We can learn from history and we should but usually, we forget what happened in the past and we really don’t learn from it.
We all should have learned from the great recession and the housing market crash that it is best to be wealthy. The wealthy recovered from the recession but the poor did not. Large banks were bailed out but homeowners were not.
I feel fortunate that all we lost was one income and some savings. We still have our home and as soon as the local housing market turned around in 2012 I paid off the mortgage.
The worst year for us financially was 2011 and that was the year home prices and the number of home sales hit bottom.
The rest of my family wasn’t so fortunate. Some lost homes and others graduated from college during the recession and struggled to find work and pay back student loans.
Here is a snapshot of the last decade of the housing market in St. Paul. The only part of the chart that looks “normal” to me are the years 2012 and 2103. Maybe the rest of it is the new normal. I hope not because homes for sale are in short supply and are unaffordable for many.
There will be a buyers market again. Some predict it will start in 2020. The chart is a great illustration of our current market with supply going down and prices going up.
