Grabbing the Cheerios

JChristian commented on this entry about bidding wars.

... these bidding wars are definitely interesting to hear about against the backdrop of the overall slide. I think you gave the right advice, even if it means having to cut budding emotional attachments to prospective homes several times before finally managing to buy one. If I walk into the store looking to buy Cheerios, and I reach for a box, only to have several other people appear grabbing at that box, saying "that's the one I wanted!" and pulling out a dollar more is probably not a good idea.

This is a silly example, since Cheerios are a “perfect” commodity (meaning there are lots of boxes that are all the same.) However, boxes of Cheerios (or some other cereal – I’m not picking on that brand) are not all the same. Food packaging has changed; the volume is decreasing while the price stays the same. So, you may be getting less than you got six months ago.

All of us here on this real estate blog are having discussions that only affluent people are having. We are talking about buying and selling real estate. We rarely even talk about high rental prices. We never discuss that there are people who budget to put food on the table. And some that don't manage that. Food and gas prices are beyond the means of more and more people in our (affluent) country.

My in-laws are working-class people. They rarely had money to spare. In the lean times they did without home repairs, new clothes, entertainment, travel and such. They had an expression for the times when they could afford to repaint the walls or take a vacation: “We are poor at a higher level.”

Does living in Massachusetts make you poor at a high level? Do your financial woes come from housing costs, or are there other pressures on living here? Have you changed your lifestyle because of gas prices, heating prices, food prices?