By the time you read this, I am sure you have read about what is happening worldwide with pending war. It appears that our own Government is provoking conflicts all over the world and at home for no reason affecting all aspects of business including the Real Estate Industry. At home, the Department of Justice now taking up a side against the Real Estate Industry. In addition, our own government, specifically the Department of Labor and Statistics is feeding us information on inflation and employment that is clearly wrong or manipulated. If you are not asking these questions you should be, as something is going on that is out of our control and is seriously harmful to all of us no matter which side of the fence you stand on politically.
Looking at the state of the world we must ask why is the United States provoking all of these conflicts all over the world? Our media has been telling Americans that it is Russia and China and that is just propaganda so why? The only conclusion I have for this is the US Dollar. The US dollar has been the world’s reserve currency since 1944 and is now being threatened by Russia and China as they are creating alliances with nations all over the globe to start a new reserve currency. You may have heard of the BRICS nations by now, which comprise of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa and many more nations have joined this movement over the last several years. Why would our government be concerned with this you may ask, it is simple, power and dominance is the answer. As it stands today, and it is changing rapidly, if you want to buy goods globally, specifically oil, you would have to convert whatever currency you have to dollars in order buy these goods. Those countries that have to convert are at an automatic disadvantage to the US Dollar. What Russia and China are creating is a system that would require the US to convert the dollar to another currency thus devaluing the dollar and creating a threat to the Central Banking system. This possibly is an explanation that makes the most sense logically. It makes no sense to make China our enemy when we literally import just about everything from China it is like we are biting the hand that feeds us. As for Russia they need Ukraine’s resources such as their gold and precious metals to back the new currency. Our government has been keeping all this from its citizens in an effort to hide the fact that all these conflicts are over money and that doesn’t fit their narrative. Again, this is not substantiated and is just a theory based on logic and what is going on in the world today. As we all watch to see what is unfolding the average American is being choked by inflation and is not being able to save or afford to buy a house with the high interest rates caused by the high inflation.
Another attack on the Real Estate industry, specifically of late, has been the lawsuits filed by prosecutors in certain states with regards to the way Agents are compensated. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) was recently found guilty of non-disclosure of buyer’s Agent’s commissions upfront as were several large National Real Estate Franchises and Companies. This has sparked confusion and frustration in the Real Estate community. The industry has been in the process of changing the way they disclose since the settlement by creating new forms and even more confusion for the consumer. Now the Federal Department of Justice, the DOJ, has begun to look at this further as they apparently don’t like the Real Estate Industry and we can only guess why. Yes, we are witnessing the weaponization of our government against its citizens or that’s what the actions look like. We are living in very trying times in the Real Estate Industry and these disruptions to our way of doing business is furthering the decline in the industry.
To further make things seem like we are living in a bizarre world the Federal Department of Labor Statistics is putting out economic numbers that both the Stock Market and the Federal Reserve have used for decades to determine the direction of the economy. These numbers have been indicating that inflation is under control or is at least cooling down, but what they are not telling you is that those numbers take out Food and Energy inflation, both of which we know have been going up consistently. People are feeling this in their everyday lives and have taken measures to keep themselves financially secure. I might say, many Americans are steaming mad as their ability to save and live a happy life has diminished with these economic times. In the mortgage business, persistent high interest rates have taken the majority of people out of the real estate market as they simply can’t afford a $3,500-$5,000 mortgage payment as they would need to show $10,000-$15,000 in monthly income to qualify for those payments and those payments equate to a starter home in California of $500,000-$650,000. This economy is not sustainable.
To conclude, I have been in the Mortgage / Real Estate Business for 40 years now and I have never seen the business as slow as it is now. I have seen the Stock Market crash of 1987, 2008-2009, and the pandemic crash of 2020 but what we are experiencing now is far worse and has been lasting for a more sustained time and no relief in sight. This Real Estate market and high interest rates have been declining since 2022 and with war on the horizon and more misinformation being fed to us daily, I don’t see an end. I like to be a realist in life and a logical thinker, however, I have only seen negatives and nothing on the table to fix the situation. I see both political parties as compromised as well as our banking system and with more bank failures on the horizon due to bad commercial loans this is going to take a bit to get through and I pray that we all come out of this as better humans and realize that we are all better united as divided we will fall.