I just filled up my gas tank today at $3.95 a gallon. I drive a V8 sedan that isn’t necessarily a gas guzzler, but it ain’t no Prius either. After filling up for gas, I went to the grocery store for my wife and bought maybe 12-15 items and racked up almost $90 of groceries. I wasn’t buying steak or lobster, but yogurt, produce, blueberries, your basic whole foods.

This got me thinking that if the stuff we need is rising at such a high rate whom among us is going to be buying the other stuff we don’t really need? We all know we’re in a recession, but shouldn’t pricing go down in almost all other areas of the economy thus keeping inflation at bay?

I think this is what’s going to happen and as a result, I don’t see land prices, housing prices, or other non commodity items going up in the next few quarters. If you have cash on the sidelines waiting to buy dirt, I don’t see how you can get hurt jumping in now or even 6 months from now. Where the bottom is, I don’t know until I go to a few bank auctions, but I think we are getting closer.

On a sad and scary note, I’m preparing for my first law suit with the Treasure Lake Property Owner’s Association. Our negotiations have not been fruitful, and it appears the only way for my time to be productive dealing with them is through the dreaded legal system. I will keep you posted on the process.

What if you could acquire a free and clear lot with all utilities in a gated community with three lakes, two golf courses and gorgeous serene surroundings? Well, I think most people would be interested… Now the catch– it’s located in DuBois, PA 80 miles from Pittsburgh and an hour from Penn State. Check out the video below of this community.

Treasure Lake Community

Now what if I told you this property was only $8300 financed at $80 per month? Fees were only $680 per year and taxes were only $80 per year? I think most people would want a future retirement, summer home, winter home, etc. for this amount of money right? Well, the demand for my lots have been so weak I can’t figure it out. Please help me figure out a way to sell this property… Should the price be lower?

Thanks for your help…

I was having dinner the on Saturday night with a well respected commercial banker with JP Morgan Chase. We started discussing his portfolio and how it has completely blown up. He said big private billboard developers were being forceclosed on and going into bankruptcy in Arizona. His California projects were completely in the tank and that he was literally taking back thousands of residential lots with infrastructure already in place. He had condo in Portland (he thought he’d get his money back on those) and that the market won’t level out until 2010. He stated to me that we are not near the bottom because when he starts selling his land at rock bottom prices then we will be at the bottom.

This really blew me away as I thought we were at or close to the bottom. I think the next 3-6 months are going to be ugly.