You don’t need a house either

06 Mar You don’t need a house either

–https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buying-house-gotten-expensive-homebuyers-115100531.html

Listen, peon. Food ain’t that important and neither is a home. Get over it.

Trying to cough up the extra $50K is no easy task. Plus I suspect the real number is a helluva lot higher than $50K. It’s probably more in the $100-$200K range depending on where you live.

One of the few good things to happen during the pandemic was sub-3% mortgage rates, which allowed younger and lower-income buyers to break into the housing market. But that abruptly changed in 2022 and 2023 when mortgage rates and home prices skyrocketed—peaking at 8% in October 2023.

These factors led to an extremely strained market in which many homeowners clung to their current properties in fear of higher mortgage rates and fewer new buyers could afford to buy a home. Indeed, housing affordability has gotten so bad that prospective buyers need to make about $50,000 more now than pre-pandemic in order to “comfortably” afford a home, according to a Zillow report released Thursday. And affording a home goes beyond monthly mortgage payments, experts agree.

-Yahoo Finance, Ibid.

Yeeeaaaah. I’m not sure how good that actually was considering that the prices were jacked up, the choices were often bad, and most people now have buyer’s remorse. Artificially manipulated overheated markets are NOT a good thing. For the fat cats? Yes, of course. They profiteer mercilessly off these boom/bust cycles. If you look at the wealth transfer, it’s like a tube of toothpaste: you squeeze it from the bottom upward so that the product collects at the top and leaves nothing behind.

“Homes Built During The Pandemic Falling Apart…

During the pandemic new home builders were rushing to build homes. Many times leaving a wake of poor craftsmanship and horror stories for home buyers. So, should you avoid buying these homes?”

These fat cats are not playing all of this like it’s a joke. For them, it’s a zero sum game and they will not lose.

BUD
Tell me, Gordon–when does it all end? How many yachts can you waterski behind? How much is enough?

GEKKO
Buddy, it’s not a question of enough. It’s a zero sum game, sport. Somebody wins and somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred from one perception to another. Like magic. That painting cost $60,000 10 years ago. I could sell it today for $600,000. The illusion has become real. And the more real it becomes, the more desperately they want it. Capitalism at its finest.

BUD
How much is enough Gordon?

GEKKO
The richest one percent of this country owns half the country’s wealth: 5 trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds of it comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulation to widows and idiot sons and what I do — stock and real estate speculation. It’s bullshit. Ninety percent of the American people have little or no net worth. I create nothing; I own. We make the rules, Buddy, the news, war, peace, famine, upheaval; the cost of a paper clip. We pull the rabbit out of the hat while everybody else sits around their whole life wondering how we did it… you’re not naïve enough to think we’re living in a democracy are you, Buddy?

–https://imsdb.com/scripts/Wall-Street.html

Do you think anything has changed since ’87? Or are you still in the delusion that we live in a democracy?

–https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/02/24/gordon-gekko-tried-to-tell-you/  (emphasis mine for this post)

This reaches a boiling point when Carl is invited to Bud’s fancy apartment (which looks hideous, IMO) with the union reps to listen to Gekko’s proposal. Bud has sold Gekko on the idea that they should purchase Bluestar Airlines – the company where Carl has worked for years – and make cuts to the pension. Get the union reps to agree to some changes to avoid the company going bankrupt and voila! A deal is made where Gordon gets richer than he already is and Bud becomes the President of Bluestar. During the pitch, the union reps seem conciliatory and, though they ask to see the fine print of the deal, they are not turned off by Gekko.

Carl, meanwhile, sees through the whole charade. Sitting on a loveseat studying the paperwork, Carl is not impressed by the dog-and-pony show. When asked for his opinion, he offers this:

“There came into Egypt a Pharaoh who did not know…”

Gordon doesn’t get the reference, of course.

It comes from the book of Exodus:

“8 A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know about Joseph.
9 He said to his people, ‘Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we are.
10 Get ready, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they increase, and a war befall us, and they join our enemies and wage war against us and depart from the land.'” -Exodus 1:8-10

Carl: There came into Egypt a Pharaoh who did not know…

Gordon: I beg your pardon, is that a proverb?

Carl: No, a prophecy. The rich have been doing it to the poor since the beginning of time. The only difference between the Pyramids and the Empire State Building is the Egyptians didn’t allow unions. I know what this guy is all about: greed. He don’t give a damn about Bluestar or the unions. He’s in and out for the buck and he don’t take prisoners.

–https://causeyconsultingllc.com/2023/05/15/the-common-sense-of-carl-fox/

The powers that be are in and out for the buck. They do not care and they do not take prisoners.

Now, buyers need to make on average $106,000 to afford a home, which is 80% more than January 2020, Zillow says. Monthly mortgage payments on a “typical home,” which Zillow defines as costing $343,000, have nearly doubled in that time frame to $2,188, assuming a 10% down payment. And while mortgage rates and home prices are the main culprits behind today’s housing affordability challenges, there are other factors that make buying a home more costly.

-Yahoo Finance, Ibid.

Do you expect this will get better? Oh, I know, believe me: if I bring up 15 minute cities and “you vill own nozing,” I’ll get tHat’S JuSt a CoNspiRacY tHeoRy.

But look around you: does it seem like your ability to own things and afford, well, the basics of life is getting better?