Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> Beyond the land, tools, books, buildings, animals, seeds, etc., that we 
> homesteaders value, does anyone know a better investment than real estate?
> 

No, of course there isn't a better investmentl.  Let me make an awkward 
comparison:  if someone takes up a cottage industry making or providing 
something 
useful, then if the "industry" doesn't pan out, they at least have some 
consumable good they can use themselves.  That is, if your cottage industry 
is making 
quilts and for whatever reason you can't sell them, you can stay warm in the 
winter with them none the less. But if your cottage industry is raising 
exotic 
lizards and you can't sell them, it's a bust.  Roughly like that, if you 
invest in real estate, you at least have a house or land which is useful in 
and of 
itself.  You'd at least have a place to live.  And from experience I can tell 
you that having a place to live free and clear will make all the difference 
in the world if your posterior ever has to bump the bottom for a while.

If I had money for speculation, which I don't and don't desire to have, I'd 
invest in in real estate.    Right now it's much more profitable to invest in 
my own enterprises.

The notion that real estate will always have an appreciating value [although 
'always' is a long time] is a defendable position but only if we are talking 
about the use value.  The speculative component in *every* piece of real 
estate 
now of days carries no such guarantee nor even expectation.  It is  a lesson 
in what happens when too much money starts chasing too few goods, the price 
must per force go up.  People who only want land for it use, for example - 
homesteaders, are bidding against the speculators.  This very same principle 
applies the the pension debacle and the SS situation.  It isn't so much a 
matter of 
whether there is going to be money to meet the obligations that are 
foresworn, 
but when there is too much money trying to buy too few goods, the price must 
needs go up much as real estate has.

James