Housing Collapse ?

    The house market has fell seems to be news all around. There are those that even go as far as to say to rent instead of buying. So who's right? Is the market bubble bursting or is it stable. Should you buy? This is what I think.

   The market has busted in several states and even then it's still not accurate to categorize the whole state. The market has burst in certain areas but this is old news. It's juts now leaking out or better yet it's just now being admitted. Personally I think it's making the news because the media is controlled. By focusing on this supposedly collapsed market it will get your mind off the fact that we are in trouble in so many ways. We're spending a fortune in money, in lives and in resources on an unpopular war and we are losing. Jobs were given away in past administrations and patches were made and now it comes to surface. Our trade deficit grows while we sleep. The Clinton and Bush years haven't been kind and our country is in turmoil. Natural disasters, famine, homelessness and a lower standard of living has grown. Our borders are like revolving doors. The list is endless. This take the focus off all this. We are also told that we have enjoyed a higher standard of living in the 1980 & 1990s yet anyone living in the 1950-early 1970s can tell you were the golden years. Your dollar is worth about .04 cents today. It's gone done ever since.

  The houses they show on TV are higher priced houses that move slowly even in prosperous times. Look at it logically, how many people can afford 500,000.00 and up? Then they tell of signs all around in cities where all the jobs have moved out of the country to Mexico and China. Again the blame is placed upon the American worker saying that they wanted too much money, too many benefits yet the facts are very little is spent paying people to make a product, large amounts are spent advertising it and paying CEOs salaries. Just look at Nike. Now you can't go by employment figures because that a person making 15.00 per hour suddenly finds their selves a job at 6.00 per hour to replace the one they just lost. Yes, the bottom has fell out in these cities. Then there are the hard hit areas with natural disasters where people are just tired of getting knocked down. Personally for me I'm just not strong enough to get stomped by even 1 hurricane let alone a bunch or 1 mud slide or 1 earthquake. To add to that however insurance companies are either pulling out or making it pretty much unaffordable. Then there are the places where the taxes are so high that people retiring can not afford to live there. There is an oxymoron to that one, they move away to a place where living and housing is affordable and taxes are cheaper then try and get the same services that they had where they were from that cost so much that their taxes were raised to pay for it.

  Now the markets have collapsed in these places. The inflated prices were caused from people desiring to live in these places and now that people are moving from these places to more desirable places the prices are going up there too. It's common sense when you look at it. If there are 4 lots and 1 - 4 buyers it's a buyer's market but when there is 4 lots and 20 people wanting them it becomes a seller's market. In that way you can see that if some places are falling in sales, people are moving out for whatever reason to locations desired there is competition for buying the property. East Tennessee has been for a while now highly desired and so we have seen an upswing in property sales as have other states and locations. Where natural disasters are few, taxes are low, property affordable (compared to many states), insurance still affordable, winters not long or bad and living costs relatively low it has been booming.

  Will we ever see a slow down or will we burst here and in other parts of the country now booming, yes. In time the scenery will look more like where people came from. Services will be demanded like where people were from which will raise taxes. How many times do we hear "We didn't do it like that where I'm from"?  No you didn't, that's why your from there and to here. I'm asked by people considering relocating here if local people resent them coming here and unless they say something like that most don't. Right now and I think for a few years down the road the places now sought, here included, will be stable and actually a good investment but as the years go by it will slow a bit. Eventually there will be another replace this area and the same will happen again. Remember what Thomas Jefferson once said "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."
 While that may seem a bit blunt it is the way it appears, at least to me. But that's just my 2 cents worth.

  There is however one thing that effects the real-estate market sales here and that is most must sell their existing property before buying. This is great unless their real-estate is located in a dead area where the bubble has burst. There have been enough deals fall through that if a contract is accepted with the contingency that the buyers must sell their home first, usually the seller adds the contingency property remains on the market with first right of refusal. This is only fair to the sellers in the respect that the buyers home may never sell where they're from or if it does become upside down and not be able to purchase. The agent representing the seller should protect the seller from this and so many are finding that by placing the contingency of selling their home the seller will place the contingency of house to remain on market, be shown, 48, or 72 hour right of first refusal buyers.

  Another thing that has placed a damper in the housing market is the loan market tactics. I do not feel any sympathy for the lending tactics that were applied in the past by lenders, I do for the people who fell for them. The bottom line is that predator lending practice days are over. People were able to borrow more money based on teaser rates (my term for introductory offer) so they bought bigger houses. We all base our bills upon what we have and so when you base you bills at one payment then it graduates to another higher payment a year maybe two years later, your bills are based on the previous amounts. That combined with "cash out your equity", which is predatory lending in my opinion, has caused many good people to default. Add that with rising prices like fuel, clothing, and other necessities and it makes it hard everybody, but it makes it impossible for some. Now again we add the job factor where a good paying job is replaced by one that pays half of the regular amount and it does go off the end for many people.

But that's just my 2 cents.         

Anthony Kimbrough