Some says USA is not in recession while most economist are saying, yes we are. Whatever it is, the housing market is down, has been going down and those who bought a house between mid 06-07 are either in foreclosure or going into one. People are losing jobs due to down-sizing and these according to the news include some 1600 teachers in O.C. alone. How are the kids going to learn if there's not enough teachers to teach them??? Dont even start talking about those in banking line.
Buying a house is very much a mantra for american, the american dream. Though I think its everybody's dream to own a house be it american, canadian, malaysian or singaporean. The problem comes when the desire to own a house cloud your judgement. There is no low-cost or medium-cost housing here. Everything is market value. If the house you're eyeing costs 400k and you're earning 130k/p.a, can put down 10-20% for down-payment and have good credit score, you can easily get the loan with low interest rate. Nothing wrong with that. The problem is when you're earning 80k (or even 130k), have no money for down-payment and have low credit score and STILL insist that you want to buy the house. The real estate agent and broker will find somebody to give you the loan that you needed so you can buy the house with a much higher interest and/or another loan (of course with even higher interest) to top-up the first loan. This is what I really dont understand. Why insisted on buying a house with a high interest NOW when you can rent, fix your credit, save some money for down-payment and THEN only think about buying a house? Or better still, start saving the money, secure a job in another state and buy a house there. Even better if you can save enough money to retire somewhere in Asia (Malaysia!) where cost of living is much cheaper. I so wish we could do that someday! Suami ku, dengarlah jeritan hati ku (o husband, listen to my cry) :P
Buying a house is very much a mantra for american, the american dream. Though I think its everybody's dream to own a house be it american, canadian, malaysian or singaporean. The problem comes when the desire to own a house cloud your judgement. There is no low-cost or medium-cost housing here. Everything is market value. If the house you're eyeing costs 400k and you're earning 130k/p.a, can put down 10-20% for down-payment and have good credit score, you can easily get the loan with low interest rate. Nothing wrong with that. The problem is when you're earning 80k (or even 130k), have no money for down-payment and have low credit score and STILL insist that you want to buy the house. The real estate agent and broker will find somebody to give you the loan that you needed so you can buy the house with a much higher interest and/or another loan (of course with even higher interest) to top-up the first loan. This is what I really dont understand. Why insisted on buying a house with a high interest NOW when you can rent, fix your credit, save some money for down-payment and THEN only think about buying a house? Or better still, start saving the money, secure a job in another state and buy a house there. Even better if you can save enough money to retire somewhere in Asia (Malaysia!) where cost of living is much cheaper. I so wish we could do that someday! Suami ku, dengarlah jeritan hati ku (o husband, listen to my cry) :P
Anyways, usd is going down, again. As of now, us$1 is about the same with a$1 and about c$0.985. Maybe its not even surprising if usd would go back to rm2.5 circa 90s. Good for Malaysian but very bad for us here earning usd. tsk tsk tsk! And this is what I found on the internet yesterday, "Antique store owners in lower Manhattan, ticket vendors at India's Taj Mahal and Brazilian business executives heading to China all have one thing in common these days: They don't want U.S. dollars." You know that when they dont want to accept usd anymore for the entrance fee to Taj Mahal that it is bad!
If the above is not enough, the gas price as of Tue Mar 11 was at 3.45/gallon for the cheapest kind and at the cheapest gas station. I will keep you updated on this the next time we had to fill up the tank. Let's all start crying together-gather! :P
Have a great weekend everybody.
