Almost all of the snow in the Mohawk Valley is gone now. February is such a difficult month. I ‘m tired of the ugly brown grass and the ugly brown trees, but I really don’t want any more pretty snow to cover it. I’m tired of winter.
I took a quick drive to Oneida, NY, today, for an appointment. It was a quiet trip, just back and forth (Oneida is about 30 miles away), so I had quiet time to survey the landscape of the area. The scenery is absolutely beautiful. Route 5 flows along a low spot in the Valley, from east to west. Lilting hills sloped up on both sides. They were pretty even though they are all brown. The area is slightly flatter than that of Utica, but the sky is wide open. Today it was very cloudy, so the sky seemed to hang very low.
My thoughts wandered as I drove there and back. I have made it a habit to survey the conditions of the areas to which I travel. I especially pay attention to For Sale signs when I travel. There seemed an inordinate amount of For Sale signs along Route 5 to Oneida. I was surprised, because I do travel along this area every other month or so. Did I miss them all last time? Did the snow cover them and I hadn’t seen them? Or are people suddenly desperate to sell?
It’s no secret that Upstate New York is suffering from decades of horrible state policy. I’ve read around and learned that New York State isn’t the only state suffering from the home mortgage crisis. Nor, I am shocked to discover, are we the only country. The United Kingdom is having their own little market crisis, too.
The credit crunch has acted as a big wake up call for mortgage lenders and has resulted in many reducing the loan to value amounts on offer, according to Moneyfacts.co.uk.
However the website has also said it is not all doom and gloom for investors as the credit crunch takes its toll on the financial situation in the country.
Darren Cook, head of mortgages at Moneyfacts.co.uk, said: “I think lenders are still supporting first-time buyers, they”re possibly just being a little bit more prudent in how they advance their funds.”
There’s nothing wrong with lenders being more circumspect with first-time lenders, but it is notable when experienced homeowners have to remortgage their homes in droves. This makes the market very uneasy. It usually is a sign that people are having a hard time making ends meet.
I think a lot of the real estate/mortgage problems we are seeing come from this great push toward globalization. Governments somehow feel the need to “rule” over their “subjects” (especially in post-monarchial countries like the UK, but the US is not immune), and are trying to control the market far too much. And for us in Upstate NY, horrid policies of high taxation and over-regulation are essentially forcing people to sell their homes for better pastures.
You know when so many people are sticking For Sale signs into such beautiful properties as what I saw today, something is very wrong.
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