Deleted Pages, & The Housing Decline

“Articles” no more!

Today while messing with my site I decided that I had too many pages. I have my site subdivided a handful of times, what with separate Photo pages, separate Movie pages, my Mac Tips & Tricks, and my blog all handled differently. Used to have “Articles” too, but I decided that not only has it done nothing but NOT grow in any real measure, but most of it was duplicable here in my Random Blog anyway. And in fact, some of them had just been copied & ported over to the Articles area from previous blog entries.

So I deleted them. Seemed like a waste to have a whole separate section that a) required upkeep, and b) was essentially superfluous in nature. I had amassed a whole 5 articles over that time, ranging from using a Mac to Immigration. None of them were life-altering, just basically longer blog entries. Well I think the world would rather 5 longer blog entries than 5 needless articles, no?

Yeah, me too.



Housing Market not on the rise after all...
Despite calls to the contrary, the reports are in and housing prices fell in the last measured timeframe faster and steeper than ever before at a 14.4% decline. The experts say that there’s no reason to believe the crunch is over or that it’s anywhere to go but down.

Glad I didn’t get on board last week! Called it!



Nice Article making my points
For the last year or so, I’ve been lambasting the housing industry and especially house-flippers are being responsible for the astronomical rise in housing costs this decade. I’ve said things such as “we need to view homes as a place to live, not as an investment vehicle: it’s not stock,” and so much as said that that sort of house-flipping mentality & speculation is the biggest problem that affects a home’s value.

I’ve gone so far as to say that bailing out the housing industry and those in foreclosure is a bad idea, and that I’m glad that the house-flippers are stuck with their mistake; they did this, they priced the American dream right out of the grasp of America, so f*ck ‘em; let them sink. Let them sink so that I can afford a damn roof over my head.

Well it’s nice to be vindicated. A nice two-page article over at the NY times today had a nice piece in it just for me. Most of the article is about the buy/rent ratio and the history of the decade, but on page two, near the end of the article, is this gem:

“ But it’s O.K. with me if our timing wasn’t perfect. After several years of reporting on the housing market, I’m convinced that the most common real estate mistake is viewing a house first as a financial investment and only second as a home. That’s one big reason we ended up in this bubble-induced mess. “

Sound Familiar? Yeah, it does; it’s about exactly what I’ve been saying, huh?

Peace.