How do you spell 'recovery'?
Realtor Notebook
By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, July 2, 2009.
Flickr photo by Andrew Pescod.During the first recession that I lived through and was directly impacted by, my dad made the statement that our view on the state of the economy has to do with who we are and what our own situation is.
A person who is unemployed during a time of high unemployment believes that we are in a recession, as does a person who can't make his or her house payments. A person who has a good job and is earning enough to make ends meet will ride out a recession without feeling like we are in difficult economic times.
Lately, I have been reading articles about how a recovery is just around the corner, but I am not seeing any evidence of a recovery. There is evidence that home sales are picking up, but a couple of months of higher sales fueled by tax incentives and the season does not necessarily mean that the housing market is recovering.
There are still many vacant buildings and homes in my neighborhood, and another one of my neighbors is unemployed.
Locally, the number of home sales are up from last year but the dollar volume is down significantly. That means the market is still contracting. Less money is changing hands and the impact is felt by sellers, their agents and others who profit when homes are sold.
The phone calls are still coming in from the people who are behind on their mortgage payments and those who need to sell but owe so much more on their homes than they could get for them that they are thinking about just walking away. I wait for the next wave of foreclosures to hit and wonder if it will be worse than the last wave or maybe not as bad.
The unemployment rate in Minnesota is almost as high as it was the year I graduated from college, which was record-breaking. Home values have declined, so commission checks are smaller and those of us who own homes have less equity. Some of us lost much of what was supposed to be our retirement in the stock market's fall. I figured it all out and I will have to work until I am at least 120 years old. ...CONTINUED
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Submitted by William Metzker on July 2, 2009 - 2:03pm.
The truth is, no one will know until it's over and we've moved on.
Thanks for articulating what many feel.
Submitted by Lenn Harley on July 2, 2009 - 2:42pm.
Recession or depression? I suppose it depends on who you are and where you are.
I believe that you are rightly pessimestic about the "recovery". I've been ranting about negative equity, loss of credit for 2 years now.
The policy makers keep predicting recovery soon. However, they have yet to even recognize that fully 20,000,000 of our citizens are trapped by a mortgage on a home for which they are paying twice what the home is worth. How are these families going to be active consumers for the next many years? They'll be working to pay a mortgage payment or face total financial ruin.
The American consumer driven economy cannot be sustained with a 15% reduction in consumer spending.
I'm just sitting back watching.
Lenn Harley
Broker
Homefinders.com
http://www.homefinders.com
Submitted by Jon Astaris on July 2, 2009 - 4:21pm.
Lenn Harley has it right. And most if not all 20 million "homeowners" will be walking. What will that do to the rest of us? Not so hard to figure out.
Submitted by John Rakoci on July 2, 2009 - 8:27pm.
Recession - neighbor looses job
Depresion - you loose job
RECOVERY - obama looses job
Submitted by Mary Pope-Handy, CRS, ABR, E-Pro, SRES on July 3, 2009 - 6:50am.
I think that Michigan has been harder hit than anywhere else in the country - I just peeked online and it looks like unemployment there is 13.9%. It's 11.2% in CA and 11.5% in Silicon Valley specifically, and it hurts. Teens cannot find jobs. Compounding the situation, the overall economic stresses, crime is way up. People are desperate. So it's not just a loss of economic security, it's also a loss of a sense of personal safety in many areas where crime did not used to be such a large issue. But states and communities are bankrupt, and jails cannot afford to hold people and police are stretched too thinly to persue many crimes. It worsens. The recovery cannot come soon enough.
Mary Pope-Handy
Luxor Real Estate Group
Co-Author, "Get the Best Deal When Selling Your Home in Silicon Valley"
www.PopeHandy.com (site)
www.ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com (site)
www.LiveInLosGatos.com (blog)
Submitted by Donna Clayton Lloyd on July 6, 2009 - 3:49am.
What a thought provoking article that, to me, is right on the mark. The most important "RECOVERY" going on now is within each individual American as we re-adjust our value systems, face our greed, realize how induced we had become to such immediate gratification-the "we ALL deserve whatever we want RIGHT NOW" mentality.
We've been "pimped" into a never ending demand for more STUFF--bigger, better STUFF which includes outlandish homes. So-- the economy would flow --- We now must maintain two jobs per household, with little down time to even enjoy what we have, just to make basic ends meet because we have so expanded the definition and expectation of basic.
From welfare- for those genuinely in need, to welfare for those taking a free ride, to corporate welfare rewarding some with more than a reasonable share-- we have really created a monstrous system that only feeds the monsters of dissatisfaction and competitiveness within and between us.
We wait for jobs as if we are due them--- someone hand me one. When will the tenacious creativity and determined spirits kick in from individuals.When will we create a job for ourselves rather than wait for someone to had us one? That's what has been the true American spirit of the past that has created one great nation.
We do need to lean into the questions-- What do I really need? -- and What can I do to contribute to this world being a world I'd enjoy living in?
RECOVERY-- starts one person at a time. I'm sure asking myself the hard questions about what I want RECOVERY to look like in the life of Donna Clayton Lloyd-- and answers are coming.
Think outside of the box. What can RECOVERY look like that isn't just more of the same?
IF only I could hear from our national leadership, the sober thinking of Teresa Boardman-- I'd feel even more encouraged. We are so used to drive-thru in all areas of life-- we want to believe RECOVERY happens in an instant. I suggest -- not!
If we ever needed anything more than the fuel of truth rather than hype-- it's now. It's time to stand on the solid hard rock-- and push rather than wish.
Thanks Terry for being one hard rock voice.
Donna Clayton Lloyd
ABR,CRS,GRI,e-Pro,Broker Associate
Member- Institute for Luxury Home Marketing
TOWNSEND REAL ESTATE
Fayetteville, NC
www.DonnaLloyd.com
Submitted by Jack McCabe on July 6, 2009 - 5:59am.
Quote below from the March 8th, 2009 Ft. Myers News-Press in an article titled "Developer's high rise enterprises in tatters":
"There's a paradigm shift in this country from the past days of excess and materialism to an age of practicality, responsibility, frugality and minimalism," McCabe said. "And because of the tax and insurance problems we have here, inflation, the uncertainty of hurricanes, I don't think retiring baby boomers, both U.S. and international, are going to put their savings into million dollar condominiums on the water anymore."
Imitation is the purest form of flattery, so the saying goes.
Evidently Ms. Boardman stays informed by reading Florida newspapers and websites.
Hopefully, when all is said and done, people will remember who said what when, and who "flattered" who by duplicating their expertise months and/or years later.
Jack McCabe
CEO
McCabe Research & Consulting
2422 Lob Lolly Lane
Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442