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Even though I am waiting until the prices come back a little better than they are now, I can't believe they will return to their pre-recession value. Many were very over priced, and bordered on greed.

I up graded my 20 year old home without all the bells and whistles, and kept it within affordability in the neighborhood I live in. I also could sell it for what I have in it and it would sell right now, but I did want some sort of profit albeit, small. Yes, I had mentioned I gave up trying to think about selling it, just because I can....my plans have changed in the last month, and if I am going to place my plans on hold, I will hope for a better return on my home investment. If not, when the time comes, oh well....at least I don't have more in it than it is worth.......and yes, I will still try to sell it myself.

As for retirement money....I don't have much.....I live frugally, and still am able to enjoy the things I love to do, but I am not an extravagant person.
I get a kick out of the seminars some institutions are offering....where to place your money or how to invest, or special senior condo living areas complete with golf courses, tennis courts, and swimming pools, saunas.....I really would not live like that even if I could afford to.

I actually enjoy mowing my own lawn, & getting together with folks in my neighborhood. I don't care for the hoity toity way of living......give me an old fashion back yard BBQ, and fire pit get together.

Probably more information that you wanted ................ I am stepping down from my soap box now..... ;-)

First the inventory of homes has to go down and then prices will start to creep up (supply and demand) but I don't think that in our lifetime we will ever see them hit their previous highs.

Before the job situation improves the economy has to imporve to the point that businesses habe to start hiring again. This could take one year or more.

The crash of the stock market had me change my portfolio to a more conservative one. With interest rates on CDs and bank savings so low other than the stock market there is no place else to invest. Since March the market has gone up over 50%. After previous recessions the market always bounces back in two years.

We never lived an extravagent life style so we had nothing to change.

I will be selling my house in a year or so and even with the decline of home prices I will still come close to doubling what we paid 9 years ago. I am willing to take any reasonable offer and move to Albuquerque.

to live in a structured retirement community is living hell. Idle hands will monitor your every move and you will have no privacy. you are always looking over your shoulder to see if some nit picking do right will seek to chastise the least small infraction.

get a life!

So WilliamClark1, does this mean you already live in a structured retirement community?
If so, can you get out of it so as to live more at peace with yourself?

Will the price of homes return to their pre-recession value?
I do think home prices will eventually return to pre-recession value....but it may take longer than some retirees are willing to wait. We are using this year to freshen up and repair our home and will put it up for sale within the year. We may not get 2008 prices but we can live with it in order to move on with our lives.

Will unemployment continue to go up and up?
Unemployment rates will improve. While this recession was the worst Baby Boomers have lived through, let's face it.....even after the Great Depression we recovered!

Has this recession taught you some lessons....about where to put your retirement money.? Is the stock market to be trusted?
I have always been a conservative investor and felt guilty about it because all the financial advisers said I would lose money by not getting into riskier funds. In addition, I moved all of our personal and 401k funds to money market and stable assets on September 18th, 2008, after watching the Dow plunge on CNN.
Right now, short term bond funds are looking okay to me. I think each person needs to trust themselves more than any advisor because we know our own situation.
The stock market is not to be trusted. It is always a gamble which can result in either high yields or extreme losses.

We are also reevaluating.....but I believe we would be doing so anyway because of our developmental stage: 57 y. o. and preparing for retirement. It is interesting to me that we got into our big, beautiful property only to finally pay it off and desire to get into something more manageable in terms of maintenance and size! We worked to accumulate and now I want to eliminate all this stuff! Ironic.

Are you just sitting and waiting for things to return to the way they were?
Not at all. We are actively planning and working on steps toward financial stability and retirement. This process is very similar to previous life goals.....except we are planning to downsize instead of upsize!

If I could answer all your questions I probably would not be spending so much time on eons as I would be making millions of $ generated by my prescience.

In fact I do not know. I got out of my house and have moved to a condo which I should love, but do not. My 401K is marking time until hopefully the stock market allows it to regain the 36% that it lost in 2007 and 2008. Once there hopefully I will be able to do some of the things planned for retirement, if that does not come until I am gone hopefully it will fund the grand kids educational start.

I did not lose money in downsizing, but I did not reap the benefits hoped for. We started with nothing and are not back at that level, but we are happy that we enjoyed our lives while building towards retirement as the golden years were sadly misnamed.

It sure would be nice if the banks were made to tie the interest paid on an IRA was directly connected to what they are charging for their credit cards.

Best advice I was ever given was never trust any one or anything. The stock market is a harsh mistress and has had her way with me too many times.

peace,

Allen, Your last sentence says it all (and it's tragically funny). Here we are, thanks to medical science, living longer than our parents and grandparents, and hoping that our savings will outlast us. The more we ponder this recession and its results, the madder we are at Wall Street and the big banks. And, we helplessly watch our children and their struggles to own a home, find and keep a good job, and send their children to college. Before the recession, we were able to help them and our grandchildren. Now, it's a completely different story.

Call me an optimist but I do think that things will get better.

The stock market is and always will be, for gamblers. It may not be as risky as the slot machines at Atlantic City or the tables at Las Vegas but it can be a serious risk just the same.

House prices will probably increase- if only because of the inflated dollar. Those of us who remember the last inflationary period (back in the late 70s) will remember how quickly the price of things jumped. I still remember being a stay at home Mom living with my husband and child in an apartment in NYC and living comfortably on a salary that would qualify for food stamps today. We were also saving for the home we eventually bought a few years later.

I also remember investing money from a house sale for my Mom in a money market account at a brokerage firm in the late 1980s. At one point Mom was getting interest as high as 18% daily on the balances!

Given my age and life expectancy, I am guessing that I'll live to see the pendulum swing back at least one more time.

the level of debt bothers me. both personal and government debt. I had already learned those lessons during a oil field depression in Louisiana during the 80's. I adjusted my investments to 80% fixed and 20% stocks..and those are very conservative picks. just moved into a new small house that's paid for and have 0 dept. we can live on our social security if need be. I'm teaching both daughters to cook well and cheap at their request.

don't want to get political with this but I ran a small manufacturing business for many years and this climate would not encourage me to expand or hire. government is sucking up way too much cash and the out come of too many programs is uncertain. will health care reform cost or help small business? stuff like that.