There's no excuse for ignorance, but people trust. Just like I have to trust an electrician if I need one.

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1984 300TD

My feeling on real estate is the bottom has not been reached yet. Too many deals out there and increasing still. Especially in areas that are not superheated.

I watched the problem start to develop years ago. You could have a new home built on a property cheaper than a resale. Yet people still brought resales even though it made little sense in my opinion. I contribute this to the artificial organization of the real estate market. Far too many games.

Someone mentioned earlier that it is important to live within your means. I totally agree as I like the resultant freedom. Requiring a thirty year morgage on a personal use residential property is questionable. I like to see people with fifteen year morgages at most.

There is very little guidance to how to maximise the value for your spending and protecting yourself. Too much is written instead on how to earn money.

A thousand channels, and nothing is on !!!!!!!

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

PROBLEM is that uneducated greedy idiots BOUGHT them.

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

my dad had a shop here in town and we worked on lots of college kids and professors cars.and what i learned from them i told to my little sister before she left for college.i told her the first thing they are going to do is take away her common sense.they had it by the time she came home for thanksgiving.

Sounds like you didn't make it to college and are feeling bitter toward anyone who has a degree. Granted, a degree is not a guarantee of high intelligence or well-rounded knowledge, but on average, college graduates are certainly smarter and more intelligent than people who only made it through high school.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

Nothing wrong with a 30-year mortgage. You can always pay it off quicker. I paid mine off in 5 years, but it was nice knowing that I had 30 years to do it if I needed that much time.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

I'm with Barry. Widespread use of 30 yr mortgages sets up a kind of 'general social expectation' of the reasonable price of a house. If we used 15 yr mortgages that expectation would be different. I've read that the Japanese have multi-generation mortgages.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I guess you're right. Most people probably take the full 30 years to pay it off. Some are even dumb enough to think that it "saves" money to make the minimum payment only. But I was just saying that a 30-year mortgage is not necessarily bad, especially if you make the effort to pay it off ASAP.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

Hmmm, the turn in the topic has made me imagine one possible solution to the current mortgage crisis. Why don't banks start offering fools like this 45 or 50 yr mortgages? It would reduce payments, increase bank profits and avoid foreclosures.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

The 50 Year Mortgage Is Introduced In California

http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/5162006_50_Year_Mortgage.asp

Probably because they feel 30 years is a long-enough payback period. Why not a 100-year mortgage? It would just take too long to make money. One good idea to stem the foreclosure rate that I heard about was making the foreclosing lender sell the property back to the borrower at the current and lower market price. Really it wouldn't make any difference to the bank as far as money goes and it might even be more profitable. But it might seem "unfair", i.e. why is this idiot who couldn't afford the original mortgage getting a break?

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

Huh. Amazing. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I guess good for the economy as long as it's not another bubble that will burst. Bad that people are taking on more debt and buying stuff they can't really afford and driving prices up for everyone else.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

I disagree. I spent 7 years in radio broadcasting and financed my aviation studies - no government or mom/pop loan. I then worked as a pilot for 17 years. Since the year 2000, I've taught English as a second language, both in private industry and in academia. I have seen just as many college grads as non-grads who can't even use their own language properly, including comprehension of what they read. I am a published author, but alas, I have no college degree.

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Don't Chrome them; polish them

You disagree with what? Other than your sample probably not being representative, there's nothing in your post that invalidates what I said.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL