A Build-Drag on the Economy

7.5 million Americans spending more than half their income on mortgages.

Aside from the fact that it's hard to spend money on the rest of the economy when half your income is tied up in housing, there is the wealth effect on spending pattern: when the housing price was going up the increase in paper wealth caused people to splurge.

All skates, in reverse.

This suggests, of course, that there is a large captive audience for discount goods, and one could conceivable benefit by investing accordingly*. This also recapitulates my observation that for a some people, home ownership is a form of enserfdom because they are semi-voluntarily tied to a plot of land...

*Disclosure: my -13% YTD 401k performance should give you a sense how worthwhile my stock tips are.