Wednesday, September 23, 2009

buying a house

No, not me. But I have friends who are strongly considering buying a house. A house! This is the great step into adulthood that requires (or should at least require) true fiscal responsibility. People can get married. People can even have kids. But neither of those correlates well to fiscal responsibility. They should, but not always. Regrettably, not most of the time from what I have seen.

I realize home buying did not correlate very well to fiscal responsibility for the last several years. But this minor economic correction and slight decrease in home prices should smooth everything out. Ideally, we have ushered in a new era of fiscal responsibility, though there are some examples lurking of total idiocy. Really? A crane operator and a hair stylist bought a $750K home in this climate? WTF? Even when you run the numbers under an optimistic scenario like assuming they put 20% down, it's still a ridiculous monthly payment. And factor in insurance, taxes, regular home repairs and you just want to slap everyone involved from the couple who 'bought' the home, to the person who wrote the mortgage, to the person who approved it and even CNN for putting such apparent recklessness on their website and implicitly offering it up as some achievable goal. You're all idiots. Or worse. End rant.

Back to my friends, I suppose the worst thing about them purchasing a home is how un-adult I often feel. Sure, I'm working in a foreign country managing all sorts of, um, things, but I'm not buying a house. A house? Damn. Good luck. Don't be fooled by new paint.

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