Not very original, but the "Florida of Bust" message on a hand-made sign certainly helped my college roommate and I hitch to Florida. We made it in 36 hours, not quite the Cortland record at the time. Tomorrow my wife and I set off driving a similar route and we'll take nearly four days to complete the trip. Talk about slowing down!
The first thing I do upon arrival at a vacation spot is pick up all the free real estate magazines. Very, very dull of me. Florida will have loads of these-- no need to worry about what to bring to the beach to read. Why I find them so fascinating is bizarre as I could be the least likely person in the country to purchase a second home. Unless, of course, I actually do find the bargain of a lifetime.
Which brings us to today's Case-Shiller housing report. This past October property values fell a more than expected 0.8 percent from October 2009, the biggest year-over-year decline since December 2009. Florida real estate has certainly been hit hard. The stock market for the most part shrugged off the bad news. Still, it's another sign that our economy remains anemic despite the enormous sums of your money spent by the government to rejuvenate the patient. In this video Shiller interprets the data as best he can.
As we begin the trip tomorrow, I'll be thinking of my parents and many aunts, uncles, and cousins who left metropolitan New York for Florida in the 1960's and 1970's. For a while, it was wonderful there-- everything new and shiny, inexpensive, safe and friendly. Not so much glitter now as many of their neighborhoods have turned seedy. But things do have a way of turning around. Eventually, and only after reaching rock bottom. So I'll keep day dreaming with my real estate magazines on the beach looking for signals, trends, and explanations.
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