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I lived in the south for a couple of years and I found the southern bells to have a very thin layer of sweet covering a big, sour core. Maybe it was just the particular area where I lived.

Minnesota does have the nicest people. In the interest of full disclosure, however, I grew up there. 🙂

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There is one thing that no one has talked about and it happens to be the most important – your kids. When you ask an elderly person what they wished they could do differently, the men usually say that they wished they had spent more time with their kids.

Take the government job. Go to their baseball games and school events. Enjoy their childhood and make it the best you can for them. You said there is a university where you would move. Get an advanced degree while you are there (slowly so that it doesn’t impact your family too much).

I used to work with an attorney. He worked terrible hours and his family suffered. I had considered going to law school myself but the saw the light after watching him.

If being an attorney is your dream job, then that gives it a little extra weight. However, it doesn’t sound like this is the case.

You have a good nest egg and you will live very well elsewhere. I know a number of people with government jobs (not postal, etc) who live very nice lives. I know one guy who has plenty of time to be the head coach on his son’s baseball team. He is always at practice at 3:300. Go to work at 8, almost always home by 5. Where else to do you get that these days?

Bottom line: Kids come before money (or anything else).

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Duck, do have an iron in the fire?

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ph90802, I think you’re right. I was talking to a lady who lives in Coronado a few weeks ago. Her husband’s income is going through a dry patch. It was clear that they were maxed out and already in trouble. A person who has very high mortgage, car payments and boat payments needs a LOT more money to see them through rough patches. Any cash they have will go fast and I think that many people just don’t have the cash. They are living on credit and putting up a good front.

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The two companies had originally agreed on a sale price of $26 million, but because ECC sold some loans for less than expected, it owed $33 million to Bear Stearns, which had lent money to ECC to fund the loans. In the end, ECC paid Bear Stearns a net $7 million. ECC had said it would pay an 80-cents-per-share dividend to investors within 30 days of the sale, but the company now says the timeline for the dividend is unclear.

Unbelievable.  This some merger. 

I do believe the timeline for the dividend is never.

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FSD, I think these shows are both a reflection of the times and a creator of them.

People make commercials. Commercials get people to buy or else they would not make commercials. What are these shows but giant commercials?

I watched a program last night on HGTV about the 2006 home show. It was one long commercial highlighting new products for kitchens and bath. The names of the manufacturers were mentioned numerous times.

I would bet the farm on the fact that there are people out there who got the idea to try to flip from these shows.

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Wow, the unvarnished truth in the LA Times! Great article.

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Any price increases are temporary. My husband bought JDSU when it seemed to be a “good deal” after it started to tank in 2000. We weren’t the only suckers…er… knife catchers.

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I’ve witnessed it within my own family. I, however, learned from their many mistakes. Unfortunatly, I’m the only the one who learned. The cycle repeats….

I was watching a House Hunter show last night where the couple chose a 250K house. When they showed them six weeks later, there was at least 25 – 30k worth of pottery barn furniture in the place. It was all a new because I recognized those items from the current catalogue.

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I just have to say that the last three posts have proved that surfing is no longer the province of the VW van crowd and may now be dominated by the BMW crowd. 🙂

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People will go to extreme lengths to maintain the facade of success.
Mastercard posted a 17% increase in profits last year, which was higher than expected. I was not surprised. The magic HELOC has become more illusive. First people borrow from their home (HELOC), then run up the credit cards, then start selling their boat, RV and other things (like the four pieces of furniture they bought at pottery barn for 20k – kind of a surprise to find out it all is worth $1,500 on the secondary market). Depending on their embarrassment threshold, some will start calling family for a loan at any point in the above. The car only goes when they are threatened with reposession. However, if they are underwater on it, they will just start parking it two streets over.

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I’ve posted before that I think we are going to see a bit of an uptick. Downward trends frequently have little teeth on them (that are going to bite the buyers). The unknown right now is exactly how the subprime events from last week are going to affect the market.

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A couple of my ziprealty listings went inactive today. The funny thing is that I was watching both of them because they had high DOM and the wishing price was too high. I expect to see them again. 🙂

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I think that you are right and that a lot of people who tried to sell in ’06 have decided to ride out the downturn… if they can. I know of mulitple houses in my area that are off the market because they couldn’t get their wishing price. Maybe they were just trying to cash in? Or maybe people really believe that prices will start to go up again and are just waiting for the magic bounce before they all pile back onto the market?

Now that subprime is blowing up, it will be interesting to see what happens to the “starter home” markets. I bet we see more decreases in sales volume. Further, I think a lot more houses are going to fall out of escrow because they can’t get the money.

On a slightly different topic, I’ve noticed that there are one or two realtors here in Coronado who have every single one of their listings priced much higher than comparables. WTF? I drove by two houses for sale yesterday on the same street. They were very similiar houses but one was listed 20% higher.

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Regardless of what happens with RE, DO NOT lock yourself into a long commute. You will regret it. Calculate how much you make an hour. Then multiply that by the length of your commute (add in extra, bad accident days can be rough). Now add in all the extra gas and wear and tear on your car (don’t forget much more frequent oil changes, etc). Now you have a pure dollars number. However, you can’t calculate in dollars the value of your happiness. Will all that driving make you happy? Will it be good for your kids (if you have them)? Will it be good for your marriage (if you are married)?

For most people, the answer to all those questions is no, no and hell no.

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