Americans Collectively Owe Almost $1 trillion in Credit Card Debt.

you don't but

for one historically when a housing bubble pops its never taken less then like 4-5 years to hit bottom

but other then that where is all this money coming from? are people suddenly earning 3 times as much at their jobs? So they can afford a house that costs 3 times as much

this graph shows prices historically



Also in some places they have built a shit load of houses, many of which are not even on the market yet, these will further drive prices down

Also many banks are not dumping their foreclosures yet, I mean really dumping selling for whatever they can get at auction, this will drive prices down too

 

I always do- thanks!

 

That graph is big, but the current boom is not even twice the 90's boom, and then you have to factor in many other things, so it doesn't seem like that much to me when you look at the numbers.

Also, you notice the overall upward trend over the years?

 

That's a very interesting point! In the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), we are being hit by a number of factors. I hadn't considered the banks driving the costs down. Yikes!

 

are you sure?

like what? the overhead on owning a house, taxes, insurance, upkeep

of course, but look at how many years you have to wait to get your money back if you buy at the wrong time

I mean I don't really care, if it makes you happy to buy a house go for it. But for a long time I thought I wanted to buy a a really expensive house on the ocean, but the more I learned about it the happier I have been just renting one

 

Most of the condo developers around here can't even sell 25% of their units. Why they built in the first place without selling at least 50% makes no sense to me.

There are twelve $500K+ town homes down the street from me that were built a year and a half ago. Only 6 of them have sold so far.

 

The house I just bought was built 2 years ago, never lived in! Only good thing about it 'for me' is I got it at a reduced rate.

I got more than my neighbor who bought basically the same house 'I got some finishing touches he paid extra for, such as the concrete driveway', he paid I believe almost 20K more than me! I got this house for about $25,000.00 UNDER ASESSED value. During the boom most houses 'as usual' go for over asessed value.

The same developer built a crap load of low cost condo's a few blocks away, there has to be at least a dozen of them left for sale or more. These aren't even expensive condo's, like $104,000.00 starting. He's had to continue to reduce the price, but they simply don't sell.

Other houses around here have been on the market for 2 years+ as well, prices have been reduced dramatically over those 2 years, still they have not sold.

 

I have a friend who builds high-end condos and town homes around here and he said they're basically not even able to build anything because they can't get any commitments...NONE!

BTW- Congrats on your house!!

 

I already have.........and it has paid off.

Yeah the banks are totally honest, thats why a bank runs the U.S., right?

Yep, fractional reserve banking. The banks loans out more money than they have in reserves, and it works great until everyone suddenly wants to pull their money out of the bank.

Yeah, mia, they pay you pennies in return. OMG, I get paid little pennies of interest on my account, while the banks makes 40% interest, come on, it is a scam, can't you see that?

You go in and deposit your money, the bank then turns around and loans it out at 50% interest, then turns around and pays you 2%, and you think you're getting a good deal. Wake up, I understand banking, I worked at a bank for two years, that 2% you get paid gets eaten up by both inflation and taxes. The bank is sitting their laughing at you.

Then if the stock market crashes, and there are bank runs, the bank won't be able to give everyone their money back, then they will have to close their doors, and some people lose everything.

You keeping thinking the bank are honest if you want to.........you don't know what you're talking about, I've worked at a bank and I know what goes on behind closed doors, it is all about profits and scamming the living daylight out of you

I'm already doing well, and I don't believe in luck.

You put me on ignore because you can't deal with the reality I bring to the table. I've never put your or anyone else on ignore, when you put me on ignore, it just adds more fuel to what I'm saying.

Yeah, good debt, that is what the mortgage dealers told all the American who signed up for those ARMS. They told them that it was "good debt." Now look at them, they lost their house, and lost all the payments they made on the house, sounds like good debt to me.

 

Well, yeah, I know what you're saying. I guess i'm talking about a more specific circumstance rather then buying houses in general. My situation is just that my business may go bankrupt because I can't save hundreds/month on rent for the short term by getting a mortgage, due to having a non corporate business credit open.

I mean, come on? Someone who makes a solid small income and is subject to the whims of their employer's business market is more profitable to banks then someone who is trying to be an entrepreneur and has a couple months record of making it grow incredibly rapidly.

Seriously, I've spent days on this issue, and the only thing that can save me is if I could get a small home loan with a low starter payment. This may be a bad investment as a luxury, but when it's a business investment, the math works out. Especially in my case.

I don't want to encourage people to start buying houses though just for fun, cause i don't really know if that's a good investment.

 

My sisters boyfriend owns a landscaping business, which of course means he works for some of the construction around here. He was telling me about how the builders are losing their asses ATM from the loans they took out to build all these places that aren't selling.

Perfect time to buy, horrible time to sell.

I got lucky selling my old house at least, sold it cheap just to get rid of it.

and TY

 

Still calling me out for "attacking America" eh Gtech. This argument is so tired and old. I only tell the truth, what have I said so far that wasn't the truth. Are you saying I'm lying about the $910 billion we owe? Yeah, it does suck that Americans owe that much, it also shows that the country is in decline.

I'm only calling it like I see it, I've never had a gift for telling people what they want to hear. The problem is that a lot of people can't handle the truth. Mia sits here and says that there is good debt and bad debt, but when you stop being able to make payments on your debt, the results are always bad.

Better to not borrow in the first place, that is better than "good debt" if such a thing even exists, which I strongly argue doesn't. A house is supposedly a good example of "good debt." The stupid mortgage companies an banks that suckered Americans into taking out ARMs probably fed the them "good debt" line to.

 

ATM is not a good time to get a loan, especially if self employed. I mean this as it's hard to. The loan I got for my new place was changed multiple times at the end because of the industry being 'itchy' the loan type is no longer even offered.

Now I'm going to refinance again already and the banks want 2 years records, plus profit loss statement, plus financial records of all my other accounts. They are getting super strict compared to what they were at.

Being self employed sucks at times

 

And the problem is, I think those loans and null and void if they don't start building by within a certain time period. So they start building just to keep the loans...I guess.

 

Why don't you buy one of them? I'm sure they can cut you a good deal.

 

Don't you know being blind and not trying to fix problems is the American way? /sarcasm of course.

Not 100% sure if it's that, or if they were so used to houses selling quicker than they were built they simply built way too many. ATM hardly any building is going on this way, used to be everywhere. Most of the units for sale here were built over a year ago!

 

Well those people are morons! All of the problems could have been avoided had they understood the terms and their options.

 

Yeah, these guys just want to put their head in the sand. When you come out and say there is a problem with the economy, or with corruption in the government, they suddenly call you unpatriotic, you're not American if you don't follow everything the government tells you to do.

You know what makes me laugh? The top investors in the world, guys like George Soros, are all saying the U.S. will head right into the toilet. The dollar is going into the toilet, Americans own almost $1 trillion in credit card debt, and this doesn't even include the car loans, student loans, and mortgage loans we owe.

America is the most debt slaved country in the world. Our wealth is an illusion, it is all borrowed, we don't even own the stuff we have. In this country, people who are "renting to own" a home(mortgage) call themselves "homeowners." What a joke. You're not a homeowner until you own the stinkin house, the not the bank owning it.

Never say you own anything if you're making payments on it. The only people who own it is the people you make payments to. If you don't believe me, just stop making your payments, and you'll find out real fast who is really in control.

 

Exactly. You don't get those kind of loans for personal use, you get them for business, and only if you can handle the risk.

 

You are right, but isn't a mortgage an example of "good debt?"

I know how the banks thinks, like I said, I worked for Wells Fargo for two years. They sit there and sucker you with the loans, telling you how much "financial freedom" you have by "owning your own home" What the banks never tell you though is that you are in fact renting to own the house. You must make payments to them until the house is paid off.

This means, you lose your job, and can't make payments, you lose your home. It doesn't matter if you've been paying on that home for fifteen years, if you fail to make payments, your house goes bye bye, and you end up losing a valuable investment.

Nobody here is going to convince me that getting a mortgage loan is better than just buying the house in cash, and owning it free and clear. A mortgage is not good debt, it is just plain old fashioned debt.