Existing Homes Sales PLUNGE To 15-Year Low

I think you may be missing the point.



Obama supporters assumed that Obama would be working to stabilize and improve economic conditions for the People (poor and middle classes), because that's generally what Democrats claim to stand for. By Obama's choices to run the US economy, he's shown that he's interested in stabilizing and improving economic conditions for those at the top. Obama's is a hodge-podge of policies -- Rhetoric for the People and tangible assets for the rich.



Remaining quiet about this only lets the robber barons continue their raid on the American middle class.



And Obama's most ardent supporters are either paid political operatives or just too ig.no.rant to realize that what Obama is doing is NOT in their best interests. The ig.nor.ant Obama supporter comes to believe in him by process of elimination -- If Republicans are accusing him of being a socialist, then Obama must be doing something anti-Republican. He's not. Obama is DLC to the bone. A Republican in Democrats' clothing. And that is not good for the average ordinary working American. It's also not good for all other Americans, because it leads to instability of the whole culture.
About Real Estate
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Existing Homes Sales PLUNGE To 15-Year Low

A lot of people double paid to pay off in 1/2 the time, or bought their homes outright from savings (buying modest homes in modest neighborhoods).

=============================



If you've got figures to support that, I'd like to see them.



I don't think anybody likes to be in debt, but that's now how our economy has functioned. Our economy has required people go into debt.
About Real Estate
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Existing Homes Sales PLUNGE To 15-Year Low

I figured that you weren't married w/kids.



Moving every 2 to 5 years isn't a lifestyle that works for married w/kids. I don't think that moving every 2 to 5 years is a lifestyle that very many single people would choose either. If it works for you, it works for you, but most people like and need to put down roots, and enjoy a sense of security that owning their homes gives them.



Home ownership has benefits that extend far beyond the person owning the home, but on the whole of the society.
About Real Estate
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Existing Homes Sales PLUNGE To 15-Year Low

Are you married? Got kids?



You have to live somewhere. Why would you want to sell your home?
About Real Estate
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Existing Homes Sales PLUNGE To 15-Year Low

The reason why "banks must be forced to sell homes in their inventories of foreclosures (instead of sitting on them, refusing to lower their prices)" is also why the economy is going to get much worse, with more people losing their jobs (and those people losing their homes, etc., etc., etc.).



Banks don't pay property taxes for those homes they've foreclosed on.



Cities/states can't run without property taxes, and more people will lose their jobs. More cities/states will fall into disrepair (cities are already bulldozing roads because they can't maintain them).



We're on a downward spiral, and all that Obama has done is slow it down. We the People would like to believe that we put him into power to fix it, but in truth, Obama was put into power by the Establishment Elites to ease the People into a Depression. To keep capitalism intact, and the rich rich. Keeping the American people ig.no.rant of the full picture isn't helping anyone but the Establishment Elites..
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Existing Homes Sales PLUNGE To 15-Year Low

Very simply, the crux of the problem (with the economy, with both parties' solution) at this very moment:



Who believes that austerity (by the government, by the People, paying down debt) is the solution?



Who believes that the government shouldn't be borrowing money to plow into stimulus programs, to get money into the hands of the People (ordinary, average Americans)?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Existing Homes Sales PLUNGE To 15-Year Low

I take your point (I was being somewhat facetious with the paint and pets comment), but consider that being "owned by the bank" isn't really any different than being "owned" by a landlord. For those Americans (teabaggers) who complain about having lost their "freedom", there's no more direct way that that is true than when you're renting. I anticipate that in the coming years, the rate of violent crime is going to escalate in rental housing, due to conflicts between renters used to doing any d@mned thing they want in their residences, from playing loud music at all hours and undisciplined pets to damaging physical property.



If owning for you meant taking jobs you didn't want to pay off a 30-year fixed rate mortgage at 7%, perhaps it was too much house and you should have been in something cheaper, more affordable. Like for the amount (or closer to it) you're paying to rent now?
About Real Estate
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Existing Homes Sales PLUNGE To 15-Year Low

You were told the best investment for the circumstances of your life then, about how to make and keep money. WIth home ownership, you're buying something tangible (real property), and you're also paying less in taxes, enabling you to keep more of your income.



The advice now is the same as it was then.



If you are still working, home ownership (mortgage) gives you a tax-write off and real property.



If you're not still working, if you don't need the tax write-off, it may not be the best way for you to make and keep money.
About Real Estate
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Existing Homes Sales PLUNGE To 15-Year Low

Why didn't you have a fixed mortgage rate?



There are tremendous tax advantages to home ownership that you don't get from renting; when you rent you're paying off someone else's mortgage.



Owning means a place to put your stuff.



You can also paint the walls any color you want when you own.



And you can have pets.
About Real Estate
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Existing Homes Sales PLUNGE To 15-Year Low

What can we presume about that 34.7% that owned their own homes outright in 2000?



A good number of them had lived in their homes at least 20-30 years making them elderly, retired or nearing retirement. I say that because one of the biggest benefits from home ownership is the tax advantages of being able to write off the interest on mortgage payments. If they're nearing retirement or were retired, then in the last ten years they may have been living off of other investments, or they may have refinanced their homes to have something to live off of.



What do you think the 2010 census is going to tell us?
About Real Estate
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Drilling Moratorium Stays, Feds Tell Oil Spill Commission

Obama hasn't even begun the work that's needed to build an infrastructure for alternative energy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPivXkamPbQ



Obama, Salazar, Chu, and Gates green-lighted the risky Macondo drilling operation from the outset. BP was able to have several safety checks waved because of the high-level interest by the WhiteHouse & Pentagon in tapping the GulfOfMexico bonanza find in order to plan a military attack on Iran without having to be concerned about an oil and natural gas shortage from the PersianGulf after an outbreak of hostilities with Iran.



BP still has an ongoing operation to drill down to 40,000 feet below sea level at the Liberty field off the north coast of Alaska.



http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Obama-Administration-Knew-About-Deepwater-Horizon-35000-Feet-Well-Bore.html
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Drilling Moratorium Stays, Feds Tell Oil Spill Commission

And on the subject of Blue Dogs, there is nothing that they're doing that Obama hasn't signed off on.



And that goes for Joe Lieberman, too.



Obama insisted Lieberman remain in the Democratic Caucus. In spite of multiple betrayals by Lieberman before and during the 2008 election (Lieberman endorsed McCain, campaigned FOR McCain).



Over REAL Democratic senators, Obama insisted Lieberman keep the chairmanship of the Governmental Affairs & Homeland Security Committee. That's the committee that whitewashed the Bush administration's failure during Hurricane Katrina. Obama rubberstamped that committee's not investigating Bush once Democrats took over control of government after the 2008 election.



Does anyone really believe that Obama got nothing for that concession? No agreement that Lieberman would vote as Obama told him to vote?



Obama never pressured JoeLieberman, Ben Nelson or Blanche Lincoln, or any Blue Dog). That's by their own admission. The Democratic leadership could've taken away committee chairs of members in their caucus that joined with Republicans and threatened to filibustered a public option for healthcare.



The DNC could've taken away reelection funds. It hasn't happened.



Blue Dogs provide cover to progressive Democratic politicians, allowing them to spew a lot of populist rhetoric but serve the same corporate masters that Republicans serve.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Drilling Moratorium Stays, Feds Tell Oil Spill Commission

Yours is one of the more m0ronic comments I've read here in a while. By your logic, why should Congressional Democrats bother going to their offices anymore?



Even if you were correct, which you're not, did you know that Republicans have crossed over to vote on bills that their leadership opposed? They did it because pressure mounted on them from their constituents. Weeks of media coverage caused enough of their constituents to weigh in with them.



When it's something that Democratic politicians want, they use their power. They use the bully pulpit.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...