Are We There Yet, Dad?
I grew up in Indiana.
When I was a little boy, our preferred summer vacation destination was the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
Getting there meant enduring a long, boring drive across humid Midwest corn-belt states in stifling heat with open car windows back before air conditioning became commonplace (yes, I was born after the wheel was invented, so don’t even ask).
I remember making the trip in a 1953 Pontiac Chieftain two-door (white with light blue roof), and later in Dad’s pride-and-joy 1956 Oldsmobile Super 88 charcoal/white 4-door hardtop.
We would get started around 3:00 a.m. to beat the heat, and I would usually start asking “are we there yet, Dad?” about 30 miles from home; driving my parents crazy in the process.
Those days are a distant memory now that Mom has passed and Dad is in Alzheimer’s care.
I didn’t know that those were the good old days as I was living them.
(Note to self: Today is tomorrow’s good old days)
I am reminded of those trips to Colorado now when people now ask me “Are we at the bottom yet, Phil?”
Honest answer: I don’t know.
No one knows; especially those optimistic government officials and real estate cheerleaders who want us to believe there will not be a lingering hangover for our real estate party of a few years ago.
The truth is that we are unlikely to return to those glory days of real estate anytime soon.
I have a sense that we’re going to be slogging through this market for the next several years as our market seeks to balance supply vs. demand and return to sensible values.
Meanwhile, people are still buying homes for the right reason ~ to live in them; not to get rich.
That, in itself, is encouraging.
June 27th, 2009 Posted in Inside Real Estate
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