Thursday, April 24, 2014

It's the Weather! Again

"It's the weather, stupid," or so the mantra continues.  Kind of reminds me of the now silent mantra, "It's George Bush's fault."  Such thought occurred to me as I read an article about New Housing Sales.  How clever that the headline is "U.S. new home sales hint at prolonged housing weakness".  Hint, hint?

And of course, it doesn't take too long to get to weather-related causes that are partially to blame. 

But I am confused.  I keep getting conflicting stories about housing.  One day it's great recovery, another it's "hinting weakness."  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/home-sales-dive-eight-month-low-march-140159015--sector.html

I've considered purchasing real estate.  I see a multitude of great buys on condos and homes in my area.  I saw a great foreclosure the other day on a 2-bed, 2-bath condo in a great location.  The quoted price was a measly $26,000!  But as I reviewed further, I saw that the tax bill has been increasing annually and the last one listed was more than $8,000!  Last year, at property tax time, the city newspaper ran a supplement showing the taxing authorities for each area along with a rough balance sheet.  I was startled to see that every taxing authority had grossly underfunded pension funds! 

We see what is happening in Detroit.  Bankruptcy is a bad option but can one withstand constantly increasing taxes and utilities without a similar increase in wages?  I think not.  What is the second option?

Police and Fire department layoffs, no trash collection . . .  there goes the neighborhood.

Read more: http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/25226752/chicago-suburb-lays-off-almost-third-of-police#ixzz2zoDVPPQi


Good luck on that guys. 

 

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