Two stories recently have converged to make me wonder about a couple of the biggest financial decisions people make. This morning CNBC reported that 4 of the worst cars in crash tests were Jeep and Dodge. (Chrysler/Fiat products) The reporter went on to say that in the last few years the Jeep specifically was reported as unreliable, had poor owner satisfaction, and bad crash tests BUT--sales are up 21% in the past year due to pretty design.
Last week a local builder told me about a neighborhood, in which they are building, where the smaller more energy efficient homes are not selling nearly as well as the larger less efficient but "fancier" ones. Hence his motivation to build more of the latter rather than the former. (BTW--the builder has a more efficiently built home for his personal use.)
Years ago I considered building a house but only wanted it to be on the smaller size allowed for the area. After meeting with an architect and building designer it became clear that the only way to make the project make sense on a COST PER FOOT basis was to build a multi-level house with more "cheap" square footage to average down the cost. For me the project never made sense and so it never happened.
Maybe I just don't get it OR maybe the explanation resides in another report recently showing that the sales of SPIRITS are up dramatically in the past few years. That along with the burgeoning business of marijuana and SHAZAM--it's starting to make sense;-)
You know the age old FRAM oil filter commercial--"pay me now or pay me later"--it certainly applies to housing and vehicles in today's world.
