Megalomaniacal Financial Fantasies…and Open Houses in Salem
In these times of uncertainty and woe, the dedicated real estate voyeur has a lot on his plate. I just pulled up the Redfin map of Salem, and I can’t see the streets for all of the little green “for sale” icons. A bit overloaded, I started to wonder what it would cost to buy Salem. All of it. Every property that’s for sale. Give them away to my friends, start a multicultural colony of artists and intellectuals…the Paris of the North Shore….
I have lottery tickets that I don’t check, too, because when you check them you know you’ve lost.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks. I realized I had been writing about the bailout as if it had already happened…and maybe for good reason. Knowing how many dishonest folk are losing their shirts is pretty satisfying, but it isn’t all indictments and FBI fraud investigations.
I spoke to a couple of people who have been patiently hunting for condos and houses for the last year and a half. When my friend Rachel told me she was waiting for prices to fall again, I thought she was delirious (but you’re still not getting a 2-bedroom condo in Cambridge for $140,000, sweetie).
This is what really, really, really sucks: a lot of those people had the savings they were waiting to use for a down invested, directly or indirectly, in the market — I mean, bank interest has been terrible for a decade, so of course they did. Their parents did, too, so there goes the little bit of help they were hoping for. A lot of this cash was sitting in very conservative funds, with the backing of the most stalwart of all investments to keep it safe and growing: mortgage backed securities. That’s where most of my 403B losses came from — 15.9% down this year…the last time I dared look….
Student loan funds are considered really, really conservative, too — mainly because you can’t default on them, or you become Sallie Mae’s indentured servant (what IS it with these weird bank names?)
You can still do it. You just have to cut back hard, and you have to find an inexpensive community with great access to workplaces. In Salem, you can do it in style.
Check us out this weekend; Salem is a party for the month of October.
3 West Terrace
Salem, MA 01970
Beds: 3/Baths: 1
SQ.FT.: 1485
$299,900
Open House: Sunday, October 5, 2008 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
216 Canal Street
Salem, MA 01970
Beds: 3/Baths: 1.5
SQ.FT.: 1835
$ 309,000
Open House: Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM
5 Cross Street
Salem, MA 01970
Beds: 4/Baths: 2.5
SQ.FT.:1600
$ 249,950
Open House: Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Reasonable Houses in Salem
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