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Don't believe what you read, good or bad. Housing prices have gone up AND down in Rapid. Who knows what the actual data really is. In talking to a Real Estate agent, she said she had to pick up a part time job as a waitress and that she hadn't had as slow of a time selling homes ever before in the black hills area...
The prices might have gone up but the volume of sales might have diminished.
Yeah remember, 99% of all statistics are made up, including this one.
And remember, the people that are just now telling us we are in a recession are the ones that make 200 grand a year, so they are just a bit slower than us LOL.
You're absolutely right, RJL78, at least from the numbers I've seen. While home prices continue to climb in Rapid City, they look better than the rest of the country because so many other places are way, way down.
I'm still working on getting hard numbers to back this up, but yes, it looks like volume is down, and time on the market is up, especially in some areas of the city.
That's the other problem with statistics -- they rarely tell the whole story, and its hard to paint a whole picture before people start tuning out, out of boredom.
IMHO one thing that we don't want is prices of houses to escalate too rapidly. That's partially what caused some of this mess to begin with. Houses were bought for double or triple their value. Of course, that lead to higher taxes, higher insurance, etc. Then of course, the ARMs were a bad deal. That's part of the reason that many people just walked away from their houses. When prices started re-adjusting, they owed more on their house then the value. A nice steady 3% to 5% yearly increase on real estate is still the best. We don't wanna see escalated prices and later plummeting prices like some parts of the country are seeing.
Home values hold up in Dakotas |* The Daily Republic *| Mitchell, South Dakota (http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/articles/index.cfm?id=30626§ion=news - broken link)
OK, I see what you guys are talking about now. That's a very reasonable gain.
Unfortunately, that was one of the few positive articles in our paper yesterday. One story was on Gov. Rounds wanting to use the reserves to balance the state budget, another was from an economist who said we would suffer along with the rest of the country and things would be like they were in the early 80s. AND the city council here wants to put a freeze on spending. I dunno~considering there are only a handful of job openings in the classified section, I'd say we need to be careful and be conservative right now. I remember the early 80s well and we were struggling.
The sad part of Governor Rounds' budget is the DOT funding... I saw that highlighted on the evening news on KELO. They talked about raising the gas tax to help fund the DOT projects.
I am happy to see the freeze on hiring of state employees, and out of state traveling.
My parents have told me about the early 80s and said that getting a job was tough and they were darned lucky to buy a two-bedroom house in 1982 (with the held of my great-grandparents). By the looks of the pictures of the house and inside the house, they lived very conservatively and had to. House was older and had old carpet and older wall paper, but my parents took good care of the house and did a number of updates up in the late 1980s before we moved to a older and bigger house that was a fixer-upper. They did not have fancy vehicles neither, they had a tiny Chevette and and an older Chevy Truck.
I am a little nervous and somwhat cautious but will do my best to keep my cool and patience through this time. Challenges build character and through challenges, we as individuals and as a people become stronger if we learn from them and take it in stride. During a recession, it is time to look forward and a time to reform bad financial habits (either out of necessity and/or to position oneself better in the future).
As for me, I plan to eliminate my student loan debt and to position myself well in the future, to where I would be in a very good position when times get better and to discover further the non-material and non-monetary joys of life (being altruistic) to have a good time and find pleasure in the basic things of life and to have a better perspective of life. Recessions and tough times may a good time for self discovery and to build a better faith and understanding of life.
The state needed to rein in on its spending and do what it can to use its resources wisely. It will have challenges with receiving solid revenue streams as in the past few years and will have to scale back a little and stick to the basics. Easier said than done, but is necessary in challenging economic times. What will help our state in the future is fixing our infrastruture projects (keeping people working, fixing and upgrading our roads, bridges, schools, parks, etc., generate more economic activity, and have decent facilities and pathways in the end with something to show for the money spent (and to foster future economic growth and opportunties).
Chris, it sounds like your parents situation was a lot like ours was. We had bought our house in the 70s (don't live there anymore) so I know just what you mean about not doing any fixing or anything in the early 80s. I also know just what you're saying about having older cars. We did buy one car at the time~it was 3 years old when we bought it. Our interest rate was either 16% or 19%~can't remember for sure. We stuck every penny we could spare into doubling up our car payments or we'd have paid double for that car.
Of course, it was nothing like the way people must've had to suffer in the 30s, but it was rough. I remember once we didn't have enough $$ to buy a loaf of bread and we had to wait until one of us got a paycheck. I also remember that we had gotten behind in our fuel bill during one of those cold winters. Once you get behind 3 months, they disconnect as soon as May 1st gets there. Embarassing as it is to say~we were one of those that got disconnected. Of course, we did have the summer to make payments and get the bill caught up. We just had no money~barely enough to pay our bills. There were absolutely no raises for a few years and hours were cut, but as usual, prices kept going up, etc. There was no way of getting another job cause there just weren't any.
The only thing that I can see happening is that there is new public confidence once the new administration takes over. It doesn't matter if you're for the new Adm. or not~it can depend on how the majority view it. Kind of the same scenario as the hostages being released when a new Prez took over in the 80s. As soon as he was sworn into office, a few things started changing just because of attitudes. I think that was Reagan. Of course, I thought he was a cool Prez.
It is a tough time right now with big companies going bust.. The company I work for has a saying going on (and we are a big company now) "WE WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN ANY RECESSION! WE WILL CONTINUE TO GROW AND BE SUCCESSFUL." That came from our Chairman and CEO. He even states that to the stockholders.. Its all about Financials.. If any company. Big or large.. is to succeed. They need to invest wisely, Take care of their people, and always be Ethical! It has happened in the past when the Chairman and CEO and Board members would take bonuses if the company did not succeed in their forcasts for sales.. They put it back into the company and "THEY DID THE RIGHT THING". So, I hope this slump does not last long. Without jobs, you dont have people spending money. Although I am saddened about what is happening. I always remain hopeful and positive for the future. With all of this happening. It is a great opportunity for the world economy to crash hard, and reset itself. With that happening.. You will find the cost of living will decrease, and we can start all over again. Every 60 years or so, our economy blows its bubble... We will be economically successful again in 2012.
Scott.
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