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Time to call it like I see it.

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Miller Homes Group

 

Time to call it like I see it. The press and the prognosticators are floating the idea that home sales have slowed due to a small rise in interest rates. Baloney (or BS)! We often times fail to understand the outright onslaught on their income and lifestyle have become paralyzed. I wrote that an abrupt rise in energy costs contributed to the housing crash and now we face an even more abrupt rise in our healthcare costs. Here is a piece of what I wrote in 2010.

 

Now you have people in homes they can barely or in some cases not afford. We have politicians campaigning and stating that home ownership is at all time high. Knowing the whole time it was a house of cards. The same politicians that took credit for the housing boom are now trying to blame everyone but themselves. Truly amazing isn't it? However, a lot of the people did take advantage of the much more lenient requirements to buy a home. People from all over this great country were making it work until one day energy costs begin to rise unchecked. By unchecked I mean completely out of control. Heating bills were tripling almost overnight. Gasoline was three to four times higher in less than a year. Not a single politician lifted a finger to help the American consumer, not one. We are rescuing oil producing nations from the evils of Tierney and they are literally raping us in the market place. When we begin to look back at the increased foreclosure rate it runs parallel with the increase in the price of energy.  Interesting, isn't it? People, who were already strapped with a mortgage they could barely afford, now had energy costs that they couldn't afford. Then the business community began to strangle under the insane energy costs. Well, if you're a business owner and you have to have energy or fuel to run your business, what gets cut?  That's right the worker!  Now the person who was already in trouble with they're mortgage and they're own energy problems now is unemployed.  Job loss accounts for most foreclosures in the market today and it was clear the energy crisis started the acceleration of the mortgage crisis as we see it today.”

 

Here is the entire blog. http://actvra.in/468C

 

Today we have even higher energy prices than 2007 and health care is unstable and going to rise in the triple digits and we wonder why homes sales are slowing in a lot of markets. Employers are facing hard decisions on hours and even the number of employees, knowing the consumer can’t tolerate a price increase on goods and services. With that in mind ,the worker will get hours cut and some will even get laid off. We have the same ingredients as 2007 in the market today if you will just open your mind and see them. Only this time it’s fuel and healthcare that will take it down.

http://millerhomesgroup.com

http://tylerapartmentlocator.com

 

Posted by

Terry Miller

Miller Homes Group

Tyler Apartment Locator

Comments (4)

Clay R. Seay
Florida Homes Realty & Mortgage - Saint Augustine, FL

Terry, hindsight is 20/20 and when we all look back to this time, your points will be 100% correct.

The instability of the consumer confidence is driving the stall in economic growth. Fear of the unknown keeps the average consumer from making purchases, especially homes, since they are one of the most important decision for a family or individual to make.

Oct 29, 2013 02:30 AM
Terry Miller
Miller Homes Group - Tyler, TX
Miller Homes Group and Tyler Apartment Locator

Thanks Clay...

Oct 29, 2013 02:33 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

Terry - I read a blog post just a few days ago from an agent whose buyers had to stop looking for a home because their health insurance costs had tripled. They couldn't afford to drop it because the wife has cancer.

Yes, this has to have an impact on the housing market.

Dec 08, 2013 10:37 AM
Terry Miller
Miller Homes Group - Tyler, TX
Miller Homes Group and Tyler Apartment Locator

Thanks Marte

Jan 04, 2014 11:40 PM