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‘SHORT SHEETED’ BY REALTORS
https://rumble.com/v65elov-the-housing-crisis-we-shot-ourselves-in-the-foot-we-still-are-....html
We’ve sown the seeds of failure and Realtors are also to blame.
The fact is that Americans have made their own beds. They’ve been ‘short-sheeted’ by greedy realtors. Only the very well to do or those in the protective bubble of a family trust continue to prosper. A distinct and small minority, they never face price and interest rates like ‘real’ people do; Over 90% of wannabe home buyers.
Long ago most of us planned on buying a home more than a house. The American Dream was a home, a family, and a car in the garage. Houses were built to be homes, and that’s how it was not so very long ago. That was then, this is now! Americans now look at houses as investment vehicles rather than a home. Where I live domestic real estate has skyrocketed over 375% in just 7 years. This is NOT what homes are supposed to do. Other parts of the country are much worse.
In the past realtors learned that there just weren’t enough homes in the rarified atmosphere of half a million dollars or more. The number of reasonably priced houses outnumbered those of in the ‘upper class’ stratosphere. Realtors’ encouraged short-term ownership, buying and selling homes as investment-vehicles. Now that short-term ownership is ‘the way it is’ greed has brought them incredible success. Where I live, ‘Famous Potatoes’ Country, homes typically change hands about every 6 years.
The 6-year sale is a formula for disaster for most of us because every time an owner sells a home he jacks up the price. For home sellers, their houses have been anything but homes. Repeat this cycle every 6 years and the price of a $150,000 home quickly becomes $620,000. That’s how we got where we are.
Of equal concern is that, while interest rates and home prices have behaved in opposite fashion for decades, that’s no longer the case. In days past when home prices rose, interest rates fell. If interest rates went up, real estate prices dropped. This ‘balance of purchase’ served 1st-Time homeowners well, but still only delayed the inevitable. Today the ‘balance of purchase’ is dead. As housing prices have risen, so have interest rates.
What you end up with is the “Mommy-Daddy Conundrum.”
https://rumble.com/v65elov-the-housing-crisis-we-shot-ourselves-in-the-foot-we-still-are-....html
Simply put. Whereas the average home buyer 10 years ago was 31 years old, now the average home buyer is 56 years old. This is a reflection of the fact that the older buyers probably made their money buying and reselling their homes for profit. They can manage the new exorbitant prices for a homes.
Meanwhile young couples just starting out, or new “Mommies and Daddies” don’t have a half million in loose change and certainly cannot afford payments on a house.
An average
$600,000 [ain’t that a cryin’ shame?]
home bought at 6.5% fixed rate for 30 years means payments of over $3,750 a
month not including taxes and insurance. Can you sense the
insanity? By the way, good luck finding a
home loan at only 6.5%! A family must generate no less
than $137,000 annually to buy a house. That’s over $11,400 a month!
With both parents working they need to make $68,500 each. That’s a lot of money.
It isn’t working because when you own a home there’s more than a monthly mortgage payment. You’ve got property taxes, homeowner insurance, HOA fees, maintenance costs [things break], furnishings, utility costs, and the list goes on and on. This sucks!
Today’s monthly rents are about 60% of monthly mortgage payments. But when you rent you can look forward to annual rent increases. Landlords will raise your rent until you squeak. When you eventually move out, and you will, you can kiss any and all deposits goodbye because that’s how these bastard landlords work! When you pay the deposits consider them a ‘fee’ or ‘gift’ because you ain’t seeing that money no more! You leave without equity of any kind.
What this country needs is real estate reform. Any plan to lower housing costs to reasonable and sane levels is gonna hurt the rich and upper middle income crowd. It’ll piss off a lot of people. It’s gotta be done anyway! Renter’s and buyer’s strikes are just around the corner and that won’t do anybody any good!
I’m Max, and the way I see it!
