"Housing Greed and Payback"

My Irish mother, Alice Gertrude (O'Keefe) Haggerty, when I had made a poor choice, used to say: "Ok, Franky, it's time to pay the piper." (My father, Joseph (Praznic) Zedar, was Slovenian... How about that for an ethnic combo?) Well, are we paying the piper, or what?

I remember when things crashed in 1989. I thought real estate was gravy, as my first three years were rewarding... and work was fun. But guess what? Short sales actually sold and so did most well-priced homes. By 1991, we were on the rise again. But not now. We're three years into this. I feel like we've come through a nasty storm and we're now in the eye... and now we have to walk through it again to get back out.

So back to this "poor choice" thing that my mother tried to teach me... Our poor choice, regarding real estate, has a one word answer: GREED. Not horrible greed, just normal, every day, human greed. If you have a biblical worldview (or if you just observe life with a scientific scepticism), it's plain to see that greed is in our basic nature. To wit: Do you have to teach greediness to children? No. We struggle to teach them to share. In his recent Newsweek editorial, "The Homeownership Obsession," Robert Samuelson said it brutally honestly: "The housing market," said he, "became a Casino." Wow.. a Casino... how perfect.

As a nation, we have become greedy over-consumers. It's irrefutable. A few weeks ago, my 21 year old son and I watched a special on rural China. There was a woman who walked with her mule on a two hour trip... twice each day... for dirty water. You can believe that my hot showers have been cut in half since then. That will stick with me.

As a Real Estate Broker, here's what makes me nuts. We show houses all the time and comment "amongst ourselves" about the models, etc. If it doesn't have: 22" tiles, 12' ceilings, granite counters, 42" solid wood cabinets, bathtub-like sinks, exotic cooktops, huge commercial refrigerator, cavernous baths & room-sized closets, 3 zone high seer AC, three car garage, etc., etc., etc... then we have the gall to say it's sub-standard. You know - "a starter home." Can you tell me why a family of three needs a 4,000 square foot McMansion, like in the above picture? Sure burns a lot of energy to heat and cool a place like that.

Well, we are paying a price. We are a country that looks down our noses at renters and throws tax breaks at home owners. We reward those that already have the money and punish those that do not. It's a mess. Many older Americans approaching retirement have little wealth accumulation beyond the investment in their homes. I'm guessing a lot of retirements are currently on hold. Don't get me wrong. I own a home and lean to the right. But there has to be a better way to spread the wealth around.