Gas is Below $2.00 By Me!

Woohoo! Finally some good news for those of us that own SUV’s – heck for all of us who even own a car! Gas is going down, down down. By me right now, in the greater Cleveland area, one gas station just sank to $1.99 a gallon. This is a huge sigh of relief for a lot of us.

Gas prices have been cited as a major reason for consumer spending and consumer confidence being so fragile lately. We’re all hoping this is a sign of a strong new economy to come.

Home Prices Dropped

Remember how we’ve been talking about how dismal the home sales market has been looking? Well apparently finally home prices have followed suit to their failing sales, and home prices have now dropped, probably due to a lower demand and market for new homes.

Booming home prices is a sign of economic expansion and growth in the US economy, so unfortunately, while lower home prices may be good if you’re on the market for a home, they are not a good sign for the US economy in terms of strength and solidarity.

Realtors are saying they are having a hard time selling homes or even getting prospects to look at them right now simply because the demand just is not there right now for Americans to be buying new homes.

When the home prices begin to go up again, this will hopefully be a sign of a better market place and a better economy. Now that consumer confidence is getting back on track, economists are hoping that home prices follow suit and start an upswing again.

Will People’s Budgets Rebound with Gas Prices Lowering?

It seems the gas noose that was tightening over all of our wallets and putting a severe damper on consumer spending on fun stuff, may be loosening it’s grip just a bit.

At least I know in my household it is. Instead of dropping $40 at the gas pump every time, now I am only dropping less than $30 for a full tank.

This is a huge relief, even though it’s “only ten bucks”, because it’s just another thing that seems to be sucking down my cash flow lately.

All the little things really do have a cumulative effect on your excess cash flow. That pop you buy, or that fast food you just bough all adds up, many times to the tune of at least a hundred bucks a month.

Most of my friends say it’s loosened up their cash flow a little too, since many of my friends drive long distances for work our just travel a lot period.

Someone even told me that gas may be back on it’s way down to less than $2 a gallon, how great would that be? I’m not counting on it now though, since it’s been so unpredictable for a while now.

People Trying to Sell Homes Now Frustrated

People have been trying to sell homes now that have been on the market for months, or worse – 2-3 years in some cases, and simply will not garner any buyer interest right now. The seller’s market is absolutely horrendous right now in the home buying realm, by most accounts from real estate agents and home sellers.

On the other hand, home buying is a good place to be right now. The problem is, there are too many home sellers and not enough buyers right now. Home sellers are becoming frustrated, since they basically have to wait for their homes to sell to go about with their business and buy a new home or even move on a new home.

Back in 2004, the home buying market was a booming business – people were buying homes, and many times, sellers were making a killing on the sales, since valuations were also up. This is definitely not the case now. Value may be up, but the lack of market is creating forced lowered pricing right now.