Life: A Trump Card is Useless …
I am aware that the inventory of houses for sale on the market has increased (even as prices have decreased), even in the $700 k range in my neighborhood. In addition, landlords are finding tenants moving out, having multiple families living in single family dwellings and garages. A guy around the corner just had to do a lot of work to restore his rental to a habitable condition -- including having a disabled vehicle towed away that was left by the last tenants.
Coupled with that fact is there has been an increase in the number of rental units on market, based on large apartment/condo construction projects that have been completed. I find the Bay Area ripe for increases in population, without the infrastructure to support the higher density of residents. Traffic is often 405 branded on 101 these days. It takes 45 minutes to get from Oakland to SF via the Bay Bridge from 6 a.m. - 9 a.m.
Prospective sellers should taken the money (lower price offered for real property) and ran with it. There is some hope, however. When people flee the stock market, as it compresses, they will seek other places to park their cash. Real estate is more secure than stocks or corporate bonds. Government bonds are most secure; however, the return on capital is very small. Thus, capitalist investors are stuck with parking their bucks in real estate. They've already done that, as that's why real estate prices have inflated so much.
Last note on the subject: It takes a minimum wage of $50/hour to afford rent payment on a 2 bedroom, 1 bath dwelling unit in the SF Bay Area (in the Chronicle a couple of days ago). Now, couple that with the post WW2 standard that you spend not more that 25% of your income on housing, save at least 10% of your income for the future, reserve at least 5% of income for emergencies, use the rest for food, clothing and big ticket items (like refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, cars, etc.) and have 5% form mad money (Las Vegas is as good as anything else for leisure activities) -- and personal income builds in enough to take a vacation with family every year (for quality of life) by one man working (i.e., the living wage of the one man working and the woman home making), you've got the middle class dream fulfilled.
OK, that changed to 50% of income allocated to housing, and assuming the woman is no longer working exclusively inside the home a few years ago. You can clearly understand the dilemma of the government (which prints dollars), whether here or around the world. Related are social and political issues (both domestically and abroad) that radically effect what can and cannot be done.
I lied: One last thought (which should have come first). Donald Trump gets it all wrong, unfortunately and stupidly. He's now given a General the power to set troop needs for the Afghanistan blunder. Since Trump is ignorant of history, he fails to see that sending in more troops only increases the certainty of more casualties, which only increases the need to send in more troops to stabilize and solve the problems there. Gee (a euphemism for "Jesus Christ"), looks a lot like Viet Nam to me. And, we know what the results were there. But, those opposed to the tactical and tactful political move of Obama made (the "haters") are bound and determined to have it their way.
The legacy of Trump will be that he, and his administration, was a card those seizing power attempted to play in a game that had, at its core, cards that were held in a world declaring a game of "no trump." For those unaware of the game of Bridge or Spades or Hearts, you must play the hand dealt and there is no special card that is better than the Ace of Spades or King of Hearts!
