Thinking about Education

What is the value of standard education? What is the goal in teaching a set of applied skills to the students? Are we attaching everything in hopes one thing sticks and the person runs with it? These are questions that make me wonder about the world and one day will be answered.

We often have to wonder if some of the knowledge we get from middle or high school is relevant to our survival as an adult in the real world. But once a person is conscience enough to understand the barriers that have been set or the gaps in information he/she starts to pursue greater knowledge. "The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of knowledge.” -Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich. If we make a decision to be a better version of ourselves the desire to earn greater knowledge is grand. Society may have caught on to this and develop things such as Colleges, Master Programs, And Doctoral Programs so that consumers can continue to develop their intellect.

  

Wrapping this back to a more present time. Knowing what is going on with the world around you is a form of gaining knowledge, how you choose to apply and retain that knowledge will determine how you move forward.

One thing that has changed is Mortgage rates, and they are going up! 5% man that will make you sweat especially when a year ago we were looking at 3.25% for mortgages. Zillow is a great website that collects a lot of information and allows consumers, realtors, and investors to post properties for sale. Zillow has information on home value index, negative equity and more which can be used to monitor how the market is moving with these rates increasing so much. Now most are these are estimates so you have to take it with a grain of salt. It stated that the median home listing price in the US is $216,700 and in Baltimore MD it is $116,200. With that being said we are in the lower end of the Median but Zillow anticipates a growth of 8% in the next year. But what does all these numbers and statistics really mean? It simply means that there is work to be done. Fun Fact if you include Towson and Columbia then the median goes to $263,300. Which is more than the median, saying that there is plenty of money out here. Needless to say Zillow defines the market as COLD right now. Elizabeth Weintraub described best what a Cold market meant in her article https://www.thebalance.com/hot-cold-and-neutral-real-estate-markets-1798785.

Reading the article will give you something to think about and information to digest. In the Real Estate Investing industry, investors are always cautious of when is the right time to invest a certain way! Mortgages are going up that means rent might to, with that being said depending on when construction is done on that home you are building you may want to run those comps again.

Moral of the story is stay informed, forget what you think you know and focus on what you know. Stay smart and be great.