Life During a Recession Has Benefits
没有什么像经济衰退这样如此能拉动物价的下跌。去年我们在新泽西买房子的时候，验房师告诉我们，屋子前面那棵高大的白蜡树已经开始朽烂了。于是，在谈妥购房合同之前，我们先联系了砍树服务公司，并接到了两家公司的报价。我们预计，这一项大概需要花上4,000美元。大错特错。其中一家公司开价5,600元。不过老板警告我们说，树砍倒之后会留下一大堆锯末，我们还得再找一位园艺师，把这些东西挪掉，填上泥土。另一家公司的开价则是8,800元。这就是花园之州（新泽西州的别名──译注）给我们的一个见面礼。我们把砍树的事缓了缓。上个月，我们决定还是赶紧把树砍了，于是又找几家公司要了报价。我们估计，加上请园艺师的开销，我们得掏大约6000美元。这回又错了。有一家公司开价4500元，另一家开价3300元。便宜的那家还表示，他们会在砍完树后把锯末清除，填上泥土，这样我们也不需要另找园艺师了。那位老板还主动提出，帮我们除掉院子里另外两棵树上缠绕的常春藤──无需额外付费。还有这等好事儿啊。我立马拍了板。周三，他的员工开始来砍树。这可不是什么简单的活儿。那棵白蜡树树根直径大约有六英尺，树枝紧挨着主要输电线缆。他们在砍树时动用了一个升降桶和一台吊车，还有一辆大型拖斗车。在我所居住的这个小镇，还有其他一些地方也可以看出经济正在降温。镇火车站旁边有一家超市，晚上我回家时可以在这里捎上点东西，确实是非常地方便。可惜这里的东西价格很贵。所以我要大宗采购时都是去离家两英里远的另外一家超市。火车站旁边那家超市对我来说更像是一个大型的便利店。就在上星期，我回家时去车站旁的超市采购了一些东西。似乎超市里促销的商品是越来越多了。比如，花5美元就能买到两包一磅装的培根。我问一位收银员是不是现在促销的商品比原先多了，他说也许是吧，然后赶忙低头继续结账。现在我们再来看看真正花钱的地方：房子。我家这一带的房价不像加利福尼亚和佛罗里达那样急剧下挫，不过价格也已经松动了。本专栏的忠实读者也许还记得，去年我和妻子打算在我们现在住的这个社区花66万美元购置一栋房子。我们签了合同，交给律师审核时，另一个买家开出了更高的价格。房主弃我们而去，跟那位买家签了约，在新泽西，这是完全合法的。我们的律师问我们：“你们觉得还有戏吗？”九月初，我们买下了现在这栋房子，价格是58万5千元。后来我们听说为前一处房子开出高价的那位买主想要房东补偿他几千美元，最后双方不欢而散。房子又回到了地产市场，而此时的房价已经下跌，房东只好不断地调低价格。如今房子的挂牌价是59万9千元，比六个月前我们同意支付的价格整整低了6万1千元。我也许该小小地窃喜上一番，不过还是有一点不爽：我们后来买下的那栋房子的价格也差不多跌了这么多了。Neal Templin相关阅读晒晒自己省小钱吃大亏的倒霉事 2009-02-02那些拣芝麻丢西瓜的糗事 2009-01-19消费者青睐小型车 豪华车商望路兴叹 2009-02-17
Nothing like a recession to bring prices down.When we bought our house in New Jersey last year, the home inspector told us that the towering ash tree in front was rotting. So, before closing on the house, we got a couple of bids to remove it. We figured it would cost $4,000 or so.Wrong.One tree service bid $5,600. But its owner warned we'd be left with a huge pile of tree grindings when we got done. So we'd need to hire a landscaper to remove that and to replace it with dirt. The other bid came in at $8,800. Welcome to the Garden State.We put the tree on the back burner for a bit. Last month, we decided to go ahead with the job and asked some other tree services for bids. We figured we'd be out $6,000 or so, once we paid for the landscaper.Wrong again.One service bid $4,500. Another offered to do it for $3,300. The cheaper bid includes removing the grindings and replacing them with dirt, so we won't need to hire a landscaper. He also offered to cut the ivy that was choking two other trees in our yard -- for no extra charge.I had heard enough. I hired him.His crew began taking the tree down Wednesday. It isn't a simple job. The ash tree is about six feet across at the base, and its branches are right next to major power lines. The service is using an elevated bucket and a crane, and a chip truck to grind everything up.There are other signs in my bucolic town that the economy is cooling. We have a supermarket right near the train station. That makes it terribly convenient if I need to grab something on my way home at night.The bad news is that it's expensive. So I do the bulk of our shopping in another supermarket a couple of miles from the house. I treat the one near the train station more like a giant convenience store.This past week, I picked up a few items at the train-station supermarket on the way home. It seemed to me there was more stuff on sale. For example, you could get two one-pound packages of bacon for $5.I asked a clerk if there were more specials. He allowed that might be the case, and quickly returned to ringing items up.Now let's talk about real money: real estate.Unlike in California or Florida, housing prices haven't gone off a cliff yet in my area. But things are softening.Regular readers of this column might remember my wife and I tried to buy another house last year in the same community for $660,000. But after we signed a contract and the house was in attorney review, another buyer came along with a higher bid. The seller, as is legal in New Jersey, dumped us and took the higher bid.Our attorney asked us, 'Are you having fun yet?'We bought the house we're living in now for $585,000 in early September.We later heard that the higher bidder on that first house wanted thousands of dollars of repairs, and the deal collapsed. The house went back on a weakening market, and the seller has been forced to keep lowering the price. It's currently being listed at $599,000, $61,000 less than we agreed to pay for it six months ago.I might take some small measure of satisfaction, except for this: The value of the house we did buy has almost surely gone down about as much.Neal Templin
Nothing like a recession to bring prices down.When we bought our house in New Jersey last year, the home inspector told us that the towering ash tree in front was rotting. So, before closing on the house, we got a couple of bids to remove it. We figured it would cost $4,000 or so.Wrong.One tree service bid $5,600. But its owner warned we'd be left with a huge pile of tree grindings when we got done. So we'd need to hire a landscaper to remove that and to replace it with dirt. The other bid came in at $8,800. Welcome to the Garden State.We put the tree on the back burner for a bit. Last month, we decided to go ahead with the job and asked some other tree services for bids. We figured we'd be out $6,000 or so, once we paid for the landscaper.Wrong again.One service bid $4,500. Another offered to do it for $3,300. The cheaper bid includes removing the grindings and replacing them with dirt, so we won't need to hire a landscaper. He also offered to cut the ivy that was choking two other trees in our yard -- for no extra charge.I had heard enough. I hired him.His crew began taking the tree down Wednesday. It isn't a simple job. The ash tree is about six feet across at the base, and its branches are right next to major power lines. The service is using an elevated bucket and a crane, and a chip truck to grind everything up.There are other signs in my bucolic town that the economy is cooling. We have a supermarket right near the train station. That makes it terribly convenient if I need to grab something on my way home at night.The bad news is that it's expensive. So I do the bulk of our shopping in another supermarket a couple of miles from the house. I treat the one near the train station more like a giant convenience store.This past week, I picked up a few items at the train-station supermarket on the way home. It seemed to me there was more stuff on sale. For example, you could get two one-pound packages of bacon for $5.I asked a clerk if there were more specials. He allowed that might be the case, and quickly returned to ringing items up.Now let's talk about real money: real estate.Unlike in California or Florida, housing prices haven't gone off a cliff yet in my area. But things are softening.Regular readers of this column might remember my wife and I tried to buy another house last year in the same community for $660,000. But after we signed a contract and the house was in attorney review, another buyer came along with a higher bid. The seller, as is legal in New Jersey, dumped us and took the higher bid.Our attorney asked us, 'Are you having fun yet?'We bought the house we're living in now for $585,000 in early September.We later heard that the higher bidder on that first house wanted thousands of dollars of repairs, and the deal collapsed. The house went back on a weakening market, and the seller has been forced to keep lowering the price. It's currently being listed at $599,000, $61,000 less than we agreed to pay for it six months ago.I might take some small measure of satisfaction, except for this: The value of the house we did buy has almost surely gone down about as much.Neal Templin