WANNA BUY A HOUSE? FOR 90% OF YOU A HOUSE IS TOO EXPENSIVE

DILEMMA: MOST CAN NO LONGER AFFORD A HOUSE!
Only the very well-healed or 'trust protected' live without worry of housing costs today.

Is it fair? Is it the product of moral investment? Or is it the sign of avarice, greed, indifference and immorality? The fact is that Americans have made their own beds. They’ve been ‘short-sheeted’ by greedy realtors. Only the very wealthy or those living within the protective bubble of a family trust continue to prosper. They are a distinct and small minority who never face price and interest rates as do ‘real’ people; Over 90% of wannabe home buyers.

Long ago most of us considered a house a home. It was a place where we fulfilled our American Dream of a home, a family, and a car in the garage. Houses are built to be homes, and that’s how it was not so very long ago. That was then, this is now!

Americans have come to look upon houses as investment vehicles first, homes a distant 2nd. In my area of the country alone domestic real estate has skyrocketed over 375% in just 7 years. This is NOT what homes are meant to do.

In the lead of America’s villains are the real estate brokers. They have colluded and conspired to jack home prices as high as is possible and to profit as never before. Their “screw those worthless home buyers.” attitude prevails. With listing fees and sales commissions of about 3% apiece a man can make a bundle selling a home for over a half million dollars.

In the past, the problem as realtors viewed it was that there just weren’t enough homes in the rarified atmosphere of half a million dollars or more. The number of reasonably priced houses greatly outnumbered those of in the ‘upper class’ stratosphere.

Realtors’ goal was to encourage short-term ownership, selling homes as investment-vehicles. Now that short-term ownership has become ‘the way it is’ their greed has brought them unimaginable success. In my area of the country, the ‘Famous Potatoes’ State, the typical home changes hands on average every 6 years.

The 6-year change has proven a formula for disaster for most of us because every time the owners sell their homes they want to jack up the price to get as much as they possibly can. For them their houses have been anything but financial investments. 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.

Another disconcerting fact 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 was a ‘balance of purchase’ that worked only to delay the inevitable. Today this trend has reversed and as housing prices have risen, so have interest rates. What you end up with is the “Mommy-Daddy Conundrum.”

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 these older people made their money for many decades. They are able to pay new exorbitant prices for a homes.

Meanwhile young couples just starting out, or new “Mommies and Daddies” cannot possibly afford payments on a house.

An average $600,000 [ain’t that a cryin’ shame?] home purchased 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 has to generate an income of no less than $137,000 annually in order to buy a house. That’s over $11,400 a month! With both parents working they can each make $68,500 a year.

That’s a lot of money any way you slice it. That’s an insane amount because when you own a home there are, besides your mortgage, other expenses.

Look at property taxes, homeowner insurance premiums, HOA fees, maintenance costs, furnishing costs, utility costs, and the list goes on and on. This sucks!

Today’s monthly rents are about 60% of monthly mortgage rates. But when you rent you can look forward to annual rent increases where you landlord raises and raises until he hears his tenants squeak.

When you eventually move out, and you will, you can kiss all security and damage deposits goodbye because that’s how these bastard landlords work! If you’re paying these deposits, consider them a ‘fee’ or ‘gift’ because you ain’t seeing that money no more! You leave with no equity of any kind because it was never really your home.

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!