Sunday, November 23, 2008

A Wonder To Behold!

My husband and I and our four month old son moved to Arkansas WAY (okay not so way) back in 2003. We moved out here from California in the spring with a friend of ours. When we moved, the price of gas in California was about $1.60 - $1.70 per gallon and the price when we got to Arkansas was $1.45. I loved it. It was so much cheeper! Then things started to get expensive and we had a steady climb in prices for the next 5 years. We saw the price of regular unleaded gas jump to the extreme price of $4.00 a gallon and in some places it went so high as $5.00 a gallon for a short time. We saw the price of not only gas go up but everything else went up as well. Price of houses shot up to unbelievable prices. California, Florida, and many other places around the nation saw the price of small single family houses rise to more than $300,000.

Then at the height of it all when fuel prices, housing prices, food prices, and everything else skyrocketed, the bubble burst. At the very height of it all, in the middle of the summer this year, price of a single barrel of crude oil was $147 (yes that is one hundred and fourty seven dollars), and people just couldnt do it anymore. Humpty dumpty came tumbling down. Those who bought into the super high house prices couldnt afford it anymore. Their intrest rates adjusted and they could no longer pay the mortgage. They lost their houses.

Now, because of this bubble bursting, we have seen one of the fastest declines in prices since practically the great depression. The actual numbers are still pretty high but the percent of decline is steep. Percents that the experts are saying that we havent seen since that depression. Stock prices are dropping, house prices are dropping, and best of all gas prices are dropping. Today when I went to the store I saw the price at the gas station there and was absolutely amazed at the prices. Thinking about it, prices were in the $2.00 range only two weeks ago. Today the price was $1.45. The same as when we moved to Arkansas almost 6 years ago. In just about five months time we have seen the price of gas drop from the high of almost $5.00 in some places to less than $1.50 and its still dropping. WOW!! What a time we live in!! I wonder how low it will go? Will we see it drop to less than $1.20? Or will it stay where it is? I cant wait to find out!

As for me, Im just excited that it's less than $1.50 since Im going to Colorado to visit a friend for the holiday. This is going to be one CHEAP driving trip!

What are your thoughts on the recent economic developments?

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