Solving the US housing market situation

OK! So your $290,000 house has been estimated to be really worth $145,000. Shocker! You try to sell it, but will never make up the difference. Your credit goes bad, you cannot find a new lender, it's time to lease a house or even look into an apartment. Ah! The infamous housing bubble. Instead of just sitting and waiting out the market or some miracle mortgage bailout, here are 3 extreme alternatives to take into consideration.

1. COMMUNAL LIVING. It was used throughout history from the Dark Ages to the Middle Ages and beyond. In fact during the Middle Ages, the rich Baron or castle owner (our representatives, sports stars, celebrities and CEOS today) would have the peons live outside the castle in their own communities. When danger reared its ugly head, they could find shelter in the castle. Then it was back to gleaning the fields.

Communal living is better explained to be many people or families whose day to day lives are intertwined with responsibilities and commitments to the community. Some will cook, some will clean, some will build, some will tend to the children, some will gather, some will remove the refuse, and some will keep order. A peace loving community was seen as utopia during the 60s. The independence of the 70s and the personal greed of the 80s has laughed at those ideals. Now as we sit on the precipice of the largest correction in our nation's (and maybe the world's) history, it may not be all that outdated an idea.

Unfortunately Communal Living has developed a bad rap over our not so distant past with these examples:

1. Jimmy Jones and Jonestown Kool-aid

2. Manson Family

3. Waco ATF debacle

4. Polygamist child interventions

Ok! There is a difference between a life style choice and religious conviction. But all in all, communal living is no different than when you would find 4 generations living together under the same roof during the last Great Depression. truly there is strength in numbers.

2. THE LAW of DEPRECIATION

You buy a car and unless you hold on to it until it becomes a collector's dream or classic, it will depreciate in value. Why doesn't the same apply to homes? Let's set aside an argument about the value of land in a world with exploding population growth and focus on the house. The home owner can make repairs, add additions and stay on top of its upkeep, but at some point it will start to deteriorate. Plumbing, paint, mold, roofing, foundation or attic problems will devalue a house. But, says the market, a house will appreciate in value double every 10 years. Sounds good in theory, if our income did the same.

While we are in this major national financial correction, why not depreciate houses? Mortgages must reduce over time as the value of the house slides after 10, 20 or 30 years. Your don't pay the same price (or high insurance rates) today for an old beat up 1976 Gremlin as you would for a 2010 Cadillac. Why pay more for a house that is 60 years older than a comparably sized new one? The land? The investment? The neighborhood? The schools? The location, location, location? It's time to add back in the depreciation factor.

3. THE NATIVE AMERICAN/TRIBAL NOMAD

We don't own the land.

We borrow from the land.

Take only what we need.

Leave no scar on the land when you leave.

Well! If you have picked yourself up off the floor from laughing because you just got back from IKEA and the idea of leaving the comfort of your couch and $120 a month cable bill is just insane, I suggest that you step outside and try this experiment. You must stay away from your house for 6 - 10 hours. No car. No cellphone. Just you and what you immediately have with you right now. Could you do it? Probably not. Most people can't. Not because we have all become so civilized that we don't need to exert ourselves in such a fashion, it is because we are no longer geared to doing this. The experiment is less a lesson on comfort and complacency as it is on our evolution as a people. Fast food, disposable relationships, digital social networking; we are not the same people of 40, 60, 70 years ago. And with a coming correction in the economy, maybe we are going to have to gear ourselves (or at least our mindset) back to that time. We will probably not revert to a race of people following some buffalo herd for our very existence, but we may learn the value of taking only what we need.

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