Then: The Housing Bubble

Now: The Car Debt Bubble?

According to a report published recently by YahooFinance, Americans are borrowing more money to buy cars than ever before. What’s worse, they are often borrowing more than the cars are worth.

Does that sound familiar?

This is what happened with housing in the years leading up to the 2008 crash.

It’s not unusual for drivers to carry some negative equity. But dealers say that an increasing number of people are showing up at their lots up to $10,000 underwater, or “upside-down,” on their trade-ins. They’re buying at still-sky-high prices and rolling debt from one car to another. “As trade-in values begin to cool, each month more and more consumers will find themselves falling from positive to negative equity,” said Ivan Drury, director of insights at auto-market researcher Edmunds. “Unless American car shoppers break their habit of buying again too soon, we’ll see the negative equity tide continue to rise.”

Another Reason Florida Rules 

I often remind my friends from New York that living there puts a significantly greater tax burden on them than living in Florida, where we have no income tax. In response, they say, “But you have higher property taxes.”

But that’s not true. As you can see from data compiled by WalletHub, Florida ranks 24th in terms of “effective real estate tax rate” (at 0.86%), whereas New York’s property taxes are more than twice as high at 1.73%.

Click here.