In 2001, a good friend used his American Express (AMEX) credit card to purchase a very large flat screen TV that had been used in the board room for what was a very successful corporation located in Houston, Texas. I told my friend to be careful to not fall into a trap of “Lifestyle Creep”.
The custom, proprietary (nearly impossible to service) TV arrived to my friends garage strapped down to a extra large wooden shipping pallet. Unfortunately, the shipping service (not U-Haul) cracked the $10,000 TV screen which had not been purchased with shipping insurance. Luckily, my friend was able to get his money back because when consumers buy products (even extravagant products) on credit with an AMEX card, shipping insurance is included in the very high interest rates charged for buying things that are totally unnecessary to own.
My friend was a big gamer, and no TV screen was too big to own when sitting day after day on his couch playing video games for hours and hours at a time.
In August 2023, I am looking forward to using the information provided on Lee Riley’s real estate website to “See The Latest Stats”. It typically takes about two months for Mr. Riley and his team to post a one-page summary of “year-to-date” properties sold. Last time I checked, Real Estate selling in the $600,000 – $1,000,000 range was down by 50% – 74%.
This was the statistic for data collected from the CREN MLS system for the time period of time between January and May for the years 2020 – 2023.
It has been reported by another Realtor that a very large number of contracts for pending sales will close in the month of July 2023. However, “the question is just how many, and at what price”.
This morning, I was researching how inexpensive it would be to purchase a 2007 or 2008 Freightliner Dock Truck. K-Bid Online Auctions is now selling 854 Items of My Pillow Surplus Industrial Equipment.
The two dock trucks that I am most interested in owning have a current bid of $3,150 for the 2007 truck, and a current bid of $6,100 for the 2008 truck.
I’m a little concerned because my wife and I are currently renting in Austin, Texas… and it’s much less expensive to rent shelter in Austin, Texas… than it is to own shelter in Austin, Texas. Rumor has it that same situation exists for Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
It will be difficult to find parking spots in our condo parking lot for trucks with a Gross Vehicular Weight (GVW) of 13 tons, or 26,000 pounds. That sounds like a long wheel base to turn around in our tiny parking lot where we rent shelter to save money because local shelter ownership prices are unaffordable. I guess that’s what happens when too much COVID relief money (like PPP loans) are used to juice-up the price of shelter purchased to create passive income, while straddling locals residents for years to come with paying higher property taxes.
It’s important when purchasing things on credit to avoid the emotional trap known as FOMO, which stands for “Fear Of Missing Out”. Then again, one never knows if a “U-Haul Summer” might now be preceding what in the past was known as a “U-Haul Winter”.
Data collected from the CREN MLS system for January – May 2020 – 2023, revealed that the Median Closing Price for shelter sold in Pagosa Springs, Colorado was down 14%, meaning down $90,000. Shelter sold between Jan – May 2022 had a Median Sold Price of $627,500. Shelter sold between January – May 2023 had a Median Sold Price of $537,500.
It will be very interesting to understand whether the “large number of contracts for pending sales” which are apparently scheduled to close in the month of July 2023 will in-fact point Median Sold Prices toward rising again.
Data collected from the CREN MLS system can then help answer the question of how much shelter is sold, and at what price. Hopefully migration patterns do not deplete the inventory of U-Haul trucks available for rent.
Perhaps entrepreneurial high school students exist that are interested in urban planning, and enjoy studying hyper-local patterns in real estate supply, real estate demand, and the price to own permanent shelter.
Entrepreneurial high school student(s) can now buy a slightly used dock truck… what the heck, buy two trucks! And proudly slap (on both sides of the truck) a big picture advertising a very unhappy man hugging a white pillow.
The name of the summer business for affordable moving services could be named “My Pillow Moving Company”… with a local telephone number to contact to find strong students available to provide moving assistance.
Hank Lydick took ‘early’ retirement to build a home in Austin, Texas, and a cabin in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.