Saturday, 19th of July 2008 at 04:00:37 PMOccasionally, I read an article on azcentral.com that I feel better for reading. Today is one of those days. Russ Wiles wrote a balanced, informative and fair article that allows me to take in the information and draw my own conclusions. Titled From home buyers to bankers, many blamed for housing crisis, this article goes beyond looking to blame Real Estate Agents, Lenders, Buyers/Sellers and really gives the perspective of how things have been developing in the background to create an environment where excitement and greed, took over.
You see, I drink the Kool-Aid, the one that believes that everyone should fulfill part of the American Dream to own a house, it is one of the reasons why I became a Realtor®, I wanted to help people achieve that American Dream. There is a part of my ethical background that says I want to help people OWN a house and not be OWNED by the house. Really, this is a cute way of saying that I don’t want to be involved in your home purchase is you are not realistic about it, that you will just do whatever it will take to get into a house, putting yourself and family at risk. Instead of being able to enjoy it for as long as you want. That was one of the reasons 2005 was not a good year for me as an agent. I didn’t want to be a part of the train wreck that I saw coming.
Even now, when I have small talk around the current market and someone says its (pick: Realtors, Lenders, Government), I tend to give a sideways look and say it was really everyone’s fault. No one person is to blame for it. Russ, in his article goes beyond those groups above and really points out that so many things came into play that nothing probably could have prevented it.
It was interesting to me that Russ points out that even the White House can be blamed for creating this environment, while I am not political and refrain from picking a party (ever), I thought this point was interesting. Even this point, he admits was a stretch. You see, shortly after our fateful attack on Sept 11, 2001, the White House put policy into motion to encourage consumer spending, a policy that I support. The terrorist attack was also intended to damage our Economy, and the White House was defending us against that attack. This policy encouraged us to spend and not to save.
Well, today, we probably need to move toward a balanced save/spend mix. I’m not saying reverse and go out and completely save every penny that you can, I’m just saying it’s time to have a little something saved up for the occasional crisis that we have to live through (like housing and very soon energy). We should continue to enjoy the American Way of life of enjoying our labors, but I’m encouraging my clients to add a percentage of savings to the budgets when looking at if they can afford to purchase a home.
Okay, now back to the article, Russ, in my opinion, does a great job of pointing out that the Crisis (yes, I am calling it a Crisis if you haven’t picked that up yet) is complex, brought about by several circumstances that would have been hard to see until it was too late to stop the train. And that the blame would be hard to put on anyone or any one organization. In fact, it could be concluded that creating a solution or policy to prevent it from occurring again, would be hard. I’ve tried hard not to blame anyone for this mess, instead trying to be a part of the solution and looking toward the future. But I can’t help taking the occasional glance back to see how back the wreck was.
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