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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GraceZ who wrote (79161)	2/20/2007 5:09:38 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 110194

Thanks -- reality is complex indeed and a little common sense helps to keep one from jumping to wild conclusions. But I do worry about the implications of people not having enough savings to provide for themselves in their old age if, as I fear, we see inflation pick up again in future years while at the same time the safety nets such as they are today fall apart.

To: GraceZ who wrote (79161)	2/20/2007 6:44:44 PM
From: benwood	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Good post, Grace. A couple comments -- the buyers (vs. the renters) presumes to some degree that they stay put a while and not get hit over and over with the 10% or so it costs to sell and buy again. But my wife and I stayed put and so that applied to us. And secondly... the story isn't over yet about those who extended and bought the biggest house conceivable. And they generally have higher, and sometimes, much higher frictional costs -- insurance, property taxes, heating/cooling bills, maintenance costs, water bills -- that mitigate their advantage they enjoyed over the more conservative buyers, like you and me. Plus I haven't felt the urge to furnish all the extra rooms as my brother has with his bigger house. So the big mortgage payments spawned some serious credit card debt as they felt compelled to fill up all the extra space.