The house across the road from us went to auction today. It's a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, about 1700 square feet, on 6.67 acres. It is a cosmetic fixer-upper--no gross mechanical problems. It shares a well, and is on septic, and has a large workshop that is quite high inside (enough for an RV) along with a 2 1/2 car garage. The views aren't quite as nice as mine, but still pretty nice.
The minimum bid was $50,000, so I showed up for the auction, on the off chance that no one showed. But there were several bidders. The neighbors and I were standing around, guessing what it would fetch. When times were good, it sold for about $180,000. I thought perhaps $150,000. Someone else thought $125,000. The winning bid? $93,000.
Today we had a record low yield on 10 year Treasury bonds, because our government obligations are so much safer than Europe's (wow!)
Well, as long as we're the least worse place to put your money and there's enough money in the world to send to us (what could easily be the limiting factor) the Fed can keep up their zero interest rate policy.
ReplyDeleteHeck, I read on Zerohedge that the Germans recently offered some zero-coupon bonds. That's right, no interest on them, just a promise that the government will keep your money safe for the duration of the bond. Which in much of the Eurozone is more than a little attractive.