Centerfield

A Homebuyer's Perspective: Crisis Helped Us

The subprime real estate crisis has certainly made life harder for many, especially construction workers. My heart goes out to all those who have had and will have problems.

But for us, well, there's no question in my mind that we got a better deal because of it. Of course, the seller's less happy. OTOH, said seller did turn a healthy return on investment despite that.

I've always only been mildly concerned about the crisis in terms of big economic trouble spot, because it only involves a smallish downside potential: relatively little money and relatively little of the overall housing stock are involved, and it's likely that most of even those units's mortgaes will stay OK. And, the misery is mostly widely distributed, meaning there are few who are really going to suffer badly. Probably the worst will be in the usually poorly-paid construction workers who lose jobs. Those jobholders have surely been worried ever since it's become clear that a housing bubble was on.

Once when I was between jobs, a Mad Cow case was found in the US, and I was hoping for a drop in beef prices. A West Wing show had recently aired with a major crisis developing as a result, so I had my hopes up. Beef hardly budged, sigh. Shows you what the media knows....