it was on the news that a bank in the US gave a 650 thousand mortgage to a person with a 16,000 dollar per year income what was that all about lol in canada your mortage can not exceed 33 per cent of your net income and you have to put a down payment of at least 20 per cent or have to chmc mortage insurance which is for high risk and very expensive
Less than 30 days now!! Spring is around the corner!
Yes Mona - that's how out of control it became. Bottom line though - the borrower is responsible. If I lose $5000 at the racetrack or playing three card monte, whose fault is it? The horse's? The monte dealer? No - it's mine.
yes sir dont play if you cant afford to loose it and the bank gave billions away without property income and collateral and now you the tax payer has to pay for their mess that is not fair
I am not impressed with harper over hear he is putting canada in the same kind of mess and questioned about it he says well the states are doing it lol not the same problems the banks have lost nothing here and they are still getting government money which is going to kill our economy because the money will have to come from somewhere to pay this deficit back right
I agree with you Victor, about the housing mess starting in the 90's and how in the world can anyone think they can afford a house with nothing down? It seems like everything is about instant gratification. Whatever happened to saving for something?
So glad, Patti, that your dad got to see the potential of your place. Mine passed ten years ago and he so would have enjoyed the greatgrandkids.
So did your husband look at the post, Jan?
Yes, he did, Victor. He thought it was very interesting and wondered where the facility was located. Sometimes I think he misses it, but then he thinks of the 90 hr work weeks and is thankful for being a teacher where he can put in 90 hour weeks voluntarily. Hee-hee.
What exactly did he do, Jan? What part of the business was he in? Fuel?
We were (CU closed us, after 52 years, in 2004) on 125 street, just west of Broadway.
yes teaching is not what people think
I say give them all a big raise they deserve it
I have girls 9 and 10 I can not imagine
having 28 to 35 kids that age all day
five days per weeks
there is not enough money
in any pay check to make me
want to do that lol
god bless all teachers
for having such big hearts
and the patience of angels
to educate our children
This message was edited Mar 2, 2009 4:55 PM
Ha!
You are correct Victor about the 90s starting it all. Recently, my son told me the banks were trying to tell him he could afford a mortgage past his means. He said no, thank goodness. His momma didn't raise no fool! But I was shocked when he told me. My own experience was that I bought my first house in 1986 for $37,500 and I had to borrow a down payment from my FIL at the time and my best friends to do it!! We had to beg the bank. I remember how hard it was to get a credit card then. I had to buy a washer at Sears and pay it off first to establish credit. Then things got crazy and my son got a credit card in the mail when he was only ten!
Yes, I've heard about kids getting offers. We were 'dumb' enough to save for five years after getting married. Put down 20% and got a normal, fixed-rate mortgage. They were pushing all kinds of crap. I didn't want to hear it.
last year got a statement from the bank for a twenty five thousand dollar credit line in my name lol I am disable my total income in about seven thousand a year good thing DH makes good money and I never applied for it or anything I called and had it cancelled but how many people used it to the limit and then could not pay
banks are nuts
the only thing I like about what is going on is that with all the companies going crazy to make money now my credit card is down to 1.9 per cent interest which is great
I love the change from icicles to tulips on the DG heading. But it is fantasy!
for at least another five or six weeks for sure hahahahhah
There was a woman on CNN acouple of weeks ago.
She was a school bus driver.
She did sheepishly admited they spent more on the house than they should have.
It was an $800G house.
I missed weather or not she has a husband making $250G a year.
They were notified the bank was forclosing on the house.
There really is no free lunch.
that is interesting since I went from a 425,000 dollar house to a 300 dollar house to cut my mortgage in half to be able to afford a few things like taking the girls to disney last year lol I will live cheap and take one weeks vacation per year and hopefully someday own my house
it is not possible to ever own a house with that kind of motgage
300 dollars - wow!
that is 300 thousand lol
Hee hee.
if they sold for 300 I would have a few rent them and make money lol not in canada, but I hear that some sold for that in the US is that for real lol
and where are they I want one where its hot I hope
No - here the 300 dollar ones sold for 425,000.
We had friends that when they went for the mortagage he added in all his overtime $ so he could get a bigger mortgage..we were like "are you crazy???" that isn't guaranteed $ Then his wife HAD to work to afford the house and he had to finish off all the moulding in the house because it wasn't covered in the price of the house...crazy.
Here's a little peek of spring for you.
They smell real good!
Can I ask a stupid question(s)? Is it possible to grow an economy forever? Is it true that a growing GDP = improved quality of life for everyone? If so, why has the standard of living for much of the middle class declined since the mid-90s? Why is it assumed that a redistribution of wealth only happens downwards? And why would one assume that the way to prosperity is through debt (e.g. "leveraging)?
I am not an economist or a financier . . . so maybe I don't understand some pertinent piece of information. Please - if you know the answers to these questions, please explain to me . . . if you feel it is too political, you can dmail me.
The economy always goes through cycles. There is a recession every seven to ten years. Period. No matter how smart we think we are. No matter how advanced our computer models are. No matter what the Federal Reserve or the President and Congress do.
There is no one reason why the middle class is doing worse. But part of it is their own fault - living beyond its means. Buying houses and crap they can't afford. Keeping up with the Joneses. Two or three cars, four tv's, $150 sneakers, piano lessons, etc.
As for improving through debt - ask the politicians. That's not how I live. Yet I have to pay for it. We're 'solving' this crisis by repeating the same mistakes.
amen
I'll 2nd that.
Ooo oooo, I know! Back in the 1980's, women were just starting to go to work full time. All of a sudden, everyone had two incomes. A family with two incomes could live very well indeed, because prices and life styles were still in line with only one adult in the family working. The go go 80's was on, everyone felt rich!
Well, along came the 1990's. All of a sudden EVERYONE was working. Everyone had to have cell phones, had to have SUVs, had to have the latest gadget, had to have the McMansion. And in order to pay for all this lifestyle "stuff", both parents had to work full time. That was kinda OK, because the salaries were still keeping pace with the prices of the "must have" stuff, but it was getting harder, and some people even had to work more than one job.
AH HAAA! Now comes the turn of the century, and guess what? There's no extra income to be had. Everyone is working their tales off for their cable TV and cell phones and SUVs. Divorce is much more common, so single parenthood is almost the norm, yucky as that sounds. You can't squeeze blood from a stone. Adults are working more than one job, the teens are working, everyone is just WORKING.
Years ago I predicted this would happen. The "stuff" bubble has burst, no one has any more money for useless stuff, we're too busy trying to keep a roof over our heads, and there's no way to make any more money because we're all working as much as we can. So, I predict a very long "correction" I'm afraid.
*Whew* that was fun! K, I'm done...
well its nice to hear that I am not the only one that has noticed a trend in this mess, in canada it has been the same but we should have been in the hole again around 1999 or 2000 but it has just hit in the last six months or so and it mostly started with the domestic car manufacturing we are attached to the states and when it get bad enough your way it rebounds to us since the two countries trade so much and that most of the companies work both sides of the fence sort of speaking, and the fact that some people will only do a certain job and will not consider doing anything else or will not move to a city for a job, which is what we did last year DH took a transfer to ottawa from toronto to increase promotion posibilities and job protection
in alberta they are dying for employees everwhere has help wanted signs its crazy in ottawa they are always looking for help some cities like toronto always have shortages of work since it is a very large city and many immigrants come every year more than jobs are created so the problem will always exist no matter what,
and if your government was smart it would put the money in re education and not in giving small tax credits that will really help nobody and just kill us to pay it back next year, we have had three elections in three years and he is still there lol that is a deficit in itself about 1 billion just on elections that nobod wanted hahahah what a peoples government hahahhaha
This message was edited Mar 2, 2009 9:49 PM
I think all the politicians should come on DG for a day and they would learn a thing or two. :)
Victor, thanks for contacting DH. I think he answered your questions that you had.
I think all government positions should be held by mothers of children with large families and things would be better since the last thing we have time for is BS and we are great at making sure everyone is ok and has what they need to function so that is just my opinion hahahahhahah
No problem, Jan. It was a pleasure.
GOOD MORNING TO ALL
the sun is shining and its still cold lol like 20F it was 3F last night
ok ok im ready for the real spring the one that comes with heat lol hahhahahah
scicciarella - I am from British Columbia. When we were there last summer the real estate market was INSANE! The house we sold in 2002 for $135,000 was supposedly worth $300,000 - more than double. And this is a little tiny (1000 square feet with a partially completed basement and one bathroom!) in Kamloops! (God knows what it would have been worth in Vancouver) My husband sold real estate and he was moaning that we left just before the market got "hot" - but we both knew it couldn't last . . . .
How are Canadian banks doing? When we left, if people wanted a CMHC mortgage, you had to have 20% down. I jokingly told a colleague that if the Royal Bank of Canada went under, we should all max out our credit cards, 'cause no one is going to be able to collect, the whole world economic system would have collapsed. But when I read your postings, I am not so sure . . .
I am with you Mona... busy mothers are totally qualified for the job... I think that politicians have good intensions until they are elected... then no more... they just become part of the system!!!!
I have been here for over 23 years .... so I have spent more of my adult life here than in Brazil... even if I think our politicians here mess up in Brazil is so much worse... tons of things really go wrong there... here I have seen that ordinary people can change things... love it here... and yes I am amazed at the power that we have - collective... so cool that we can tell each other where to get things or not to... I just placed an order from a new nursery (at least this is my first order with them...) and tld them that as soon as get the plants I will place a comment on DG... oh yeah, we definitely have power to influence each other!
no worries about the banks in canada they are doing just fine lol they are still showing huge profits, so they are not going under that is for sure, a good sign is no power of sales on homes, in my area houses are still going up in price I bought for 307 thousand and four houses over they just listed 589 thousand and its only been 16 months
I bought in toronto in 1998 for 209 thousand and sold september 2007 for 425 thousand so things are still ok but I am in Ottawa that is the capital and its all white collar jobs mostly government and embassies and lots of retail and services so it will be the last city to have major financial problems
Nice profit!
no profit lol less mortgage
that was the reason less mortgage and job security made us move and when the present house is worth 1 million im gone lol they can have it, I will just go furthur south and get a bigger property
I would love to trade places with a politician! They would come and live in my house and I would go live in theirs. They would do the work my dh and I do and we would go do theirs (assuming we could do each others work). We would live on their salary and pay their bills and they would live on mine (DH's) and pay our bills.
The politicans would be anorexix and in a physco ward.
Good thing we own everything and its bought and paid for.
Not all politicians are rich.
Professional politicians yes but many are average people with a desire to serve.