A drastic change from people born before 1985 compared to people born after 1985...

[JohnnyGrey]

You make a good argument, but I don' think it's necessarily a good thing to revel in people's misfortunes. I don't know who the poorer sucker is, the one dealing with bad credit or the one needing to fill his ego by saying "I was right."

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean this as a personal attack. In all honesty, I feel almost exactly the same way, but I can't help but feel a little guilty for taking pleasure in someone else's pain. It's just unfortunate that people act the way they do.

If you live at 99% of your means, you'll always be ahead. If you live at 101% of your means, you'll always be in debt. So simple, yet so evasive...

Intelligent people live at 60-70% and sock away the rest so in bad times like these, they have a little wiggle room. I'm not reveling, but you can bet I'll be taking advantage of it. I get angry when I hear of bailouts, of lenders and buyers. A house may be the American dream but it is not a right, no matter how entitled one may feel to one. Some people are renters, and they have to accept this. What makes me angry is subsidizing stupidity. The winter has come folks, and it's not the ant's job to bail out the grasshopper. Doing so punishes prudence and rewards foolishness, and that's why we're in the mess we're in.

[trebuchet03]

Originally Posted by JohnnyGrey

The winter has come folks, and it's not the ant's job to bail out the grasshopper. Doing so punishes prudence and rewards foolishness [and takes away a bit of our humanity], and that's why we're in the mess we're in.

brackets added

It's not reward and punishment - that's for the insects And I'm not telling anyone to bail someone out of their mortgage. But even the most prudent, frugal money pincher can fall. Regardless of their situation, there's no restitution to be had - there's nothing to gain from setting up a virtual rewards system.

Phrases like "That's what friends are for" and "Good neighbors are there" etc. etc. didn't come from sitting back and watching foolishness...

[Duffman]

Originally Posted by JohnnyGrey

A house may be the American dream but it is not a right, no matter how entitled one may feel to one. Some people are renters, and they have to accept this.

Everybody has a chance to be a home owner, but you are right about station in life. The large house with pool and 3 car garage is not for everyone, some peoples station is a small house with a one car garage and others is a small appartment style condo. What most people really fail to realize is that just because you are near the bottom early in life doesnt mean that in 20 years you wont be able to have something better. They do call them starter homes for a reason.

[Peakster]

The sad thing is that a 'starter' home went from $80,000 five years ago here to now $200,000+. Yet salaries haven't gone from $20,000 a year to $50,000. The whole thing just makes me want to move to a hick town in the middle of nowhere with a population of 300 people (which, by the way, a home there will still fetch $45,000 these days)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuQ_TcyAAfM

That city of Saskatoon is just a two hour drive from where I live. A 56% home price increase in just one year is asinine.

[Duffman]

I dont think the gains in SK will hold, new construction just cant keep up with demand right now.

Every indication that I have heard is that Regina will be the Canada market leader next year.

[cfg83]

Peakster -

Originally Posted by Peakster

The sad thing is that a 'starter' home went from $80,000 five years ago here to now $200,000+. Yet salaries haven't gone from $20,000 a year to $50,000. The whole thing just makes me want to move to a hick town in the middle of nowhere with a population of 300 people (which, by the way, a home there will still fetch $45,000 these days)

...

That city of Saskatoon is just a two hour drive from where I live. A 56% home price increase in just one year is asinine.

In the mid 1970's my parents home cost about 2 times my Dad's yearly gross income. My wife and I have a home with 1/2 the square footage at 5 times the cost of my gross yearly income. And our choice of home was in no way extravagant. I like to call it the "postage stamp".

That's one reason why I think the times just ain't what they used to be.

CarloSW2

[LostCause]

Climbing a local mountain (Santa Ana's, San Gabriel's, San Bernadino's) gives a powerful sight...a sea of people. Within 50 years, I wouldn't be surprised to find a more or less continual stretch of urban development from San Diego to San Francisco along the I-5. We have a lot of babies in us yet.

If anyone has the opportunity, view the Los Angeles Basin from a light plane. The scale of humanity is amazing. If peak oil is true, it'll be interesting to see how the future unfolds.

- LostCause

[njlou]

I've been told that those who look like they have money have already spent it!!!

Once the money is spent it stays gone!! You would think that people would know by now that a fancy new car is a huge waste of money. You can expect that what you spend for a new car is a total loss.
A lease is not cheap. I always reasoned that it can't be cheap or a "good deal" when so many people involved in the industry are making a fortune. It is a "zero sum game".

[JohnnyGrey]

It's not reward and punishment - that's for the insects And I'm not telling anyone to bail someone out of their mortgage. But even the most prudent, frugal money pincher can fall. Regardless of their situation, there's no restitution to be had - there's nothing to gain from setting up a virtual rewards system.

Phrases like "That's what friends are for" and "Good neighbors are there" etc. etc. didn't come from sitting back and watching foolishness...

Are you telling me you support a taxpayer subsidized bailout for lenders, borrowers and wall street? If you want to give some of your "extra" money to cover the losses of speculators, flippers and unscrupulous banks who loosened standards knowing they'd get a bailout, then go ahead. Just don't force reasonable people to subsidize stupidity. Strangers who F'ed up by biting off more than they could chew are not my "friends" nor my "neighbors". My neighbors can actually afford their houses.

These subprime idiots are the ones that made sure that even the financially secure couldn't afford a house by driving up home values via loose credit. I'm of the opinion that when stupid hurts enough, people will stop being stupid. Do you think the few that bought low and sold high will be sharing their profits with you? Then why do you think their losses should be socialized?

[steensn]

Man, I am an '82er and I def don't fit into the '85 or before crowd then. I do own a house, very cheap starter house. I do own two cars, both mpayed for with cash.

I feel the "get out the credit cards" mentality is stupid, IMO. That is what is causing the slump we are in now. In the 90's and early 00's everyone got out the credit card to buy all that "crap." Well, now they find out they can't afford that crap and no one is buying anything.

I am a PROUD coupon clipping, debt paying, living on what I can pay cash for and I see that as a strength for our economy in the years to come. Money coming in is going to be spent, all these "youngins" aren't saving up the money they make to live in a crappy place with 2 other guys, they are putting it somewhere. Either they aree paying off debt from school, BEST thing you can do with you money is pay of debt. People don't get rich and stay rich running up credit cards.

Best guy to listen to is Dave Ramsey. America is getting into trouble because it is buy now pay later, why can't you buy later and make sure you are set financially to afford it. If you have to buy a TV and get charged an extra 50-100 bucks in interest and not use it to buy moore stuff instead of wasting it on nothing. If people could spend 100% of their money on products instead of throwing it into the air then we wouldn't be having the morgage crisis we have now.

We are living on an imaginary bubble of an economy because we buy crap we cannot afford. Just wait for the bubble to burst even worse than it had in the past.

ACT YOUR WAGE!!!