. My oops.
Thomas Sowell is always worth reading.
So true. Perhaps this is part of why conservatives lose unless conditions are so bad that emotions and specifics start to come together, as they did at the end of Carter's thankfully short time in office.
Ask any realtor or decent carpenter who those builders are or which neighborhoods to avoid. They are always poorly built, usually of the lowest possible quality materials: instant slums that cost the buyer from day one and never stop and then are hard to sell. These houses make Jimmy Carter's shacks look more solid than the proverbial brick outhouse. Trailer parks without the wheels.
I know; I’m thinking, he’s my parents’ age or older - and they bought a brand-new from scratch house age 31. I know the situations are different (he’s black, so more difficulties early on?), but still...to wait until Reagan is in office!
He’s too old to worry about; Walt Williams too. Obama will just let these black (real black) apostates die. Larry Elder (LOL the name here) is another story.
Aspenerization is one reason the rich are so enamored of “affordable housing” and public transit. They need the worker bees living near and riding light rail to work, don’t want cars congesting and cluttering up the streets in the area.
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