Economics

I don't know much about economics and I don't really care about politics. Both are confusing and the latter is just plain annoying. I'm a very practical and pragmatic person. Thankfully, our little family of 4 seems to be in a pretty good position - financially. Although I will say that buying a house just a couple of weeks before all of this mess started to unfold is just a bit unnerving. For one, if we had waited just a couple more weeks we would've got about a half a percent off our interest rate. For another it seems like now isn't really the best time to be taking out the largest debt of our lives.

I'm not sure what to think about this whole economic crisis. I do know what I feel though - panic and fear! For the last several years we've watched home prices sky rocket in our area to the point where once Trevor started working his way up in the federal government and it seemed like we "should" be able to afford a house there was no way we could! Over those years Trevor and I kept saying "there's no way house prices can keep going up like this - the end has to be near." So we waited and waited as the prices continued to climb higher and higher until they were so far out of our reach that the only way we could afford a home was to go through the county's program for moderate income families. When we signed our contract with the builder a year ago the price for our unit - if you were to buy one walking in off the street was $305K. Today they are trying to sell them for $260K and are having a very hard time doing that. I wonder how much farther the prices will fall before they bottom out. If they fall below the price that we paid for ours then where does that leave us? Granted, they have quite a bit further to go until they're at that point, but still -- the thought is there.

I'm thankful that Trevor works for the federal government. For now anyway it seems like it's a safe sector to be in. He's also up for a promotion that has been in the works for a few months now. I'm hoping that it comes through before anything drastic happens. I don't know about you, but the sense I'm getting (from the media of course) is that we are on the verge of another Great Depression.

I do have family and friends that are in far worse positions than we are. Loved ones that need the money from their stocks because they are retired, people that are unemployed and are trying to make ends meet and those that just aren't sure how much longer their jobs will be around. There's a lot of financial uncertainty right now and it seems to be touching everyone. I pray that our trust and security will be in the Lord and not in this world. It's tough to focus on Him when everything seems to be crumbling down around us.