| Military homeowners feeling the pinch
Now they can't get the home sold, and not only could they not afford the house payment after relocating, but now the interest rate has or is scheduled to reset, causing the payments to go up $300 to $500," she said. Even people who play it safe are getting caught in the housing-market turbulence. Case in point: the Battles, whose home in Bremerton, Wash., has been on the market since June 4. The Navy family had a traditional fixed-rate loan, but the sour market has prevented them from selling their home for an adequate price. In early January, after their home had been on the market for seven months, the Battles turned down an offer about $15,000 less than their asking price. They would have had to come up with the difference to pay off their loan. Their experience has soured them on buying another house, at least until retirement.
Let's Get Real About the Economy
While the suddenness of the slowdown and extent of the turmoil in financial markets surprised many, the inevitability of a correction should have been evident. We've been aware for years that housing prices had soared well above their historic relationship to personal income. Americans were consuming beyond their means. Risk premiums -- the extra amount that investors get paid for buying paper other than Treasuries -- had fallen to record low levels that were clearly unsustainable. As those bubbles continued to inflate, we've known that the magnitude of the inevitable correction was growing. It's easy to understand the fear that has enveloped our financial system, a fear grounded in the complexity and lack of transparency associated with the rise of increasingly esoteric derivatives with equally opaque names -- credit default swaps, CDOs, RMBSs and the like.
Humiliation for Edwards
Couldn't gun-controllers from the rest of the country have talked them out of it? ... 12:19 A.M. ___________________________ Obama's "Joy": Michael Kinsley on Obama: My candidate, at least at the moment, Is Obama. When I hear him discussing issues, I hear intelligence and reflection and almost a joy in thinking it through. .
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