Bye Bye Banks and Wall Street

[wendybeth]

The more immediate impact on the public is already happening: no money to lend = no home sales or opportunities to purchase bargains, unless you have a substantial amount of cash reserve and/or someone willing to go private contract. Home equity has plummeted, especially in the markets that were most inflated; here in Spokane home values did not rise as rapidly or as high as elsewhere, so we are still sitting pretty good in that area. Our home is still worth what it was last year, and we haven't tapped into the equity very much so we have some wiggle room. We also locked into a 5.5% rate two or so years ago, so we're off that ARM that could have cost us a fortune. We don't have a lot of stock, but we also don't have a lot of debt- I'm with everyone else that lives paycheck to paycheck. In the long run we won't feel the hurt as bad as some. (I hope).