CALL FOR ACTION

Real Talk, The Napa Valley Register

Real Estate Article by Charles Bogue

President Barack Obama presented a picture of “gathering clouds and raging storms” as he took the helm in what could be the most challenging time a president has entered office in a history of 44 transitions. As he eloquently laid out the task before the nation he clearly placed the resolution of what we face not in the hands of the government but in the hands of each of us, to evaluate our actions of the past and redefine our expectations for the future.

The multiple applications of his address affect many audiences, from foreign governments to the victims and perpetrators of our economic collapse at home. It proposes a worthy exercise that we examine our role in a future of limited government entitlements and renewed commitment to personal responsibility.

Said our new president, “What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility-recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world.”

Given the current economy, the nation and world may need to wait as most Americans are confronted with dropping housing values, tight or non existent credit and rising unemployment.

Evidence of the severity of our economic condition is supported by recent market reports.
The decline in the median home price by 38 percent from December 2007 to December 2008 confirms a California real estate market at its lowest point since February 2002. Bank owned foreclosure properties make up 58 percent of the sales statewide in December 2008, up from 27 percent one year ago.

Reflected in these numbers is Obama’s assessment that “our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices.” Personal food for thought as we salvage fractured investment portfolios and seek reasonable risk opportunities in a new reality: “the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many.”

As each of us charts a new personal course within today’s economic realities, the president offers further advice that “our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed.”

Experiencing a loss of faith in our trusted financial institutions and advisors, Americans have misplaced their compass as they seek to replenish their damaged security values and covet their remaining assets.

The question posed by Mr. Obama Tuesday morning was “not whether government is too big or too small but whether it works”. Having just completed a year of cumulative stimulus and bailout programs the size of which we cannot compute, the president imposes on our government the same test we must impose on ourselves if we are to survive. “Spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day.”

The success of this effort is yet unknown but the quasi nationalization of banks, brokerage companies and even auto makers has changed the historical notion of the government as “those guys”; the suggestion that government is an entity other than ourselves is over. As government charts a new course we too must chart our own; as our president clearly stated “this is the price and the promise of citizenship.”

Charles Bogue is a Broker with Coldwell Banker Brokers of the Valley in Napa. He can be reached at phone: 258-5221 or e-mail: cbogue@cbnapavalley.com