Gordon T Long – YouTube, Released on 11/6/24 (Recorded on 11/1/24)
Charles Hugh Smith and I do some independent investigative research into US Homeownership. The results are startling! Most are aware that homeownership has become unaffordable based on housing prices and mortgage rates. However, the problem is much bigger and more complex when you look into Total Cost of Ownership. 4 Years of Inflation has changed the American Dream for many families.
KEY MESSAGES:
- A single family house is being priced out of the market to raise a family in
- The total Cost of Ownership is increasingly the problem not just the mortgage and capital cost
- Today to afford a home you may be too old to actually raise your family in it
- Housing at these levels may not currently be the investment for you and your family – at least YET. – – A bridge may be required while your children are still young so you in a few years buy that home to raise your growing family in.
- The Problem is Global in nature
- The winners today are those preying on the system (Foreign Investment, Private Equity and the Wealthy from Financialization) are getting rich.
- Falling Mortgages Rates will not be sufficient, or ever get low enough, to solve this problem!
- Total Ownership costs must adjust downward – and they will or we have seen the end of the FAMILY home as part of the American Dream!
Charles Hugh Smith writes the Of Two Minds blog which covers an eclectic range of timely topics: finance, housing, Asia, energy, long-term trends, social issues, health/diet/fitness and sustainability. From its humble beginnings in May 2005, Of Two Minds now attracts some 200,000 visits a month. Charles also contributes to AOL’s Daily Finance site and has written eight books, most recently Money and Work Unchained.
Mr. Long is a former senior group executive with two Fortune 500 international corporations, a principal in a high tech public start-up and founder of a private venture capital fund. He is presently involved in private equity placements internationally along with proprietary trading involving the development & application of Chaos Theory and Mandelbrot Generator algorithms. Gordon’s work can be found here.