Wow, it's been a long time... Mortgage mayhem.

It's been a loooooooong time since my last blog and I know all my fans out there, sorry fan (me), are awaiting a new installment. So I'm going to try again to get into the regular habit of writing this blog. For those of you who were following my Nobel Prize nominated Global Warming... hmmmmm series, I never really finished: no point. I have read recent reports of studies that seem to indicate there's very little proof that global warming is affecting hurricane development, strength and frequency. Not surprising, climate is incredibly complex. So I stick by my view, that everyone should be environmentally responsible but not to the extent of dramatically changing the world to fit a computer climate models. I'm just not buying all the doom and gloom. Humanity has so many more important issues to resolve: war being one of them.

Don't get me started on the war! Maybe later.

One thing that has been puffing me with "I toad-a-so," is the collapsing housing market in the United States that will eventually creep into Canada. Back when we were looking at houses a couple years ago, our Real Estate Agent kept saying "housing prices will continue to rise, it's a matter of supply and demand." I kept telling him it would stop, that rising housing prices could not be sustained if real wages don't rise equally. "Supply and demand... supply and demand." How about "what goes up, must come down?"

Yes, supply and demand is a factor and demand was big because supply was limited, but what caused the demand? Well, low interest rates of course. All of a sudden everyone wanted a house, renting was throwing your money out the window, a waste. People were desperate, paying big money for pieces of, well... shit. We saw it all the time. In one house, I told the agent I couldn't believe he had it listed at $154,000 and told him I wouldn't pay $100,000. He said he already had three offers and days later the SOLD sign appeared.

Think about it. When we bought our house in 1995 for $68,000, we were originally only given a pre-approved mortgage for $60,000 dollars. Anything beyond that, the Credit Union said would risk our being "house poor." The rates at the time were near 10%, so it certainly made sense. At the time, our gross combined annual income was probably around $55,000. That was not too bad, we both worked full time and had few other expenses and no other debt besides car payments. Gas and electricity were also a lot cheaper back then; gas was less than half of what it is now. We convinced the Credit Union to up our mortgage to $70,000 because most of what we saw at $60.000 back then was crap, very much like a lot of the stuff you'd see today at $160,000.

So what has changed since then? How come twelve years ago a mortgage institution would turn you down for anything above $70,000 dollars when today, someone with a similar income and debt profile can qualify for a mortgage around $200,000 dollars? How can anyone realistically afford that? If interest rates continue to rise, which they most likely will, people's monthly payments could double when they renew a fixed rate five year mortgage and few people I know have seen their salaries double over that same period. How can anyone afford that and still eat? Lending institutions just kept moving the bar higher and higher: why have a mortgage at 30% of your income when you can have one 70%. But it's the lending institutions in the United States that are suffering as well, loosing millions on defaulted loans and reposessing homes that no one can afford to buy anyway.

To think, we're building Waverly West to deal with the massive demand for housing. If things continue along this destructive road and lending institutions keep being loose with their loans, Waverly West may be a graveyard for a generation of homeowners' broken dreams. Buy what you can afford and if you can't afford it, don't buy it. It's such a simple equation.