Stocks are up and jumping this AM.

[HSmomto4]

The Dow is up 113 not 27 minutes after the opening bell. I admit I haven't had the TV on this morning so what is driving them up? Did a good report come out or something?

[Rondaben]

Look at the stock market like you do the loaf of bread at the store--both are influenced by market forces. Just as you see an inflation in the price of food you will see inflation in the price of equities like stock. A day-to-day increase in the stock market is not an indicator of good news any more than a down day is an indicator of bad economic news. There isn't a direct correlation between the two anymore.

Look at long term trends, particularly at those that have long term histories such as Gold (note that recently they took a big hit but historically speaking they are still very high. Their trend is to continue much higher indicating a relative weakness in the currency. Weaker currency means it takes more dollars to buy the same thing--be it bread, a car or a stock. Many people think that as Inflation gets started in earnes that the market could go as high as 18,000 in the next year or so. Possible, but the dollar will be worth much less.)

[HSmomto4]

I did turn the news on finally and I see the JP Morgan is close to paying $10 a share now instead of $2 for Bear stock. Also I guess housing numbers were better than expected. The market is now up over 200 points so if nothing else, this is giving them an extra bounce when the markets fall again before the FED has to step in.

[Rondaben]

I saw that news.

"Housing sales better than expected!"

ummm...yeah. slightly. On the largest decline in home values in the history of the survey. Its called cutting your losses and taking what you can get for your house while there is still time.

Its like "butter sales at all time high" without acknoledging the fact it was because all stores in the country had a 3 for 1 sale.

[firstoftwelve]

yeah, the housing sales are up because we're all dropping our prices. We finally sold our house for $30,000 less than where we started our asking price. And for $17,000 less than what we paid for it. Not only that, we didn't pay realtor fees cause we did a "by owner" situation, but this time we're also paying realtor fees on top of the $17,000 loss.

But we just feel blessed to have a buyer, and be able to just move on at this point.

[logosone]

Whatever made people think that the value of any home has an infinite, ever increasing value? As people have painfully learned, it only goes so far to a reasonable limit. Many have just simply ran their own expectations over the cliff.

[firstoftwelve]

we certainly weren't expecting a huge gain or anything. we were only there 2 yrs. it's just tough to realize what's been lost in value in just that short time period.
You can say "I don't feel sorry for those people at all" but you aren't trying to sell a home either. We weren't trying to "flip" or make a huge profit, we just had to move out of state for a job.
I do feel sorry for people who expect that their home will climb marginally over time, as until now, usually homes have been a "safe" investment.
I do agree that the "boom" in CA and FL etc. was absolutely unreasonable, as far as prices etc, but elsewhere in the country, it's not that houses grew in price by major leaps, but instead the jobs are going, and no one is buying anything, whether it's worth the money or not. So you take what you can get and move on.