The cost of anything in a free and competitive market is driven by demand. Demand is increased by affordability, ie,lower interest rates(lower monthly payment) and job security(buyers perceived health of the economy).

Don’t blame the real estate agent for trying to make a home affordable for a buyer DarkStar. If it were your home and you bought it when the market was up, now you need to sell it, trying to just break even or reduce your loss. in a down market, you and the new buyer would both be served well. When looked at in today’s up market, it looks like ‘driving up the price of a home’.

What’s more interesting about your comment is the question of whether there should be income tax deductions on home mortgages and expenses, or at least limited say to first time home buyers to give them an entry level advantage. I like that thought.

Thanks for the clarification. I agree that ad hominem attacks aren’t a substitute for argument—which is something that’s in pitifully short supply these days.

Cordially,

Adrian

Instead, I told her the maximum range I was willing to go. It was slightly more than 2 times my salary.

When I sold that house, the buyers brought the house at 3 times their combined salary. For grins, I checked the online tax records. The house was foreclosed.

People look at the cost of the home and then say it is too much. The real estate agent then says, “Don’t forget that you can increase the number of deductions you take because of the mortgage interest you pay and the property taxes. That increases your income and the house becomes affordable.”

If that didn’t happen, less people would be able to afford the house at the inflated price. The market would then adjust.

I’ve said quite a number of times that it is wrong. Along with that, i say that it should also be considered wrong to call whites who agree with Blacks, “guilty white liberals.”

Let me add for clarification that the “you” in my remarks about needing to argue wasn’t you, DarStar, but the general you—I was thinking about people who call LB, Condi, etc. race-traitors instead of showing why they are wrong (if they are). I wasn’t including you among those people, just asking your opinion about them.

A.

I’m not patronizing. I’m frustrated, because you won’t answer a simple yes or no question: yes or no, is it right or wrong to call black conservatives/republicans race traitors?

Adrian

Helping to inflate the price of homes, helping to keep some people out of homes, especially if they live in certain areas.

How is that not “group-think”?

If it’s group-think then start calling it group-think to attack whites by calling them guilty white liberals because they agree with Blacks.

If black conservatives are wrong, you’ve got to prove that they are with arguments, not baselessly attack their motives.

I’ve argued the same point and I’ve spent some time doing so as well as doing so when I disagree with “Black liberals.”

So, stop the patronizing.

Is it equally sad when support is based on handouts because you own a farm or want to open a Hooters on a boat or advertise overseas with the government’s money or maintain tax deductions for home loans, or…

“I don’t toe the party line on issues, but don’t get called a race-traitor.”

I’m glad to hear that, but, with all due respect, you’re evading the issue.

You know which party-line I’m talking about. Close to 90% of blacks vote Democrat. Those who vote Republican are liable to be called “race traitors.”

How is that not “group-think”? How is calling black Republicans “race-traitors” not name-calling replacing argumentation?

If black conservatives are wrong, you’ve got to prove that they are with arguments, not baselessly attack their motives.

The first step towards overcoming a position you disagree with is to understand it—to understand it so well that you can give a stronger statement of it than even its proponents can. Only when you do that can you actually answer the opposing position, rather than just knock down a straw man.

Cordially,

Adrian