Regarding U.S Economy.

[Ksandra]

So is it a good time to buy a home if you can afford it?

I would wait. Houses are starting to slowly fall in price because of this (so in a sad way it's a good thing), you'd probably be able to get a much cheaper deal if you're willing to wait out another year.

Added to that, more and more banks are crashing, meaning you could end up being stuck with a bad loan.

If you did want one sadly I'd say get a loan through BoA. They will be the most expensive for sure, (I worked for them and always competitors would have lower rates, but then WAMU is crashing so *shrug*) but they are probably the most stable out of them all. Even then though they are making some risky choices by all the buying they're doing.

I would really wait though, save up your money as much as possible, and wait and see if the government does anything to fix this, or if it all bottoms out. Then use whatever money you save for a down payment.

[Maxxthepenguin]

Wow, Jewish stereotypes are true, huh?

The reason stereotypes are bad is they make 90% seem like 100%.

[Amele]

So is it a good time to buy a home if you can afford it?

If you can do it like it used to be done a generation ago*, maybe. just realize that the value of the house may be lower in ten years than it is today (meaning your loan might be for more than the value of the house)


*20% down, fixed API, etc.

[Remyo]

In a nutshell, never get variable rates on a house, always go fixed even if it's means you can't get one right away (if they don't fix this shit no one is going to be able to afford houses anyways).

To dumb as best I can:

Banks went to lots of poorer people/young people and offered them very low rates for the first 3-4 years of their mortgage. The selling point was "in 4-5 years you'll be getting payed more so can afford more on the house!" But wages didn't really scale upward like the banks had them believe. With gas/food/etc. rising, after the 4 years were up (wave started maybe 1-2 years ago) those people could no longer make payments on their home.

Normally, this wouldn't be a bad situation for the banks except for the large scale they did it for. Thousands of people have lost their homes because of this, and the market prices of homes are extremely high so not only did people lose their homes, others can't afford to get one. Leaving the banks with tons of repossessed homes that won't sell.

Since banks have made a major of their money from the home business it fell flat fast and now they aren't generating enough money elsewhere and are falling apart.

I meant the bailout and what aurik was talking about liquidity etc. I knew what caused the downfall of all the companies.

[sephir]

I would wait 6 months. According to some stats I saw at the beginning of September, House prices are still falling but not nearly as significantly as before (average was 11% compared to 16% before that) so that means that it is starting to level out but not quite yet.
Also as far as buying a house now.... It can be good if you have enough money to put a serious downpayment down. By that I mean 10-20%, Banks are restricting loans to those who have perefect credit and if you can show that you can pay down that much of a house and have perfect credit then all the power to you.

[Charla]

So, anyone checked sinfest today? (I see Mioko found TPS one on page 1)
http://sinfest.net/comikaze/comics/2008-09-25.gif

[Kuya]

Nice.

[Amele]

So, anyone checked sinfest today? (I see Mioko found TPS one on page 1)
http://sinfest.net/comikaze/comics/2008-09-25.gif

I liked yesterday's more

[guartz]

Did you all catch the president's speech?

I lol'd

[Charla]

Yesterday's is mostly a string of comic book caricatures followed by a RL reference. In today's the whole thing is about the situation. So whether or not death flying like Hobgoblin is 'better', I think today's is more relevant to the current events in question.

[Amele]

Yesterday's is mostly a string of comic book caricatures followed by a RL reference. In today's the whole thing is about the situation. So whether or not death flying like Hobgoblin is 'better', I think today's is more relevant to the current events in question.

oh no, I mean. both were good (it's very rare that I don't enjoy sinfest; it's too bad he'll never get syndication) but I found yesterday's funnier (maybe because I didn't see the punchline coming; today's was more predictable.)

[miokomioko]

Here's a nice little stick figure story to help the confused wrap their heads around this mess...

http://www.businesspundit.com/sub-prime/

[Kyreth]

I look at it this way. Let them keel over. Otherwise, we're propping up a financial community that knows that if the risk is outrageous enough, they can do so, get out, or be bailed out "for the good of the country".

Fuck that. The sooner we get a market that knows over-risky business gets them dragged out of their offices and shot by their stockholders, the better the nation's economic health is in the long run. And while we're at it, a nation that acts the same way with the government's finances.

Debt is the sword of Damocles, held over our heads, our children's heads, our grandchildren's, every damned tax-paying American (well, not the illegal immigrants, but guess who gets fucked when the job market goes to hell?). People need to return to post-Depression sensibilities. Save, scrape, don't spend what you don't got, and thrive.

[Charla]

Debt is the sword of Damocles, held over our heads, our children's heads, our grandchildren's, every damned tax-paying American (well, not the illegal immigrants, but guess who gets fucked when the job market goes to hell?). People need to return to post-Depression sensibilities. Save, scrape, don't spend what you don't got, and thrive.

But if you think about it, debt is hardly the only such sword. Any day of my life could be the last if a truck hits me, a plane falls on me, or someone just decides to shoot the lock off my front door and empty the place while I'm asleep, to name a few possibilities. In that kind of context, the possibility that the bank will 'lose' the account containing my money but not the other account containing my debt (they're in the same bank at the moment) is downright relaxing by comparison. And the prospect of losing one job and having to spend a few months looking for another halfway decent one is barely even worth mentioning.

The sword of Damocles is not confined to either the powerful or the weak, it is a consequence of being Human in a less than completely certain world.

[Amele]

because I really like the idea of selling my children's children into spiritual slavery to Beijing and Mumbai because we had to fire sale what's left of America's Assets to socialize the losses of a private business.

fuck. that. seriously. you want the profits? you take the risks. don't like the risks? don't fucking get into the business.

a bailout for wall street is -not- how you solve Joe Sixpack's foreclosure crisis. the American public didn't cause the banking crisis; credit default swaps did. and bailing the financiers out of their own ponzi scheme isn't going to teach anyone anything, or solve any problems for anyone who isn't already in the top 2% most wealthy.

[aurik]

I'm glad you have such a poor understanding of the true nature of the problem even after several very clear explanations. Please do us all a favor and don't vote this year.

[Dimmauk]

http://www.electiontaxes.com

Online tool you can use to see how your taxes will be effected by the candidates tax plans.