The Silent (?) Killer

This post is not about local real estate but another matter of significant importance to me and should be important to some of you too.

My Dad passed away last week. Part of what got him was untreated sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is something that is not to be ignored. More people have it and don’t do anything about it. I know I am one of those people who didn’t think it is/was a big deal and ignored it for many years. Luckily I learned from my Dad’s misfortune because when he was in the hospital last March for a couple weeks I saw firsthand what it does. I knew that I had to use a cpap machine. I’ve tried several times over the last 10 years and just couldn’t get used to it. I tried using a different mask called a “sleep pillow”. It is very easy to use and learned that my cpap is my friend. It is not that difficult to use. Some people just blow sleep apnea off as loud snoring and that is so wrong. If you are a snorer or if your significant other notice if you are holding your breath or breathing very shallow IF SO HAVE IT CHECKED OUT! It is not something you will win. It is a silent killer to the person with sleep apnea. To the person’s bedmate it is snoring then waiting while the person holds their breath to finally take a breath. Seriously if you snore at least mention it to your doctor. And guys don’t be too macho to mention it like it can’t affect you because the grim reaper doesn’t speak macho.

 Rest in Peace Dad.

Are We Back to the Future in Local Real Estate?

When the statistics came out last week for the month of September something jumped out right away. The graphs below are for single family homes in West Seattle. One graph covers February 2006 through July 2007. The height of the market occurred in 2006. March of 2006 had only 232 homes available (supply) and 200 pending sales (demand).

Contrast those numbers with August 2010 which had the most homes on the market (supply) at 655 active listings and  only 89 pending sales ).

Now check out the latest stats which include May 2011 through September 2012.. Notice the months of February, March, April, and December of 2006 along with January of 2007 look a lot like the last 3 months of July, August, and September of 2012.

It’s Time for Americans to “Wake the F*#@ Up!"

The housing industry is the engine that drives the economy. It has long ripple effect which benefits millions of other jobs. When people have more income they spend it. They go buy new shoes, they go out to dinner, buy furniture, appliances, roofing, and on and on. Don’t forget that the shoe salesperson, the furniture manufacturer and delivery drivers also prosper. Add into that group the companies that make the products have employees with families to feed. Their suppliers are another level of industry. The waiter/waitress makes more for their family and the ripple effect continues to drive the economic engine. Without home ownership this ripple effect stops and the economy stalls, homeowners lose equity (money) from decreased value.

The home mortgage interest deduction is an important tax deduction for millions of homeowners. Let’s look at some real numbers for real people. An average home here in Seattle is approximately $400,000. Let’s look at the savings for the homeowner who is financing 80% of the home at a 30 year loan with a fixed interest rate of 4% in the 28% tax bracket. To figure out how much this means to the middle class our example looks like this: $400,000 x .04 = $16,000 in interest deduction per year.  The property taxes are also deductible and in our example the tax on that home would be in the range of $4,000. Therefore the homeowner can deduct the $16,000 + $4,000 = $20,000 total income deduction  Now take 28% of $20,000  deduction and the homeowner receives an annual tax savings of $5,600 which is $466 per month into that middle class’s family pocket. And we all know that money will be spent on consumer goods.

The Defense Department’s budget is $800 billion to $1 trillion per year to support 700 military bases around the world. Each week we spend $2 billion just for the two wars. For every dollar that you send in for your income tax 53 cents (53%) of it goes to the military. This doesn’t include money for the CIA.

To put millions, billions, and trillions into perspective consider this. If you spent $100,000 per day it would take you 10 days to spend a $1 million, 27 years to spend a $1 billion, and 27,000 years to spend a $1 trillion.

Any proposal by any political party that calls for the elimination of the mortgage interest deduction which saves middle class taxpayers about $80 billion per year and bolsters the economy should not be supported. There are many more avenues to achieve fiscal stability, we still give hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks for huge multinational companies, there is massive waste documented in the pentagon budget.  The people at the top are raking in more money; the people on the bottom are getting poorer, when more of our brothers and sisters are living in tent cities, then leave the middle class alone! Regardless which political philosophy one choses to quote Samuel L. Jackson in a new video regarding the election, it is time for Americans to “Wake the f*#@ up!