The buyers intend to completely gut the house, tear down an existing addition and put up a new one. My how things change. Today, we're only a few days in front of another presidential election. The economy, thanks to a half dozen interest rate increases in the past 18 months, is slowing. The stock market has ridden an insane roller-coaster this year, with Nasdaq well down from its high.
Oil prices are the highest they've been in a decade.
We've seen a deadly terrorist attack, coupled with a Middle East confrontation that's looking more like war every day. It has been a long time since consumers worried about how the world would affect the economy. There was a momentary pause two years ago during the Asian crisis, but the stock market and American economy continued to grow quickly. Before that, it was the Persian Gulf War. But now, says David Lereah, senior economist for the National Association of Realtors, the path isn't so clear.