Nationwide, foreclosures were up nearly 80% last year. That's scary. In my state, one out of every 314 households had a foreclosure filing. In E's parents' subdivision more than 20 houses were in foreclosure last year.
The housing market has stagnated. You can't drive down a residential street in this city without seeing at least a few houses for sale. The prices keep dropping, but the houses still don't sell. And yet builders are still building new homes. They offer massive incentives to get buyers to buy their new properties, rather than older homes (Older is relative, in some cases the houses are less than a year old). But even new home sales have seriously slowed.
And now the government is talking about helping out. Of course, this being the government, they'll talk the subject to death, while people continue to lose their homes. Too little, too late.
My mortgage payment was almost twice what I'm now paying in rent. So why the hell would I buy again? Not here, anyway. We are talking about moving back east of the Mississippi, where the cost of living is lower and strangely enough, the wages are still comparable! What would it be like I wonder, to be paid the same amount I make now, and have a lot less in bills??
My kiddo asked if she could take gymnastics lessons. I had to say no (you know, that out of a job at the end of March thing). I want to be able to say yes someday....
