The good and the bad of the economic crisis

What’s bad for some can be good for others.
During the stock market crash of 1929 many lost everything. Some even committed suicide. Those who had all their wealth tied up in the stock market suffered while those who had money in other things prospered.

My great uncle dealt in livestock. He kept most of his money out of the banks so that he always had liquidity to buy and sell, and he didn’t dabble in the stock market. After the crash, properties were selling for practically nothing. People who owned farms needed cash and would sell a 100+ acre farms for a few thousand dollars. My uncle became very wealthy during this time buying up properties. People needed cash and he had it.

Today’s market crisis has similarities. Foreclosures are ending the dreams for millions of Americans. Others are abandoning their properties because they are unable to keep up mortgage payments. Agents advertise two-bedroom properties for as little as $1500. “Over 300,000 properties faced seizure last month,” writes Andrew Clark in New York.

If you are fortunate enough to have cash available, you are in a good position to create wealth in a short period of time.

If I had $1000000000000000, this would be a good time to be buying a lot of stock and maybe a few "extra" houses.

Malcolm

We were faced with a difficult decision. We had just bought our home less than six years ago when homes in our area were appreciating.

Due to our careers my husband and I only "lived" in our home 2-5 days out of the month. But we bought the house as an investment because it was going up in value, so we were "making money" even though we didn't actually really live there much.

With the economy's turn homes in our area have lost value ... very quickly. We decided to sell our home when we noticed that the value on it was going down.

It didn't make sense to keep a place we didn't actually live in and put money into a place that was losing value. Our asset was becoming a liability.

We were able to get rid of it before we had to sell at a loss.
And we've pretty much decided not to own unless we actually live in the place.

We know that eventually the economy will probably turn around and home values will go up again. But we think perhaps by then we can get something better, for less. We'll just wait and see.

In the meantime I enjoy my gypsy status.

You were fortunate to sell when you did, JoElle. My brother-in-law in Cape Canaveral, Florida has been trying to sell his house for a year and can't even get anyone to look at it. You're smart not to maintain a house you would seldom even see, let alone live in.

We did that with our townhome six years ago. We bought it in 1986 when townhomes were hot in Atlanta, but then over time people stopped buying them. But the values ultimately went back up (briefly) and we were able to sell out before we saw the value decline again. Glad you were able to escape as well, JoElle.

Malcolm

Thanks guys.

Yeah, I think I will wait until my novels hit #1 on NY Bestsellers list and I get the cash from the big movie deal ... and then I'll buy a castle ... cash.

Our house has been up for sale for over two years. We plan to buy our son's duplex and spend more time in our house in the woods. Both houses were investments when my husband retired. Our house is a nice house. It just isn't selling. It is partly that since it is an investment we're not going to sell it at a bargain, which people expect right now.

Carol