It seems to me that the arguments about taxes and government spending are completely beside the point.  The issue is really, “what price does the consumer of government services really need to pay for the services he buys?”  If we approach this problem from a cost vs. benefit viewpoint, things become much clearer.  Does the “man in the street” really NEED the EPA to tell him that his car has to be replaced ($30,000) because it makes too much CO2?  Do I really NEED a war in Afghanistan?  Did I NEED a government bailout of the banks?? Do I NEED Congress to have so many staffers that they write the bills, read them, and recommend them to the actual members of Congress?  Do I NEED the government to tell me that they will “take care of the borders,” only to allow the invasion of cartels that cannot be controlled?  In other words, this is a royal gripe session about prices and services. It seems that when I go into the post office, there’s always a line.  When I go to the UPS store (used to be Mailboxes etc.), there’s sometimes a line, but not often, and when I have to wait, it’s not long.  And don’t let me get started about the California Department of Motor Vehicles, where there are always hundreds of people waiting.  Of course, if I go to AAA, and have the same business done, it’s usually momentary.  I might have to wait, but not long.  So the question is, “Why is it possible to get so much better service in the private sector from people who do either the same or similar jobs as the various government agencies???” The answer is simple.  In a private business environment, we have choices. We can choose to ship UPS or FEDEx or whatever.  With the government, there are no choices, because they are the only ones “authorized” to do this particular job.  So the value of the services drops, while the price of those services goes higher and higher, because there is no competition.  This is where “representative government” comes in, and where we are supposed to have advocates to take care of the differentials that naturally occur when there is a monopoly.  The problem is that they don’t do it.  They just rubber stamp the latest increase, and pass the results on to the taxpayer.  Since the governments discovered borrowing (bonds, treasuries, etc.), this problem has grown to almost unmanageable size, so that now we are borrowing a huge percentage of the money we eventually spend on these services.  The solution is simple.  The prices are too high.  The dichotomy that’s often presented is that either we pay the price for those services, or we don’t get them.  It’s a false dichotomy. The price of the services we DO get is far too high.  Those prices need to be reduced.  This might mean across the board pay and pension cuts, workforce reductions, so that the people who still have jobs have to work more or harder for the same money, or that the agencies that are unnecessary have to be cut out of the budget.

Each year is a special year, and each season in real estate (often spanning several years) also has its own characteristics.

We are now in a season of struggling, declining markets. New REO (property owned by banks) inventory is threatening to appear at any moment, and buyers are no longer competing for property as they once did.  Of course, we are all concerned that prices will decline again, and national companies are calling for price reductions(!) of between 5 and 20%.  If you are selling a house or other piece of property, you have to wonder, “What should I do?” Virtually every home we’ve sold in the past few months has experienced price reductions, and in some cases we’ve had to make drastic reductions.

The internet has brought a great deal of opportunity to  buyers of real estate.  It’s probably the single greatest innovation for the real estate buyer  other than the MLS, which is exclusive to members of the professional real estate community.

However, there is so much information that it’s difficult to sift it out and find what actually is relevant to you.  Here are some pointers in doing that, so that you can know how to search, either for your “dream property,” or a good investment, or even find your own home’s value.

Huge amounts of doom & gloom in the financial press, gold skyrocketing, oil oozing up, quantitative easing burning away dollars and their purchasing power like throwing gasoline on newspaper, unemployment (real) above 20%, two wars, etc. etc.

AAAaaaggghhh!!

What to do?