Ummm...I am not too fussed on boiled cabbage...

There are quite a few foreclosures here in S. Fla but they are mostly being snapped up by Euros and South Americans...

It was inevitible when the average home price here went to $350,000 and yet the average income was only about $50,000....

But they still gave loans so that people with a 50K income could buy an "average" house.

People need to abandon the idea that somehow they "deserve" to have a house whether they can afford it or not.

I've been searching out statistics for the last 18 months. I've seen recession and for quite awhile I felt it coming on. But the statistics I seem to be finding about unemployment and earnings are not AT ALL comparing with everything else.

For a long time I thought it was just Indiana, but even the employment and wage stats here say we're doing GREAT!

But 18 months ago things started happening. At this moment I personally know 25 people who have been laid off, or lost a job to business closing, moving, or failure. There have been thousands in the last 18 months. In the last three months there's not a day that I work or see my friends that I don't hear from someone that they've just lost their job.

I have 15 friends (friends not acquaintances) that have either filed bankrupcy or are looking into doing so. I live in an area, that for 15 years has been one of the most desirable locations to live in, and for the last 10 years has been in the top of the fastest growing communities in Indana.

But today, there are homes in my neighborhood that have been of the market for a year. A couple of my neighbors have had to short sell their homes. They could no longer afford to keep their homes because one or both of a two income family, had to take a lower paying job, when a lay off lost cost them their first job. One had to short sell, in order to take a job out of state.

Currently more people are enrolled for state aid, and benefits, than historical figures could ever have predicted. Yet statistics say unemployment is low. B.S.

I can't remember how long and how bad things have to get before it's considered a recession, but we have to be pretty close.

What I can't figure out, is who is lying and why?

Like I've always heard and believe. We're only one paycheck away from homelessness. I am sure fortunate to have always been a survivor. Been pretty much below poverty most of my life and know how to make do with what I have.
I'm also fortunate that my whole world won't come crashing down on me if I lost my place here.
It's hard for me to comprehend how, just losing possessions can destroy a person. Unless those things are what they base their self worth on.
As far as jobs, if a person really wanted one, they are out there. It might mean living a lot more humble lifestyle and doing a thing that before, might have been seen as beneath their standards. They might even have to move to a different part of the country where the jobs are.
For example, Oklahoma. They are looking to fill many positions.

It took my neighbor over a year to sell his house and then he had to sell for much less. My other neighbor still has not sold his, and his wife and he finally moved out. They caved in and sold it to one of those "We Buy Houses" groups. Just 3 years ago, houses in my area sold within a matter of months or even weeks. I would like to sell mine and move to another area, but I don't need to. I am not willing to throw away my equity. I am just thankful that I am not in the same dire situation so many other people are facing.

With all the statistics about the economy doing "great" or incomes "rising" or
realizing great "equity" in your current home...how does all that look when you
take into consideration the worth of the dollar today...or in the months and
years ahead...a million dollars means little if it's net worth is pennies...

yeah...definitely a paycheck away from disaster...