This Is It - Get Used To It

So the housing market bubble broke and the stock market crashed. Now folks are waiting for things to get back to where they were. I'm afraid that isn't likely - at least in the near future and here is why. For whatever reason, the markets were out of control. Housing prices were way higher than they should have been and the same is true for prices on Wall Street. Both markets are going through a correction, but that doesn't mean that prices will go back to those unreal high points. Rather a correction means that prices will drop to where they SHOULD be.

People who are waiting for the stock market to go over 10,000 are basically waiting for the market to get out of control again. In reality, the market will make adjustments and find a new level of "normal" - the correct level.

And don't expect your house price to reach $400k again when clearly that price was false. Now your house is maybe worth $250k and that is the new "normal" price. To expect more is to expect a new out of control market. If you bought that house at $400k then I'm afraid you way overpaid and you will not likely get that money back for a long time.

We must look at the economy realistically. The prices of the past were not real. The terribly low prices we now have are probably not real either. Sometime soon (hopefully) the markets will find their new "normal" and we will all have to adjust to that.