CHRISTMAS 2009

Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice. (Author Unknown)

And oh how crazy busy those malls have been, even in, perhaps more so because of, these turbulent uncertain economic times. Was it just me but were those malls even busier/crazier than last years? Thankfully I did much of my shopping earlier in November so we could take them with us and deliver them when we made our trip back home to Washington end of November. Buying remaining gifts for local friends and Christmas guests is what took me back to the malls near the holiday. Reminder to self - finish up all gift buying by Thanksgiving!














We continue to "househunt"...frustrating and disappointing though it has become. But with luck this might be our last Christmas spent in our little Taft rental house, cozy and comfy as it has been, just a tad too small.

We learned over a year ago that in the Bakersfield market the "List" price of a house (if an REO or Short Sale which most seem to be these days (& which our realtor says should really be called "agonizing, drawn-out LONG Sale") is merely the "starting price " of a house...one inevitably enters into an auction or bidding war, & weeks/months later will (maybe) find out who the lucky "winner" was. You make an offer (and by now we've learned don't even bother starting as LOW as the List price or you haven't even made it to first base), wait a week or two and your realtor will come back with "Bank needs to know what is our final and best offer"...of course you have no way of knowing how low or how high the "bidding" went, so based on your own (and hopefully your realtors) research as to market comps and appraisals, you make your final decision. Just how much is this house WORTH to you??? As we are conservative people, who've done our homework, but have no idea how or to what degree the market will recover, we have refused to enter into these battles...we made our final and best offer in our initial offer...and therefore remain in our rental house!

But hey, a new year has just begun...we'll renew our search with optomism next week! I know, we are gluttons for punishment. But SURELY, SOMEWHERE, there stands a house with our name on it????

Here in Cali, and with the bailout moneys we the taxpayers gave them, the banksters feel no need to release their HUGE, inventories of repo'd homes in any haste, they can afford to wait as the market recovers, slowly dole them out to waiting buyers (& to compound the problems, well for us "buyers" leastways, we have found they often sell "bundles" of houses to speculators who then up the prices and put right back on the market). With less homes being released to the market, demand grows, prices rise, the banksters just keep winning! Every house we've put an offer on, has been met with from 12 to 20 other offers, often from buyers who, like the first go-round, really can't afford the home and within months it will finds itself back on the market again...we see this a lot. Its crazy and insane.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~Bill Vaughan