In this current housing market, millions of people are losing their homes and those who have not lost their homes, slowly but steadily see the value of their homes disappear until they are under water on their mortgages and are unable to sell their home for anything other than a huge loss.
For most of us, our homes are our biggest investments and a loss of $50,000 to $100,000 is a hit that most people cannot absorb.
I am a home owner and I do not intend to sell my house for a long time, if ever.
So the housing market collapse has not affected me in the way that it has affected others.
When I purchased my house, I saw it as a long-term investment in which I would be living there for a long time and to raise a family there.
For those who flip houses for a living and/or are looking to sell their house in the immediate future, this market is not one that is conducive to such motivations.
Neither is it the right time for many people who only fair credit, to attempt to purchase a house.
Home prices are falling and one would think that it would be a good time to buy a house.
This is not the case if a person is trying to flip houses or if the purchase would be regarded as a starter house since the ability to resell that house for anything that resembled a profit in the short term, is something that just is not possible for the majority of Americans.
All of the aforementioned helps to compel people to see their home as an investment, a long-term investment which eventually will yield monetary profits.
Every since the formation of this country, our economy has seen down turns.
All markets are cyclical.
This does not give much comfort to the home owner who is seeing the value of his or her home decrease by the thousands or even tens of thousands.
However, home ownership is still the exception in this world rather than the norm and owning your own home is still and will forever be, a major aspect of living the American dream.
Recently, I have been having some trouble with a hole in my roof.
I have been unable to pinpoint the origins of the water leakage for a while.
However, when I did pinpoint the problem, it seemed that nothing that I did, ever worked.
It became very frustrating for obvious reasons.
I had to get atop my roof and rip off the old shingles, paper and plywood in order to properly fix the leak.
While doing that, it struck me how lucky I really was to be able to fix my own roof of my own house and to be beholding to no man concerning how, when and why I wanted to fix it.
I have traveled around the world and I can tell you that such freedoms are enjoyed by the relative few in this world.