Inflation Thread

[MelroseHawkins]

You do remember that president dumpster trumpster signed the two huge covid relief packages during his term and he and the republicans did a big tax cut package. You do realize that if the Fed, both repub and dems, hadnt done those covid relief packages the economy would have TOTALLY went to shit. There were 20% of people out of work and they would not have been able to pay rent and groceries or pay their mortgages. We would have had another 2007-2008

So dont blame just the Dems as that is a very shortsighted crazy notion.

All three of those things trump and congress did dumped the first few trillions into the hands of spenders.

If you want to see something very interesting and telling look at the price of gas I posted in this thread. You will see the price go steadily down from very high to much lower as the Obama admin slowly fixed the 2007-2008 depression thru to 2016.

But wait, then the price of gas steadily went back up all through Trump's 4 years because the repubs are terrible for fiscal and economic policy.
Overall, there are too many global factors for presidents and congress to control a lot of the crude oil price system but they could do a better job of not allowing excess gas prices at the pump. There was a time back during the first huge gas shortages and gas price increases when the state and fed govts didnt allow price gouging. Dealers had to align their prices with the actual price of gas in their underground tanks and not drastically raise prices overnight for gas they bought at a much lower price.

Ok, I get it. Everything good the democrats did it, everything bad Trump did it. WTF!

I truly wish we could just shove all the far lefties off to California and each coast actually, and let them have that and live there where it is all good and where it is financially stable, and let the middle of the country be left to the righties. That would not bother me a bit.

"the repubs are terrible for fiscal and economic policy." --------------???? Wuut???? Are you crazy? Two of the worst inflationary periods in US history are both with a democrat being the leader of the free world. What's scary is Biden did this in one damn year. He has 3 more! But, in all fairness to him he's not really running shit. We all know that. This is a Weekend At Bernie's situation where they just run his ass out there as a figurehead.

Let's compare Los Angelos, San Francisico, Seattle and Yew York. Hell throw Chicago in there to, to Texas, Florida, Nashville for a City. Do you notice any pattern? And you trying to tell me that the republicans are terrible for fiscal and economic policy. Explains why all the Californians are fleeing to Texas, Nashville, NC and middle America, I guess. Krist.

 

[okeefe4prez]

You make good points as putting chicken in the meat dept does take a lot of different costs. But all these cost inputs should add up fractionally at a rate perhaps just a little over the inflation levels. So we should expect chicken to go up by maybe 10% rather than 100%. Much of what is happening is the human nature of greed.

You are right that all the various extra monies given to the citizenry whether direct monies, tax credits, freezing rental payments, etc etc added a ton of extra purchasing power. And people spent a year in 2020 hunkered down and not spending as much. So 2021 exploded in purchasing.

But then businesses see the higher spending power along with the "threat of inflation" and jack up prices way more than they should be. We have seen price gouging in these inflationary periods and shortage periods in the past.

I do not see cars in gas lines or reported across the country and even the world. I will have to check but I think the price of gas has gone up more than 100% when inflation is only 7-8%. There have been large kill offs of birds. But I still see tons of chicken in the stores and there is this shortage.

If these businesses are gouging, profits will be astronomical and the stock market should move dramatically higher. Yet that isn't happening.

Do you know why you don't see gas lines? It's because we have a market. The geniuses in DC used to have caps on the price of gas and the market price exceeded that fixed price, therefore we had production shortfalls and excess demand. Equilibrium was never attained. I suspect if you had your way, we would have shortages within a month.

 

[HawkGold]

Ok, I get it. Everything good the democrats did it, everything bad Trump did it. WTF!

I truly wish we could just shove all the far lefties off to California and each coast actually, and let them have that and live there where it is all good and where it is financially stable, and let the middle of the country be left to the righties. That would not bother me a bit.

"the repubs are terrible for fiscal and economic policy." --------------???? Wuut???? Are you crazy? Two of the worst inflationary periods in US history are both with a democrat being the leader of the free world. What's scary is Biden did this in one damn year. He has 3 more! But, in all fairness to him he's not really running shit. We all know that. This is a Weekend At Bernie's situation where they just run his ass out there as a figurehead.

Let's compare Los Angelos, San Francisico, Seattle and Yew York. Hell throw Chicago in there to, to Texas, Florida, Nashville for a City. Do you notice any pattern? And you trying to tell me that the republicans are terrible for fiscal and economic policy. Explains why all the Californians are fleeing to Texas, Nashville, NC and middle America, I guess. Krist.

Basically agree with a lot you have to say, but blaming Carter and Biden for inflation really isn't accurate. Carter inherited a situation that not much could be done about. The Biden inflation won't hit until about the time he graduates from office.

Californians are leaving for a lot of reasons. Immigration of the rich from China and Russia being 2 such reasons. Also other immigrants being will to have multiple generations in the same household. COVID vax policy is another. Throw in education policy and the fact that it's getting almost impossible for anyone not rich and connected to go to a public university there.

Prop 13 essentially blew up California for 2nd/3rd gen Californians.

 

[HawkGold]

If these businesses are gouging, profits will be astronomical and the stock market should move dramatically higher. Yet that isn't happening.

Do you know why you don't see gas lines? It's because we have a market. The geniuses in DC used to have caps on the price of gas and the market price exceeded that fixed price, therefore we had production shortfalls and excess demand. Equilibrium was never attained. I suspect if you had your way, we would have shortages within a month.

We don't have gas lines in part due to recovering air traffic and working from home. The Ukraine situation will continue to unfold.

A friend of mine was in hospital when 9 missiles flew as he describes as a flock over head and hit his wife's place of employment which is a natural gas company. It was Sunday so she wasn't there. Several weeks before the Russians blew up the largest refinery.

Europe gets over half of its gas/oil products from Russia. 1/3 of Russia's economy is gas/oil and over 20 percent is military weapons. The impact of this war is greater than anything that ticked off Japan towards the US.

We let a sitting VP financially gain from trying to cut off Russia's legs? The war is entirely about this and why in Donbas.

Food and energy inflation. Leading the way. Btw, Obama armed AZOV. Zelensky says they are not NAZI, but why in the hell do they happen to wear Swastikas and were trained by the infamous US 101 Airborne, under Obama.

I just don't get why we can't recognize that while we are arguing Dem v Repub, both sides are raping us financially.

















































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[MelroseHawkins]

Basically agree with a lot you have to say, but blaming Carter and Biden for inflation really isn't accurate. Carter inherited a situation that not much could be done about. The Biden inflation won't hit until about the time he graduates from office.

Californians are leaving for a lot of reasons. Immigration of the rich from China and Russia being 2 such reasons. Also other immigrants being will to have multiple generations in the same household. COVID vax policy is another. Throw in education policy and the fact that it's getting almost impossible for anyone not rich and connected to go to a public university there.

Prop 13 essentially blew up California for 2nd/3rd gen Californians.

Yea, I realize it's not 100% their fault as there are always other factors. I did lay them out in my one post. I pointed out that this current situation is the "perfect storm" of factors. But, presidents do make certain decisions that exacerbate the inflation or situation.

For example, Hoover inherited a mess as far as what was going to happen at the start of his presidency and the stock market collapsed causing the Great Depression. Much of that was probably out of his control. But, many say he didn't help things by signing the Smoot-Hawly Tariff Act at that time. Probably was not the best decision to increase tariffs at that time. It prob caused further stagnation. Those are the kinds of things that exacerbate situations I was referring to.

Sometimes uihawk82 just gets me going with what or how he states it, then I go off on a tangent stating extremes to make a point. It happens and is all good.

 

[HawkGold]

Yea, I realize it's not 100% their fault as there are always other factors. I did lay them out in my one post. I pointed out that this current situation is the "perfect storm" of factors. But, presidents do make certain decisions that exacerbate the inflation or situation.

For example, Hoover inherited a mess as far as what was going to happen at the start of his presidency and the stock market collapsed causing the Great Depression. Much of that was probably out of his control. But, many say he didn't help things by signing the Smoot-Hawly Tariff Act at that time. Probably was not the best decision to increase tariffs at that time. It prob caused further stagnation. Those are the kinds of things that exacerbate situations I was referring to.

Sometimes uihawk82 just gets me going with what or how he states it, then I go off the handle stating extremes to make a point. It happens and is all good.

Hoover was an admin and not a politician. He had buddies in the previous 2 not so popular presidents who happened to oversee a lot of growth though the farm community had been in a depression for years prior to the Depression.

I'm a somewhat reformed conservative that happens to think Carter was actually one of the better modern presidents. He was guilty of being straightforward and genuinely an OK guy. CARTER is actually the guy that put forth the revamping of the military after what happened with the Mayaguez under Ford and then the Iran rescue. Reagan had a running start in revamping the military.

Right now I'm pretty upset about what is happening to my Ukrainian friends more than anything. Their communication is dwindling as the Russians are "painfully" gaining and looking at phones and other data to see who gets to live, relocate, or die. The Russians also seem to have a list of gun owners in occupied areas and being on data lists isn't a good thing right now.

The actual death toll is and going to be astronomical... beyond belief. Also Russia has deployed a number of Islamic militants as mercenaries in their forces. On Telegram you hear a lot of.....allah 'akbar on the videos. You don't hear that on regular media.

 

[racerhawk]

I think there are a lot of issues with the US that are somewhat non-partisan that have been intentionally removed from public discourse or intentionally polarized to keep the proles fighting themselves rather than seeking actual change. There is a thread in the regular OT board about shipping costs where Fry was pointing out a 500% increase in getting a container from China to the US.

I believe we are all old enough to remember the '80's and '90's. Back then, packing house jobs in Iowa at a place like Monfort in Des Moines or Hormel in Fort Dodge were union jobs that paid great wages. There were places like Maytag making appliances in Newton or Ertl making toys in Dyersville. If we start partisan bickering leftists may say "RAYGUN DESTROYED THE UNIONS" or "CLINTON SIGNED NAFTA AND CONSIGNED ALL THE JOBS TO MEXICO." I really don't think it's partisan. It's more a class issue.

What I think actually happened is the Carter-era inflation never really stopped. Sure, we got it under control, but the '80's and '90's saw a quantum leap of input cost cutting that absolutely gutted Middle America and that is a much bigger driver in "curbing inflation" than anything the Fed or government did. Entire industries moved to China or Mexico. Labor intensive low-skilled or semi-skilled industries had wages crushed by imported labor. You can only break a union if you have slack labor capacity to do it. The slack labor capacity came from a willing uniparty that every single election cycle until very recently insisted "I WILL SLOW DOWN IMMIGRATION." I think producers have cut every labor input cost as far as possible and now with dislocations from COVID we are seeing the cost of what was done. Basically everyone from Mexico who wanted to come to the US already did and now they have to get people from Guatemala and Honduras to try to keep the domestic wage scale low. Low end manufacturing is all in China and with supply chain issues from the closure of their factories and ports we are absolutely giga-fucked as a society.

Very few people bring this point up these days. The rural midwest has been absolutely gutted. My wonderful hometown of Marshalltown was once vibrant, and home to Fisher Controls and Lennox. Once those jobs were shipped elsewhere, Marshalltown slid downhill. This probably happened in every small town. But... people get angry and blame a political party, or Mexicans.

Wealthy investors and company owners are doing wonderfully right now. Middle class and the poors, not so much. So rural folks gravitate towards politicians that want to wage culture wars... keeping everyone angry, but at the wrong things (or people).

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Very few people bring this point up these days. The rural midwest has been absolutely gutted. My wonderful hometown of Marshalltown was once vibrant, and home to Fisher Controls and Lennox. Once those jobs were shipped elsewhere, Marshalltown slid downhill. This probably happened in every small town. But... people get angry and blame a political party, or Mexicans.

Wealthy investors and company owners are doing wonderfully right now. Middle class and the poors, not so much. So rural folks gravitate towards politicians that want to wage culture wars... keeping everyone angry, but at the wrong things (or people).

Nice post. Yes, small towns are dwindling. After most kids graduate, they end up going off to college or move on to larger cities for jobs. I go back to my hometown of 1,500 people and often wonder "Where does everyone work?". Never thought of that when I was younger but I'm like what keeps people here. I honestly don't know what many of them do for a living. I know many commute as the interstate/4 lane hwy makes that quite easy now.

 

[uihawk82]

Ok, I get it. Everything good the democrats did it, everything bad Trump did it. WTF!

"the repubs are terrible for fiscal and economic policy." --------------???? Wuut???? Are you crazy? Two of the worst inflationary periods in US history are both with a democrat being the leader of the free world. What's scary is Biden did this in one damn year. He has 3 more! But, in all fairness to him he's not really running shit. We all know that. This is a Weekend At Bernie's situation where they just run his ass out there as a figurehead.

Let's compare Los Angelos, San Francisico, Seattle and Yew York. Hell throw Chicago in there to, to Texas, Florida, Nashville for a City. Do you notice any pattern? And you trying to tell me that the republicans are terrible for fiscal and economic policy. Explains why all the Californians are fleeing to Texas, Nashville, NC and middle America, I guess. Krist.

I didnt say everything the dems do is good. I said both the dems and repubs during 2020 in congress did bipartisan covid relief bills and Trump passed them. The dems were in on both of those bills because they had the majority in the House.

And I have to say would you rather have some inflation with an economy that is growing or would you whether have great depressions with 20% of the workforce or more being out of work, people losing homes and jobs, like late 1920's and in 2007-2008. And who was running the govt and economic policy then, well what the hell, it was a bunch of republicans who said in the early 1900's lazzier faire, let the dice roll, move or get run over by the large companies.

Tell me, what do you consider the two worst inflationary periods?

And in your last paragraph you mention all these cities. I am not talking about city govts and even that much of state governments. When I said Repubs are the worst and fiscal and economic policy I am talking about the Federal level. The last 40 years the Repubs have been pushing a failed theory of Supply Side economics which has done nothing but extremely widen the wealth gap, a theory that has not worked as trickle down, has let large companies hold down wages for average and lower paid workers, and repubs have tried to kill every union they can think of.

I will wait to hear your answers to the question I asked above because I also like to debate this stuff.

 

[uihawk82]

The actual death toll is and going to be astronomical... beyond belief. Also Russia has deployed a number of Islamic militants as mercenaries in their forces. On Telegram you hear a lot of.....allah 'akbar on the videos. You don't hear that on regular media.

The crazy irony of Putin's statements saying if the US and Nato keep arming Ukraine it will be an act of war against Russia yet Putin hires a bunch a crazy ass mercenaries and ships them from where ever to fight with his army. Now that is actually bringing in other nationalities across Ukraine's border to fight in this totally illegal war.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Very few people bring this point up these days. The rural midwest has been absolutely gutted. My wonderful hometown of Marshalltown was once vibrant, and home to Fisher Controls and Lennox. Once those jobs were shipped elsewhere, Marshalltown slid downhill. This probably happened in every small town. But... people get angry and blame a political party, or Mexicans.

Wealthy investors and company owners are doing wonderfully right now. Middle class and the poors, not so much. So rural folks gravitate towards politicians that want to wage culture wars... keeping everyone angry, but at the wrong things (or people).

I'm not a fan of Michael Moore's politics or his screechy bitchiness, but if you have HBOMax watch Roger and Me. His documentation of the slide of Flint in that film is IMHO one of the best pieces of American art produced in the 20th century. I've watched it prolly 3 times in the past year. The story is very similar across the Midwest and South. Marshalltown, Rockford, Akron, Toledo, Peoria, Muncie, Fort Dodge. F, the list of towns that peaked in the 1970 or 1980 census and hit the shitter thereafter is so long I can't even think of half the towns it happened to.

My current town was a textile mill town that had initially peaked in 1960 but has the blessing of a really good location and had visionaries who took over in the '90's. Even with that it took damned near 60 years to get back to the 1960 population level. The number of abandoned mills is astronomical, but the state put together a specific tax credit package to get them redeveloped and now a bunch of them are vibrant retail/restaurant/brewery spaces. Same thing happened in North Carolina. Once the huge companies like Hanes, Levi's, etc. moved everything to Mexico or Asia the whole region got completely fucked sideways.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Nice post. Yes, small towns are dwindling. After most kids graduate, they end up going off to college or move on to larger cities for jobs. I go back to my hometown of 1,500 people and often wonder "Where does everyone work?". Never thought of that when I was younger but I'm like what keeps people here. I honestly don't know what many of them do for a living. I know many commute as the interstate/4 lane hwy makes that quite easy now.

I think a fair number of people in those small towns are living a minimum sustenance lifestyle on SSDI and other government grant programs with some side hustles mixed in. There are something like 8 or 9 million people on SSDI. Some percentage are definitely disabled and I don't want to shit on the program, but the government has used that program as a fallback permanent unemployment regime as well.

 

[HawkGold]

The crazy irony of Putin's statements saying if the US and Nato keep arming Ukraine it will be an act of war against Russia yet Putin hires a bunch a crazy ass mercenaries and ships them from where ever to fight with his army. Now that is actually bringing in other nationalities across Ukraine's border to fight in this totally illegal war.

My two cents on illegal war. It's a euphemism for politicians and the military complex to justify a so-called legal war or just war.

Ukraine uses crazy ass mercenaries that were incorporated into the army in Azov, Right Sector, Adair and others. Ukraine openly recruits internationals, some of which are totally addicted to war. The US takes internationals into the US Army.

One has to look past American Exceptionalism and past the marketing of the American people to look at what truth actually is... Weapons of mass destruction, global war on terror, Gulf of Tonkin, USS Maine to try and get a clear vision.

The US and Russia did in fact fight some in Syria. Try and use any real rationale on the war in Syria and you can't beyond oil pipelines. Syrian War occurred during Obama. Along with Libya, Egypt uprising, Maidan and so forth.

Don't get me wrong, this is totally on Putin for feeding himself and other Oligarchs and not fully developing Russia's economy. Fully 1/3 is gas/oil and almost 1/4 is military weapons. In the Russian mindset, Putin truly believes the US is at total war with Russia in a modern sense. The WEST IS TRYING to TAKE DOWN RUSSIA and the reason is ONLY about oil interests which will get worse on the world scene as we switch to renewable energy. Give me real reasons why NATO bombed bombed and bombed some more in the Balkans. Can't really do it beyond pushing NATO further east. If China placed massive troop numbers and missiles in Mexico guarantee we'd be pretty upset about it, especially if they were also working over Canada.

The generals being popped? US intelligence. The Moskva being sunk? Totally US and it was just leaked by the Biden Admin. The excuse? The US just thought the Ukrainians just wanted to know what that big war ship was off the coast of Odesa. Seriously? Understand..... Democrats and Republicans believe us all to be naive and stupid.

Any war has attrocities. It's not a game. War is hell. The US Army isn't Boy Scouts with rifles.
US and Vietnam
US and WW2....soldiers on the ground and targeting civilians.
US and Korea
Maybe a million dead Iraqi's
Fiasco in Afghanistan
US allowing massive attrocities by S Korea in Vietnam

Ukraine has attacked inside Russia using US intelligence.

Russia is very much taking happenings as a US attack on Russia. Doesn't matter if it's not exactly 100% pure. Now we have Russian struggling and on the verge of collapse in Ukraine (so are the Ukrainians). We also have way more NATO troops on the borders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Make no mistake, US troops ARE on the ground in Ukraine and the US is directing the war. Just weeks ago, Ukraine couldn't do much about separatists and some Russian troops in Donbas. Now they are beating up Russians? NO WAY. Not without US help and more than just weapons. Ukraine went from being a kitty militarily to a ferocious tiger fighting like Americans.

The US sitting President as VP personally gained by trying to cut off the Russian economy by actively trying to develop Ukrainian oil reserves.

I am not trying to side with Russia. As Americans we DO need to question US policy.

Two of my best friends in the world and other friends are currently living in a war zone.

Remember this over the coming weeks.... Putin often does what he says he won't. If he says he'll do something.... HE WILL.

Inflation could rapidly be the worst of our issues coming up.

I will never understand US troops training soldiers wearing this. It is what it looks like.

Spells AZOV. Look them up. They don't represent much of Ukraine but who we at first threw our hats with. It is why Putin is totally destroying Mariupol where AZOV under US direction beat the hell out of the Russians in 2015.

 

[uihawk82]

My two cents on illegal war. It's a euphemism for politicians and the military complex to justify a so-called legal war or just war.

Ukraine uses crazy ass mercenaries that were incorporated into the army in Azov, Right Sector, Adair and others. Ukraine openly recruits internationals, some of which are totally addicted to war. The US takes internationals into the US Army.

One has to look past American Exceptionalism and past the marketing of the American people to look at what truth actually is... Weapons of mass destruction, global war on terror, Gulf of Tonkin, USS Maine to try and get a clear vision.

Ike was right, way too much money, power and profit in killing in each under the guise of whatever ideology you want to throw out there. Vietnam was a sick exercise prompted by a failed domino theory. Vietnam could never hurt the US much then which is like Ukraine could never really hurt Russia now. Looking back is easy but the early US involvement in Indochina with observers, trainers, CIA spooks and researchers, and arming one side or the other is what our leaders should have kept it at. Troops on the ground do not do well in those countries unless you have a very specific short term mission, you accomplish the mission, then you leave.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Ike was right, way too much money, power and profit in killing in each under the guise of whatever ideology you want to throw out there. Vietnam was a sick exercise prompted by a failed domino theory. Vietnam could never hurt the US much then which is like Ukraine could never really hurt Russia now. Looking back is easy but the early US involvement in Indochina with observers, trainers, CIA spooks and researchers, and arming one side or the other is what our leaders should have kept it at. Troops on the ground do not do well in those countries unless you have a very specific short term mission, you accomplish the mission, then you leave.

The US military has gone from a defensive tool to an offensive tool. The US military should never be deployed unless it is in a defensive capacity, preferably only in cases where there is an actual threat to the sovereignty of the US. The US military has a pretty poor track record at everything other than total war with a discrete mission.

 

[uihawk82]

The US military has gone from a defensive tool to an offensive tool. The US military should never be deployed unless it is in a defensive capacity, preferably only in cases where there is an actual threat to the sovereignty of the US. The US military has a pretty poor track record at everything other than total war with a discrete mission.

I agree with most of what you said. WW1, WW2, and the Korean War were the types of conflicts which had the potential for global spread and conflagration. It is a damn good thing the US got into WW1 and especially WW2, thanks to Hitler's total blunder [one of a bunch he made] of declaring war on the US after Pearl Harbor, or else Europe might have settled into Nazi control.

N. Korea's invasion of S Korea, where the US had thousands of troops stationed, put the US troops at severe risk as well as an invasion into our ally. The big problem with the Korean War was Gen. MacArthur, after his end run assault at Inchon, wanted to go all the way to the Chinese border. Again, like you said, upper military leaders or political leaders driving a mission that is too greedy in scope. If they would have just drove the N Koreans out of S Korea and did an end of the war document, a whole hell of a lot of US and other peoples would not have died. And of course, MacArthur got relieved of his duty.

Yep, the invasion of Grenada, Iraq, etc was total mission creep, as they used to say and still say.

 

[uihawk82]

The US military has gone from a defensive tool to an offensive tool. The US military should never be deployed unless it is in a defensive capacity, preferably only in cases where there is an actual threat to the sovereignty of the US. The US military has a pretty poor track record at everything other than total war with a discrete mission.

I forgot to mention that after WW2, much of the industrial base in Europe, USSR, Britain, and Japan was totally demolished. The US and Australia were unscathed and for at least 30 years, until the mid-70's, the US had free rein to have the great economy, GDP, etc. By 1975, Japan was starting to kick our butts with cars, and then electronics.

People in the US since 1985 have lamented the good old days when the US was total King but those days are gone as we share this global economy.

 

[Fryowa]

Houses. My buddy bought a house in my neighborhood in 2019 for $255k and sold it for $375k a few weeks ago. Had 7 offers within 24 hours of listing and sold for $25k over ask.

My brother hit the jackpot with this one.

He bought his house cheap 18 years ago for $45k. In our town that was pretty common for a fix-er-upper. Needed a roof and some remodeling which he did himself. He also finished the inside of the detached garage and put a new garage door in. I'm guessing he spent 10 grand on all that total because he did it himself and this was the early 2000's. I think he paid it off in 2011 or thereabouts.

Anywhoo, his girlfriend had a way nicer house that she bought back in the early 2000's (neither of them have ever been married, no kids between them) for like $200K. My bro sold his place a couple months ago for $125K and they plan on getting hitched this fall and paying her place off with his house money. They'll both be 40 years old with no mortgage and own a house that would probably bring $450K in today's market, no car payments.

If a person is either retiring and downsizing or combining households, the world is your freakin oyster right now.

 

[okeefe4prez]

My brother hit the jackpot with this one.

He bought his house cheap 18 years ago for $45k. In our town that was pretty common for a fix-er-upper. Needed a roof and some remodeling which he did himself. He also finished the inside of the detached garage and put a new garage door in. I'm guessing he spent 10 grand on all that total because he did it himself and this was the early 2000's. I think he paid it off in 2011 or thereabouts.

Anywhoo, his girlfriend had a way nicer house that she bought back in the early 2000's (neither of them have ever been married, no kids between them) for like $200K. My bro sold his place a couple months ago for $125K and they plan on getting hitched this fall and paying her place off with his house money. They'll both be 40 years old with no mortgage and own a house that would probably bring $450K in today's market, no car payments.

If a person is either retiring and downsizing or combining households, the world is your freakin oyster right now.

If you're combining you're golden, if you're downsizing you probably gotta go new construction. My old man was saying that in the early '80's when rates went way up it caused the housing inventory to get even worse because people with "cheap" 8% mortgages weren't gonna sell no matter what because the mortgage was such a good deal. Nationwide average 30 year rate is now over 5.5%. My buddy closed on a place in December and is at 3.25%. On 400k borrowed that is over a $500 difference per month.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

If you're combining you're golden, if you're downsizing you probably gotta go new construction. My old man was saying that in the early '80's when rates went way up it caused the housing inventory to get even worse because people with "cheap" 8% mortgages weren't gonna sell no matter what because the mortgage was such a good deal. Nationwide average 30 year rate is now over 5.5%. My buddy closed on a place in December and is at 3.25%. On 400k borrowed that is over a $500 difference per month.

When I was going to college in fall of 1989, I explicitly remember my dad stating to me when discussing taking out a student loan......"You should take out as much as you can because you are never going to get $$ at that low of an interest rate in the future."

The interest rates for student loans was at 8% at that time. Ha!