I wouldn't bet my firstborn on such a proposition. It's the (short-term) low rates recently that have got so many homebuyers into trouble, when, after the initial term of the contract expired, and the rate increased rather drastically, judged that there was no way that they could afford those payments. With many such houses being put up for sale, house prices have been suffering some substantial drops in a number of markets. In many cases, the only price that will entice buyer interest is one lower than the amount still owing on the loan. So many who can't afford the higher payments, and can't sell the house for enough to pay off the mortgage ... just walk away. They might be better off trying hard to sell the house themselves, for the associated expenses will usually be lower than if the financial institution must foreclose, then sell it, and the possibility is that the owner can get a higher price than the financial institution. If the lender can find the former owner, and it's getting increasingly difficult to hide, that owner will almost certainly be presented with a bill for the difference, plus the costs associated with the sale. Not a pleasant situation. ole joyful

Kinda OT, but butter is now a luxury I cannot afford, just like it was for a lot of folks in the olden days. I will still use it on my bread as a spread, but I figure what's a few more chemicals in my baked goods compared to the other chemicals I ingest on a weekly basis. I do what I can, but organic and the like has become too much of a luxury item for me due to economic circumstances. I don't know if I can go totally back to the way it was in the olden days when they ate lard spread on bread routinely. Or schmaltz! I also am running around so much with all of my jobs I haven't been able to scope out the best deals all around town. I'm commuting so much for my jobs I try to keep trips down to areas I'm already traversing. It's really hard to do some of these cost cutting measures when working so many hours, because a lot of the savings comes from the time you invest in making it yourself. It's a real balancing act! I guess you can mix butter with lecthitin (sp?) and olive oil to make your own spread but I've never tried it. I could stock up on cheapie butter right now but my fridge is filled with free bread I got last week. I am not prepared for this frugal period! I need a big old beast freezer like grandma had out on the summer porch. In so many ways I find myself channeling grandma's old survival techniques! Maybe someday I'll even be able to eat schmaltz on a cracker, but that day has not come yet!

I am in the Dallas-FTW TX area in Tarrant county--around here houses in certain areas are going right from the time they hit the market w/in 4-5 days...we looked at a house in mid 500s that went on market this past Friday and we could not view it until Monday--they had a contract they had accepted by the time we asked for the second viewing Monday afternoon for my husband to see it.... We ourselves have been trying to find a lot in our area we can afford to build a house on--but construction costs have made that pretty much impossible in our price rage...so yesterday we saw a house that was on market 2nd day and made an offer...it is not a "perfect" house...but I have faithfully been looking for two years for home that has floor plan, lot, trees, driveway/garage and location that meets most of what we are looking for... The 4 houses that have come on the market in this particular neighborhood in past year have all sold w/in 11 days or less...so we bit the bullet and put in offer...they countered and we accepted today---just a little less than what the listing price was---at 112.5 a sq ft-- making it less than the average... My realtor who normally does out-of-town relocation buyers in mid 500,000 and up executive homes said that there are some foreclosures in high end market but usually the owners can get out from under the house before it gets to foreclosure unless there is something wrong with the house...in certain area, homes might be on the market for 10-20 more days or even less but the prices are usually higher than last year.... Right now towns like Keller, Westlake, Trophy Club, Colleyville, Southlake are having big influx of relo people--Fidelity moving its headquarters to this area is making some people very happy.... the less expensive homes like under 250 are the ones that have made Tarrant and Dallas counties so high on foreclosure ranks---cheap credit and adjustable rate 0-interst loans got people in trouble... This part of TX has had a fairly stable housing market in past 15 years (since the oil economy tanked)--our home is in older town which is pretty much built out and we don't have tear-downs for new construction like Highland Park in Dallas or even in Colleyville and Southlake close to us...the school district is not the attraction that it was when we bought here...poor planning on part of city in allowing high density developments--more homes on smaller lots--has also been part of lack of appeal and resale value...we really think we have a nice neighborhood and location to other areas but we know that we will be lucky to get out what we put in--including what we will do prepping house for market...

In Canada, when we sell, we use the average price. I bought shares in a dependable bank (only half a dozen biggies and more highly regulated in Canada) 50 years ago for about $4.25 per share, paying about 10 - 12 cents annual dividend, at lower tax rate than one pays on interest income, which is taxed at top rate, could have sold in 2007 for $107. , paying $3.08 annual dividend ... and when they were heavily involved in the financial fiasco in a nearby country in 2008, share price went down to $40. or so. People said, "Oh, my God! What a loss - I hope you sold earlier!". When the loss is small, one chooses to let the fluctuation ride, and when it goes down further, one doesn't want to take that loss. I asked them whether they felt that a Canadian bank might go broke, this week or next? A number of experts said later that that bank darn near did go broke - gov't. bailout? Others said that they would almost surely cut the dividend, heavily. They didn't - it stayed the same for about 4 years. I hoped that one day it would pay me each year the price I'd paid for the stock in the first place - granted - about 40 years before ... when a dollar was worth a lot more. The stock has recovered to about $124. dollars recently, $111. now ... paying $5.60 dividend, $1.35 above the original stock price, at low tax rate. How much have I paid a money manager to take good care of it through those 50 years? Not one penny. If you'd like mutual funds, about 90% of whose managers don't produce better than the segment of the markets in which they operate, that's your choice ... but spend some time learning how money and investments work, maybe starting in the library. If you're in Canada, check "Canadian MoneySaver" magazine, which doesn't carry ads: maybe attend one of the 40 or so groups of subscribers that meet to discuss investments - I've been involved monthly for about 20 years. After you've gained some experience, maybe done paper trading for a while, put some of your investable assets into quality stocks ... and pay yourself the 1.5 - 2.5% or so of their price that you pay the managers of the mutual funds. ole joyful