How does the average person survive here?

[FuedLvr24]

The cost of living is high in Hampton Roads. It is hard for the average person to survive here. You would have to live within your means and that means shopping at low budget grocery stores, thrift stores, dollar stores, discount stores, and you are not able to go out on weekends to enjoy yourself. Now if you make 60K or more...you will be fine but anything lower than 50K...you could possibly find yourself not saving money due to exorbitant gas, food and cost of living.

[chesapeakesim]

Originally Posted by FuedLvr24

The cost of living is high in Hampton Roads. It is hard for the average person to survive here. You would have to live within your means and that means shopping at low budget grocery stores, thrift stores, dollar stores, discount stores, and you are not able to go out on weekends to enjoy yourself. Now if you make 60K or more...you will be fine but anything lower than 50K...you could possibly find yourself not saving money due to exorbitant gas, food and cost of living.

Shoot, I don't think even 60K (which is a good wage) here would make you fine if you are just starting out. If you take the rule of thumb about housing costing 3 times your income, you are looking at $180K to spend for a house. That will get you an ok condo maybe, but not even close to a house unless you are in the ghetto. Even 4 times your income would mean $240K and I don't even think that will get you a house. If you bought awhile back or are single and in an apartment, you would probably be fine, but not for everyone else.

[telemonster]

Originally Posted by chesapeakesim

Am I alone in feeling this way, or are there other young families out there that are in the same boat. I am not trying to be negative, am just curious to see how others are making it and what their stories are. Are there 20 or 30 somethings that can afford these 500K houses and if so can you offer financial advice ? It is frustrating to want to have a decent future but to think that those things are so far out of reach.

Would appreciate any thoughts/opinions from others. Thanks everyone .

Here is what it is.

Basically, people don't make that much money. Some people bought and their homes appreciated, so they were living large. Many of these people "freed" their equity, blew it all, and now their homes will go down in price.

Other people stretched, and bought using funky loans that allow teaser rates for a few years, then resets to a normal rate. Many of these people won't be able to afford it once it resets. Some of them lie on the application, and often the broker helps them... they lie about their income to justify the loan, and figure they can refinance before that teaser rate expires. But now they can't, and many of these are being walked away from. It's the corporate mindset, used by the consumer against the corporation. If I win, I keep profits. If I loose, walk away and let the bank figure it out.

Housing was considered a couldn't loose, get rich quick scheme. You have flippers that run up the prices. You have people that aren't smart who are now being given huge amounts of money to spend on a home, of which they likely won't ever pay back. Huge amounts of money chasing a small pool of homes results in escalating prices. The loans are sold to investors as being good loans, even though they are bad and will fail. This is where investors from other countries loose tons of money, and hate Americans.

You can see where this is all going. We've seen the Indymac bank failure. We've seen Bear Sterns fail. We're watching Lehman brothers fail. And there is a list of other institutions ripe for failure.

Basically, the greed of America and Americans, and the get rich quick without work ethic, and the poor ethics of our leaders and CEOs (outsourcing jobs, etc)... is leading the entire country down the toilet.

Whatever the value is on these houses, don't buy. Buying now is catching a falling knife. Prices are going to plummet. Look at how much inventory there is in Hampton Roads above $500K ... those are going to kill the low end. All over the country there is similar stuff going on.

Oh, and don't forget all of the people who were flying high on real estate... Realtors, Brokers, Builders, Contractors, Sales people for suppliers, property, etc. Many of these people drank their own kool aid and moved into fancy houses. But now that income is vanishing. Less than a year ago I drove through some of those neighborhoods near where I grew up in Chesapeake... ones full of $600K+ homes. I noticed a good number of them had trucks in the driveways that looked like construction vehicles, with ladder frames and stuff. I'm guessing that a good number of the people in these hoods were getting income from the mania, and now it's gone. So they are ripe for loosing these places.

Blame Greenspan. Blame Clinton. Blame Bush. Blame our CEOs. Blame flippers. Blame cheats that lie about appraisals, about their income (this is a felony, to misstate income on loan app, I hope the IRS goes after all this unreported income too). Blame the dumb people that didn't google "Housing Bubble" and get as educated as me on this. Blame the Realtors, who trademark their profession, and hide from what they really are. House Salespeople.

DONT EVER, EVER, THINK A REALTOR(TM) HAS YOUR BEST INTEREST IN MIND. THEY ARE NOT FINANCIAL ADVISERS. THEY ARE SALESPEOPLE.

And now. Blame our gov't for bailing out the crooks at the top. Bear Sterns. Lehman Brothers. Who's next?

(Washington Mutual, possibly).

Feel free to private message me if you have questions. Feel free to challenge me in public on here, and I will tear up whatever theory you come up with. Most of what I learned came from The Housing Bubble Blog. I've been following it for 4+ years now.

Take the 2001 sale price of a home, compound 3% yearly, that is where the price should be, and likely will revert to.