Signs of the Times

     

   I remember years ago, when our conversations were richer, that someone realized we were talking about real estate. Horror of horrors! That was many years ago, before Trump, so I have no idea what we went on to discuss. It could have been about some medical malady, since our conversations may not have been as rich as I remember.

  Whether we are richer now than we were then involves philosophical and economic issues which I am not prepared to deal with, so we will stick with real estate. That subject came up again recently and it never really disappeared from the salons of which I am a member. In this instance, it appears that a short piece about a local property had been overlooked (or perhaps avoided) by the participants, all of whom were homeowners.

What Goes Up

   I will provide here some information which indicates simply, that in this case the property value went down. That is a scenario difficult to imagine, particularly for property owners, who think they perhaps should have taken the opportunity to invest in the more stable option, crypto-currency. 

   Among aspiring homeowners, schadenfreude did not achieve full force since the house that had fallen in value, was still far too expensive for them. As I said, whether we are richer now than we once were is a matter for debate, but perhaps we would all be better off if a house was considered as a place in which to live, rather than in which to invest.

Source:
   "This London House Dropped $300,000K in Less Than 2 Months: Sharp Rise in Interest Rates Punishing Owners Who Bought in Early 2022," Andrew Lupton, CBC News, Nov. 9, 2023.