Me first! Me first! UNEXPECTEDLY!
Despite the negatives and relative low sales, homebuilders are recovering because they cut costs and bought cheap land during the recession.
Of course some jobs would do wonders for a real recovery.
Think of the money from hundreds of thousands of jobs just from the pipeline Obama killed. Or teh boost to gdp from more offshore oil drilling he prevented. Or the jobs lost to Obamacare and higher taxes, on and on.
A big part of this is the price of gas. Not only does declining gas prices allow people to consider moving, it also allows people to think it’s OK to live in the suburbs again.
Meanwhile, the price of food is going through the roof. Example: bananas were $0.49 a pound a year ago are now $0.59 a pound. A 20% increase, yet the official price of food barely goes up.
More wonderful news. My house has lost a third of its value and I am in better shape than most.
We just sold our house. It was on the market about 4 weeks and we got more than most of the comparable homes in the area were getting. Two reasons for this: we busted our butts to get the place move in ready, and clean and neat as a whistle and we were willing to settle in 4 weeks so the family could be in before school started.
Houses in our area are selling, but people are settling for less than they would have a year or two ago. They’ve had to face reality.
I fear that we are double dipping, so I’m so glad we sold before it starts to become more obvious.