Friday, January 04, 2008

The Military and the Housing Market Prediction

The housing crash is going to hurt everyone, but the military is going to be especially hit hard.

1. Because of frequent moves, military members are much more likely to have purchased their house in the last few years during the height of the housing bubble.

2. Because of the availability of 100% financing through VA loans, military members have less built in equity.

3. Because of the nature of the job and assignment changes, military members are under a lot more pressure to sell quickly than civilians.

Perhaps the only thing that military members have going for them is the fact that we tended to stick to traditional fixed rate loans.

Prediction: We will see several national media stories focused on military victims of the housing market in Las Vegas and Phoneix.
p.s. I think I am upsetting people at work. Several people I work with have recently bought homes, and it is amazing how uniformed they are about the market and the risks of a decline in prices. The only advice most of them got was from their relators... not exactly unbiased advice.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Yeah, you're kind of stuck. So if the government must bail people out, why not the military, who move when and where they're told, instead of the, uh, less than responsible?