Now the commercial real estate market is going to pop. Probably already has, it’s just now being talked about. Housing has flopped already but it’s not being mentioned yet.

Not really. The traffic back then was pretty nice. Didn't have to worry about the road pirates either.

Commercial is already underwater in the big liberal cities nobody can do business in anymore. But I do think those cities will eventually take ownership of those really large properties because they are too big to ignore. Kinda like how Montgomery Mall was done with the city. The taxpayers bought the mall because the mall went out of business cause the city's policies let crime get out of control in and around the mall. The mall died and all the neighborhoods around it turned to crap within 3 years of a democrat getting elected.

Yes but working from home has killed these huge office buildings.

Same for me. It took a lot of hard work to make that happen though.

Absolutely. Commercial will never go back to those buildings. Nobody really needs that much office anymore. The cities will have to buy them and turn them into something like they did with Montgomery mall. Now its a police station, a public school, and some other city services. The damndest thing is that they put the police station in the old mall and crime went way up right around the mall.

I am paying way more for everything and have a huge decrease in my real wages compared to 4 years ago.

Rhetorically, what's the applicable definition of "better off"?

For me, I'm much better off in some ways:
Better than ever financially but that has everything to do me owning the business outright starting in 2021 and sadly getting some inheritances. I've been blessed with an abundance of work and I've been successful.
Solid financial planning also has greatly contributed.
I've grown in my relationship with Jesus.

I'm far worse off in many other ways:
My father in law/business partner passed away from Covid January 2021.
My mother died December 2021.
My oldest son developed epilepsy in 2020 that is medication resistant. Pot helps his seizures but it's illegal and he's been in front of a judge twice.
My middle son has some mental health issues that started 3-4 years ago and it's been very difficult to deal with.
Lots of stress.
I'm feeling my age.

So "better off" to me kinda depends on the base line of comparison. I'd certainly trade my financial increases to undo some things that is for certain.

They were crap before the mall went under. Montgomery was a crap hole way before that

Yup. It started to turn bad after I moved out. Sorry about that.

I'm better off. My net worth and bank account is way up. I left my job in 2021, I've been working part time for myself since. I'm better off but its nothing in particular I've done, The Lord has chosen to bless me.

So Andalusia, how many of us are illegal aliens?

I don't know if I'm better off or not, no one has told me yet!!!

Tough to say how many illegals are here now.....seems like the number ranges between 7 -20 million depending on who you believe since Biden took over from Trump.

Posted this as a joke but since folks answered with a more serious response that's fine with me.

My more serious response is my net worth has gone up even though I retired 3 years ago and I haven't altered my lifestyle. So I could say I am better off, however, I know that everything is more expensive and my dollar has less value now than 4 years ago and I have little confidence in our current government to do anything that would improve our country and I have great confidence they will do everything to ruin it....so there is that!

I know my grocery bill is way up. The cost of gas is way up. The dog food I feed just went up 6 bucks a bag. My retirement account is just a little higher than it was 3 years ago, even though I've been putting 15% of my Salary into it. That don't seem right. I did get a 5% raise though, so there's that.

Agreed, same with my wife and I, we’ve been very blessed.

Como esta habla ingles?

We are way better off, no thanks to our Goverment, just worked hard and saved, I retired 3 years ago, wife works part time at home and sorry one thing I will never say is wife and I, it's me and the wife..redneck as the day is long!

I am , retired and living comfortably in '22.