So this is my website about stuff I think is interesting. It ignores all the advice given by the countless sources who encourage bloggers to stick to a single topic, like we’re supposed to strive to be that one boring guy at the party who just won’t shut up about the intricacies of contract law. Clearly, the best way to attract a steady base of readers who share your interest in lawn furniture, cubicle decorating, or the Kingdom of God is to write exclusively about that single topic and nothing else. This technique, as a side note, is also crucial to boosting your targeted ad revenue (for instance, look a few inches to your left—on this website, they have a hard time figuring out whether we’re talking about brain tumors or seeking Sikh singles by the sea shore).

I think, though, that I might start tossing another topic into the mix. Since I don’t travel much these days on account of having a real job, and you don’t really care about how cute my dog is (or do you?), and I don’t have time to post multiple times daily about the latest indictments on Capitol Hill and how stupid that other blogger is for not crediting my post when I totally had my link to the AP article up like 12 minutes before he did, I might occasionally muse about the cost of owning your own home these days. I will tread carefully, because my job revolves around this very issue, and I certainly don’t want to raise anyone’s hackles by mentioning anything that might be considered even remotely proprietary. Nonetheless, it is widely known these days that housing prices have been shooting through the roof for a couple of years now. As I finally find myself in the kind of economic space where I might consider buying one of my own—you know, nothing fancy, just four walls and a small patch of grass for the ol’ hound—my jaw drops at the lack of possibilities. In this town, anything under $400,000 is a one-room condo or in a part of town where you don’t feel comfortable outside at night. I was reading in the Washington Post today about efforts to implement an affordable housing program for households who earn less than $90,000 a year, because they find it increasingly difficult to afford house payments. Where I’m from, a little town with heart in the heart of a big country, $90,000 a year is a pretty nice living, and half a million dollars at least buys a McMansion these days.

You can read the article here. For the record, I know that the housing prices cannot directly be attributed to the incompetence of the current administration, nor even to Alan Greenspan, though the historically low interest rates under his Fed chairmanship have certainly led directly to the current situation. They probably propped up the economy more than we care to realize when the tech bubble burst, but easy money has now created its own monster: an asset bubble.

This is no ordinary asset, either. This is the asset that constitutes the majority of the wealth for many of the 70% of Americans who own their own homes. Widespread home ownership, by granting a large majority of citizens a stake in the economic health of the country and their local communities, plays an enormous role in stabilizing the American economy. Just take a look around the projects, or look at the crime rates in neighborhoods where many people own their homes compared to adjacent neighborhoods where most people rent. A vested interested in the health of one’s community does more than all the bake sales in the world.

The housing bubble, if we may call it that, is not endemic to this country. Australia and Britain, among others, have already cooled sharply, but most of Europe is heading straight for the same cliff at the same breakneck pace we are, even if they do know more about cheese. And when we reach that cliff—at least the sheer vertical precipices in southern California, Florida, Las Vegas, and the other superheated markets—those caught holding the bag will have little choice but to drop it like a hot potato. I’m less worried about the investors and flippers who will get burned than about the families of four who got into bidding wars to take a shack for half a mil before it became a mil.

I care about your dog. More pictures please!