To The Real Estate Boys; For the last few weeks my husband and I have been following the nightly news and of course the newspapers and a few magazines about Greece and their economic problems.  In 800 words or less how will the outcome affect us here in the Valley, if at all?  A short and to the point question and answer please.

Feta

Hey Feta, We both appreciate your question and while we aren’t sure we have the right answer we’ll give it a try.  It is truly a question of the times today. 

Lloyd and Larry have their personal opinions and then we heard another opinion that made good common sense yesterday from a friend.  We actually like our friend’s opinion and we’re sure you’ll understand why after reading it. 

By now you have seen what affect this situation is having on the world’s stock market, daily.  One day we have gains of 200, the next it’s down 300, up for the week then down for a week.  All we know is that the Greeks aren’t making friends with this situation and then if Greece isn’t enough along comes China and their economic woes.  

So what’s going to happen?  Lloyd and Larry are the first responders.  As we see the barrel of oil has dropped in price, but so far no real change to the cost per gallon of gas in California.  Larry tells us that while in Colorado a week ago gas was $2.50 per gal.  Here in Turlock, at best, the large box stores are priced at $2.91 while the rest of us pay from $3.01 to $3.09 per gal.  Why is California so much higher?  CARBOB and our tax per gal is what we read.  And just what is CARBOB you ask?  No it’s not a new cartoon for the grandkids called Car Bob.  Near as we can figure way back in the mid 90’s California decided we needed a special blend of gas, like a vintage wine.   Yep, California has its own vintage blend of gas.  Sorry, we’re getting way off track here.  Back on track, gas prices as we all know, have gone down considerably over the last years or so.  Barrels of oil sold for $107.00 per barrel a year ago and now 7/9/15 the cost is $52.86, a little more than half the cost.  Then why has our gas only lowered a buck?  Again, we are getting into stuff we don’t want to muck with now.  Back on track, sorry, we get a little passionate on some topics.  We find so much information and what our readers want to know what we have found out.  So, with the barrel price so low why hasn’t our per gal price gone lower?  When all this Greek thing began a few weeks ago gas dipped and then went up again. This week gas dipped.  While we all love cheaper, or less expensive gas, we’re sure you’ve read cheap gas isn’t good for our long term economy.  We’re getting too wordy so we’ll cut to the chase now.  If the Greeks default on their loans it could have a roundabout effect to the economy of the U.S.A.  Interest rates may go up; the stock market may then go down more than it already has.  It’s all speculation on our part Feta.  And now a week or so later we are fed a line that California has a shortage of gas therefore a higher price.  We could ask a plethora of questions on why only California has the shortage but that’s not the point of this article.   

Now looking at the flip side of the Greek and China situation from our friend’s point of view, he told me that the Bay area all of a sudden is buried with cash buyers.  Not enough inventories but there is a ton of foreign cash coming our way.  He feels the people with money in Greece and China will bring suitcases full of their cash to put their money in America.  It’s felt that America is still a safe haven for foreign cash.  If we have a large influx of foreign cash this could be the stimulation we’ve needed to push the U.S. economy up far enough to say we are officially out of the recession and moving upward.  The good part of this equation is that we think this is good for the economy because it’s not speculation on our parts, if you buy with cash there is no loans, DUH, therefore it strong growth not false growth like 2005 where they selling bad loans to unsuspecting buyers/investors with in turn did turn sour. 

The crisis is now over, the Greeks have made promises to the World Bank cartel and we suppose they have the $55 billion coming to pay their debt.  The stock market did go back up to new all-time highs but gas still remains short in California.  Our hope now is that the suitcases of cash being spent in the Bay Area finds a way to come over the hill to be spent in our Valley spurring on our sputtering economy. Have I rambled on enough here and confused you thoroughly? That’s a strong possibility this week! Thanks for reading on until the end however.

Visit our web site THEREALESTATEBOYS.COM