Some things have not changed…

During the Year of the Tigers I lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My Dad worked at U of M and I was in the third grade at Burns Park. It was during these formative years I heard the mysterious phrase “cradle to grave” on the radio and they were always talking about the Union auto workers in Detroit and Democrats.

It is time to start reading up on inflation.

Mars out.

USA Today For Rent…

 

Dennis Cauchon writes for USA Today “home values may take decades to recover.”

I hate to point out the obvious Denny but the prices HAVE recovered. The bubble was the aberration. Compared to prices in 1999-2000 it may take a few years to continue the trend  of increasing value in line with averages but we are recovering FROM the bubble not trying to reclaim the insane overvaluations.

Denny missed a fantastic opportunity to present reality with two of the examples: some people should always rent; and family medical costs frequently intrude and interfere with well made plans.

He closes the article with a quote from an upside-down owner “I wish we’d rented.” An item ignored in the increasingly PC American mentality which says “Everyone is special” and “Everyone should own a home” – the truth is some folks should always rent. They, for whatever reason, will never be property owners in the same way I am not entitled (even though I’m special) to perform brain surgery, perform maintenance on a jet engine or win a Judo tournament.

Sometimes there are organic static levels of categories contained in sets. For instance, contained within unemployment stats there will always be 2.7 to 3 percent of the total made up of folks who for one reason or another will never work. Period. You cannot have 100% employment. The average percentage of homeowners was at levels around 60 percent for decades. During the bubble this ratio increased to 65-68 percent, higher in some regions of the country. Let’s do a little math here. Foreclosures represent approximately 10% (and rising) of housing. Beginning in 2001 to 2006 the ratio of habitual/circumstantial renters who made the leap to home ownership increased about 8% add the speculators caught in the squeeze and voila you can match the 10% foreclosure rate. There you go.

I’m not painting an absolute picture here about the housing foreclosure problem just adding two cents on renters as a response to the 6th grade level article in the 5th grade level USA Today.

 

Mars out.

Just to let you know…

I’m sittiing in my Jimmy at 7:19 pm watching wet concrete and I’ll be here another couple of hours. My birthdays are always this exciting.

This weekend I’m going to Creepy Town (New Orleans) and I’ll see what I can do about it.

 

Mars out.