Thread: Unpaid credit cards bedevil Americans

Originally Posted by Howe Itis

Also, your creditworthiness is based on your demonstrated use of credit. If you intend on being a first-time home-buyer in the next year or so, it would be good to start using charge cards. Just be sure you promptly pay the balances. The higher you charge and re-pay, the better your credit score will be. Of course, it actually takes discipline at a level not many have. If you don't have a credit history, you are known as a "ghost," - an unknown...... a risk.

Yes agreed. Here's what a friend of mine did. He got a credit card and only bought groceries with it; whereas in the past he used a check to pay for them. As soon as he got the statement he payed the sucker off and his credit rating shot up. Helped him and his wife get that cute little starter home at a lower rate. Didn't even have to consider one of those high interest or arms or whatever the fuck they are calling them now.

Originally Posted by steezer

Yes agreed. Here's what a friend of mine did. He got a credit card and only bought groceries with it; whereas in the past he used a check to pay for them. As soon as he got the statement he payed the sucker off and his credit rating shot up. Helped him and his wife get that cute little starter home at a lower rate. Didn't even have to consider one of those high interest or arms or whatever the fuck they are calling them now.

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Originally Posted by Howe Itis

My guess is a 10-15% drop at best. Where in the heck do you live that a 600' condo is $200k+? Wherever that is, it doesn't sound like a good place. For $200k+, you can buy a 3500' house w/a 8-10,000' lot in the burbs of Houston.

Clarendon (22201 zip code): 47 homes sold – ¾ of them were condominiums. Average sales price down 10.90% from last year at $566,065 and overall units sold down almost 34%.

For 200,000 here you can live with bars over your windows and no air conditioning.

This might be interesting. This is the building next door to me. Look at the bottom. It has the going average prices for rent and buying.
Condo 1 - The Premier Cyber Information Site For Condominium Sales and Rentals

the component parts of the crisis:

20% annualized growth in the money stock base.= Fed

bankruptcy "reform" with student loans being even worse than credit cards= congress.

At least four different subsidies for home ownership=income tax deduction of interest on federally subsidized VA/FHA mortgages and tax deduction on real estate taxes paid after state real estate tax exemptions.

Mandated 5% subsidy of credit card purchases by retailers= congress

Stupidity on the part of consumers.

Looks like a seven to one government created problem.

Originally Posted by freckles

You think they can drop a couple hundred thousand? Because until a 600 sq foot condo is under 200,000, I ain't buying.

I think you're going to see about a thirty to thirty five percent decrease in the costs of housing. Investors are going to get out and bankruptcies are going to increase. This will put pressure on the pricing and house prices will fall. You won't see the end of this thing until late 2008 to mid 2009 at the earliest. Your best bet, at that point, will be to look for bankruptcies that bank is trying to sell off to recover the cost of the prior bad investment/loan.

Originally Posted by Howe Itis

My guess is a 10-15% drop at best. Where in the heck do you live that a 600' condo is $200k+? Wherever that is, it doesn't sound like a good place. For $200k+, you can buy a 3500' house w/a 8-10,000' lot in the burbs of Houston.

It's not uncommon to find places priced that high. In the Bay area (SF) the prices are similar to those described by Frecks. Ditto for Boston, NY, Baltimore, and most major urban areas in the Northeast and the West Coast.

In order for me to find a house, in the price range you describe (but not of similar size) I would have to live in FRESNO County, a six hour drive from my work.

Frecks lives in the yuppy district in Arlington. It's not that pricey in the burbs of Arlington is it?

Originally Posted by Howe Itis

Frecks lives in the yuppy district in Arlington. It's not that pricey in the burbs of Arlington is it?

If you speak English it is.

Well, dang! That's too expensive. You ought to move to Houston or Dallas and get your money's worth, plus better weather.