Community Chat

[SilleeMee]

@rockygems123 

Thanks for the tip. As a homeowner these days I'm finding it most difficult to keep up the maintenance on my house on a fixed income. It's killing me, to be honest. Add to that the rising costs of insurance and property taxes. Doesn't leave much for anything else.

ETA-

But looking at the big picture, and the scope of things, I should just take a deep breath and be thankful that I even have a house to beeotch about...LOL!

[rockygems123]

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@SilleeMee wrote:

@rockygems123 

Thanks for the tip. As a homeowner these days I'm finding it most difficult to keep up the maintenance on my house on a fixed income. It's killing me, to be honest. Add to that the rising costs of insurance and property taxes. Doesn't leave much for anything else.

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@SilleeMee 

Maybe there's an organization in the Springs that offers similar support.

Our HOA ticketed me for cracks on my 20 yr old driveway. That set me back 6k.  Hope your paint estimates aren't horrific keep us posted.

Going to the Springs today for overnight as I have a 4am wakeup tomorrow for estate sale.  Luckily I get hotel discounts so that helps.

[Love to Run]

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@Sooner wrote:

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@THEY CallMe Mr Wilkes wrote:

Since 1946 there are only 4 years of annualized CPI declines.

So I would most assuredly say yes, inflation and price increases are absolutely the norm post World War II.

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@THEY CallMe Mr Wilkes Then there are the days of 15 and 18 percent home loans from the 1980's. . . that hurt more than most years of small percentage inflation.  You can't compare that to "normal" inflation.

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@Sooner Those higher mortgage rates tamped down housing costs. Now housing takes up a far greater percentage of our income. 

• Accounting for inflation, home prices have leapt by 118% since 1965, while median household income has increased by just 15%.
• Home prices have increased 7.6x faster than income since 1965 and 3.1x faster than income since 2008, accounting for inflation. 
• To afford a home in 2021, Americans need an average income of $144,192 — but the current median household income is actually $69,178.
• The average house-price-to-income ratio is 5.4, more than double the maximum of 2.6 experts recommend. 
  • • From 2019 to 2021, the pandemic drastically increased the average house-price-to-income by 14.9%.

[Sooner]

@Love to Run We bought a new house by the skin of out teeth and got a 9 percent mortgage.  Our first tiny house and thought we'd gone nuts at the time.  We were there 15 years because mortage rates went so high we couldn't afford to move anywhere else.

I don't think some younger people understand the impact of expensive borrowing and how it affects your life and what it does to your expectations.  It scares me for everyone, and I remember well how being young and getting started it was scary and how you really had to understand the impact of what you were able to borrow.  Having no money was expensive--as I remember.  Very.

[Love to Run]

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@Sooner wrote:

@Love to Run We bought a new house by the skin of out teeth and got a 9 percent mortgage.  Our first tiny house and thought we'd gone nuts at the time.  We were there 15 years because mortage rates went so high we couldn't afford to move anywhere else.

I don't think some younger people understand the impact of expensive borrowing and how it affects your life and what it does to your expectations.  It scares me for everyone, and I remember well how being young and getting started it was scary and how you really had to understand the impact of what you were able to borrow.  Having no money was expensive--as I remember.  Very.

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@Sooner I don't think older people understand that young people are paying a much higher percentage of their income on housing and education than they did. They tell young people to "stop eating avocado toast" and fail to realize that even the hardest workers will likely never be able to own a home in the neighborhood where they grew up.

[Sooner]

@Love to Run Exactly!  I well remember being trapped by mortgage rates.  Nothing we could do.  We upgraded in 15 years, and stayed there 20 years.

We thank God every day for getting our retirement home at a good mortgage rate.  With house and car prices and mortgage rates, you gotta figure what you can do and it isn't easy. And some young people didn't grow up with that reality.  

[layla2450]

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@febe1 wrote:

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@layla2450 wrote:

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@Enufstuff wrote:

@febe1 @catter70  The eggs that I bought yesterday were $6.00.

The $4.00 ones were sold out.

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I just bought a dozen cage free brown eggs at Akdi for $2.38.

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Did you check the expiration date, @layla2450 . They get less expensive as expiration date is close. I can't remember the last time I saw $2. anything. 

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YES. I always check the date. The expiration date is 3/24/24.

[Sooner]

@Love to Run Another thing that I see is that so many older people spend money on things like travel and cruises that don't do much for the job market.  A huge percentage of disposable income from this country goes to other countries now rather than jobs here.

So, that scares me for younger people needing a decent job.

[LyndaGee]

Some items increased in price due to the tarrifs, too.  Tougher to budget.

[febe1]

To the poster about how the middle class is going into the upper lower class.

This already has happened when Americans no longer afford bacon and instead the Spam shelf which is sold out a lot. When you no  longer buy brand names but are forced to go for the store brand. You no longer buy Tylenol but buy generic. You would like it warmer in the winter and cooler in summer. Your gas & elec are through the roof, so to speak. Americans know how to "adjust" and when you look at monthly bills, adjust you must. 

You can call it what you wish, middle, upper lower, but Americans must and have made adjustments, which adds up to a lower standard of living.

I'm appalled at the Q prices and usual tops going for 60. and 70. dollars, those which a short while ago were $39. This simply not raising prices slowly. The Q is charging higher prices to get out of the red; however, customers shouldn't have to pay the price of bad business.

Nothing of importance has been given the customer: same quality, if not worse, value can be beat everywhere, and convenience everywhere else.