Honestly, it's not so much me as my parents. They are really suffering from this whole mess. It might not DIRECTLY affect me, but it's directly affecting my family.
Call me a Pollyanna, but I think that, unless you live in a bubble area, your house value will recover by this time next year. Seattle, right? I don't know how you'll do. If you lived in New York, San Fran, Vegas, or Orange County, you'd be stuck.
Not worried about my savings. Bummed, but not worried. I am somewhat worried about job stability, but we'll see how that plays out.
Well, my job has already said to us that they'll be cutting 20% of our department by April of next year. I'm just hoping I'm not in that 20%.
I hear you. I wasn't trying to call you out or anything. Sorry if it came out that way. Man, you guys think YOU'RE worried about getting laid off? The company I work for (hint: it has 3 letters) has been in the news a LOT the last few weeks.... If it happens to me, I'll just get a student loan and go to school full-time instead of part-time and graduate quicker.
No problem. It didn't come off that way at all. Good luck with your job. I wish the best for everyone.
All indicators lean towards values continuing to drop nationwide for 12-18 months. Houston may be ok (IF THEY STOP BUILDING...someone stop Lanar Homes pls) but nationally we've got a long way to fall. But hey, we built this economy on overvaluation of real estate, its time for it to come back to reality anyway. I'm just curious how people are going to buy the houses that are available when they cant get credit.
The property value in San Fran is actually holding up pretty well. It's the cities near San Fran in the bay area that is taking the big hit because of the foreclosures. I hear property value in Hayward (about 30 minutes from San Fran) has fallen over 20% in the last 12 months.
The biggest win for folks that are able to retain income (jobs) and still invest will be those who invest at the low point and those who have money to purchase greatly reduced real estate for the long term. The biggest risk is that there are huge layoffs due to businesses failing since they can't borrow short term money. Thus contributing to an actual recession from an issue that has basically been kept in finance and real estate so far. How long until the Fortune 500 companies of the world start reducing costs due to lower access to money? How long until small businesses no longer have access to cash to pay their employees and go under? That's the biggest worry of this big blunder. Houston is somewhat shielded due to the energy sector and the fact that housing wasn't bubbled up like other parts of the country.
I don't think it will hit me too hard... as long as the system doesn't crumble and people can still take out student loans. I don't have any major investments, don't own a home, long way from retirement. Still, I feel sort of guilty having gone back to school when I could have had a good career without it, and wouldn't have had to be in any debt. Like I was taking a chance for personal gratification, and didn't do all I could to take care of myself and (much more importantly) any family who may need it in the future. But as long as college education is still doable... I can be finishing my degree for my second career, and doing my adjunct teaching. If people ever can't get student loans, that's when I'll be in trouble. Not only will I not be able to finish my degree, but I won't have much business in the college teaching industry either (for the subject I already have a degree in). If everyone just doesn't panic right now...
I wish they had done that in the first place. To everyone who makes $35K a year, bought a $350K house, and are walking away from their mortgages....thanks.
I know people who cashed out their 401k's and took the penalty during the S&L crisis and bought real estate. It made their retirement a lot more comfortable.
What people are failing to realize is that this isn't just the stock market that's getting pummeled... it's a global crisis, it affects homes, it affects the stock market, it affects credit, it affects employment, it affects student loans, etc. For the long-term it may be ok, but short-term, a LOT of things will change for a lot of people. What makes this worse is that the US is content living paycheck-to-paycheck (based upon national savings rates), so when things like this occurs, nobody has anything to fall back on. All this being said, down the road, you should be able to look back and say this is a blip.... albeit a big blip. BTW, you sure this is the "low"? Average into stocks you think are undervalued instead of jumping in all at once. Nobody knows what the low is.
I'm starting to consider looking into government jobs as a fall back in case I can't get any other type of employment. It's pretty depressing to me that 3 years ago right out of undergrad I probably would've had a job that is higher or comparable salary to what I'll have when graduating law school...and that's without all the debt.
