Comments on: 64 Worst Quarterfinals: Cost of Buying a House vs. Parking Tards

By: 64 Worst: There Can Be Only One!!! | Los Angeles Metblogs

64 Worst: There Can Be Only One!!! | Los Angeles Metblogs — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:43:46 +0000

[...] “Is it any wonder that most Angelenos can’t afford to make the American Dream of home ownership a reality? In fact, many of L.A.’s poorest residents end up living with several families all under one roof, packed like sardines in a crushed tin box.” -Mike Winder [...]

By: bromike666

bromike666 — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:48:13 +0000

Frazgo, if you or any bank, broker, lender or seller think that by years end a regular family will be able to afford a average house using traditional financing (20% down and 6-7% interest for 30 years) I’d like some of what they are smoking.

Todays $440,000.00 median housing price = you need $88,000 + closing costs. On average how many people do you know with $88,000.00 in cash that they can put as a down payment? It’s either that or use some more of that creative financing that got us into that mess.

This all reminds me of a certain stock market bubble. And how long did it take to get to the very bottom of that ride? How many people predicted the bottom only to watch it drop another 5-10-20-30-50%.

Stabilized for now because people still have hope that theres a bigger sucker than themselves. Hell,not even the bottom feeder real estate speculators are buying yet. When they start snatching up property you know we’ve hit bottom.

By: frazgo

frazgo — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:46:29 +0000

Bromike in my ‘hood prices have stabilized. My wife works at HSBC and they think our bottom will hit later this year. My friend is a loan broker and he things the end of the year. The IE is an exception, as is the modesto/stockton area that are impacted by huge inventory of foreclosures but even that will peak later this year.

If your prediction is correct then suddenly we have affordable housing stock all over the place and then parking tards should win.

By: darleene

darleene — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:28:34 +0000

I’d love to vote, alas, I cannot. What gives? I thought the poll was open till Saturday.

By: Mike Winder

Mike Winder — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:19:29 +0000

@thunderboltfan: I'd be willing to retire "the American Dream" if everybody else would too. "Manifest Destiny," however, is a platitude you'd have to pry from my cold, dead hands.

By: thunderboltfan

thunderboltfan — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:28:25 +0000

Can we please retire the platitude that “owning a home is a part of the American Dream?” Or how about never invoking “the American Dream” at all. We aren’t living in the 1950s anymore. It’s a meaningless phrase today, more cultural intimidation, if not agitprop, than anything else.

I guess I’ve never been one for pack mentality.

By: bromike666

bromike666 — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:00:05 +0000

Give it another year and they’ll be giving houses away. 2009 – 2010 median price back down into the mid 200,000′s. Anyone who says different is in the housing industry and trying to rip you off.

By: skyscraper143

skyscraper143 — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:34:54 +0000

Aw shucks, I’m torn. I’ll have to wait until the comment debate starts and then make a decision.

For me, it might come down to a matter of timing and expectations: parking tards inconvenience you for a few minutes, possibly more. The swell of shock and anger one feels for an act of parking tard-ness is a lot more acute than over owning property. But not being able to own a house ever is more long-term and overall more damaging.

But then again, that all rests on assuming it is our God-given (or at least capitalism-given) right to own property. I can see reasons why that is not the case, but it is depressing as hell to keep forking over 50% of one’s salary to pay someone who reaps all the tax benefits and still won’t let you hang pictures on the wall.