Just had to vent today . . . . . There are so many CRAZY people in this world I’m beginning to believe that things are starting to change. The world we live in is much more violent and unsafe than it used to be when I was a kid growing up in the 50’s and 60’s. I grew up in North Hollywood, California, lived in a great little 936 Sq. Ft. 3 bedroom ranch that my parents purchased for $7,950.00 in 1951. I remember my parents leaving the door unlocked, the Milk Man delivering milk in the morning and actually putting it away in the refrigerator.
We had a phone with a party line, which meant we shared the line with a neighbor and if they were using the phone we couldn’t and the same if we were using the phone. My dad drove a 1951 Chevy and my mother was a homemaker. We never experienced an violence, we didn’t see much on the news on our green screen TV, that got 3 channels. We would hear about some bad things happening like people we knew getting killed in a car accident, someone falling off their bicycle and breaking an arm or wrist.
But we didn’t have the same kind of lives as the kids growing up today. Now we have locked doors, security systems, alarms for your home and car’s. Drug dealers, strip clubs, casinos, gangs, overflowing jails, and people who want to work unable to find a job. Kids that the only meal they get during the day is lunch at school because both of their parents a spending everything on drugs.
Homes are a bit more affordable today than they were in 2005 (about half the price where I live in San Tan Valley, AZ). Interest rates are in the 4 - 5% range, there are tons of homes for sale and there are even a few good programs available to help people get into an affordable home for very little down. There are a lot of people who have foreclosures on their records, bankruptcies and have had a few bits of negative credit showing up on their reports.
I think back and never remember them ever teaching myself or my kids how to manage money, build up your credit, save money, qualify for a home loan, get out of debt, plan for a rainy day or even build an emergency fund so they could do a little better than live paycheck to pay check. The number of people living paycheck to paycheck would shock most people if they knew these statistics. The lenders are scared, they are so tight with the money they are lending out it is making it difficult for those individuals who want to buy to be able to do so.
We need to find way to help the people who want to buy a home (mostly first time home buyers) to buy which will begin to stimulate the housing market. If the first time home buyers are able to buy the next group of buyers will be able to buy and the next group and next thing you know things might start improving. I have been in Real Estate for 39 years and I have experienced a lot of different markets. One thing I can say is that people what to own homes, it’s the American Dream.
I have to sell twice as many homes in this market to make what I did in 2005 selling half the homes. Getting a $3,000. commission is a real payday. We had someone in our office sell a home and receive a $130,000. commission check. At our sales meeting when this was announced I could see envy and jealously, I was just so happy for this person, but I used to see people getting commissions like that all the time.
In closing I just want to say that most of us work hard and do a great job, we can do better and so what we can to reform the banking industry and the government to make this terrible world a better place to live, work, own a home and raise a family.
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