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It’s wild to think that a strawberry picker who earned $15,000 qualified for a $720,000 mortgage in 2005. But it’s just as ridiculous to think that a buyer with a credit score of 720 and who can put 20% down may not have qualified for a loan in 2010. After the subprime mess of 2008, [...]
Recently, there have been lots of positive signs coming out of the real estate market. Foreclosure rates are down, housing starts are up, and homes have appreciated in value in some markets for the first time since 2006. Even so, two reports surfaced last week indicating that, for the nation as a whole, home prices dropped [...]
My grandparents had two criteria for buying a car: It had to be blue, and it had to be American. The last time they purchased a car was in the ’90s, when American car companies didn’t have the best reputations for quality or reliability. When a few members of the family’s younger generation brought up the possibility of my grandparents considering Asian and European makers, it was as if we were suggesting that they commit treason. “We have to buy American,” they said. End of conversation.
Living through the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War ingrained upon my grandparents and their generation that buying American was just a way of life. You brush your teeth in the morning, and you buy American. That sentiment has slipped in succeeding generations, but there appear to be signs that, to some extent, it is returning.
