[Novus]

Quick go vote on CNN. These polls don't last long so you can here if it is too late.

Results for posterity:

[mos6507]

I WANT home depreciation, so I can afford to buy one.

[Tanada]

The gasoline supply effects the entire economy, whereas the housing bubble effects just one large portion of it. Therefore on ballance Gasoline supply is more of a problem than the housing bubble.

[paimei01]

What people think and what people do, and what they will do in a year from now.
Nothing else is so important, if the world would be full of Zen masters it would not matter how much oil there is left.

[jato]

Home Depreciation.

Most people are upside down, can’t refinance and spend their home equity into the market. Many people will foreclose and remove themselves from the housing market due to bad credit ratings. Bad news for the economy.

Oil prices can still go much higher before they reflect the price the UK pays for fuel.

[heroineworshipper]

UK has decent public transportation & suburban jobs. In the name of outsourcing, most jobs in US R now based on urban location, location, location & there's no public transportation.

[dorlomin]

The UKs high petrol prices are due to tax. That means the money stays in the UK economy employing nurses and paying the unemployed, not sent to Saudi or Russia.

The higher oil goes the weaker the dollar gets the higher oil goes, until people can no longer afford oil and stop buying it.

Currently though dollars are comming back into the US economy to buy equities. So the US is swapping its banks and software houses for oil.

[FoolYap]

Gas prices.

Home prices depreciating mean nothing unless you're forced to sell. So long as you can afford to pay your mortgage, and don't need to sell, it may be damned inconvenient and unpleasant to stare at your negative equity, but so what? You still have a place to live.

Home prices depreciating also mean nothing to those who are currently renting. (Unless they were hoping for prices to fall, and then it is a good thing for them.)

Whereas when gas/diesel prices keep rising, they have a ripple effect on the price of most everything we buy. I can carpool, or trade to a smaller / more efficient car, or (if I have it) take public transportation, etc. But the food that I buy can't do that. Postage to deliver stuff to my house goes up in price. Everything I buy that is either made from oil, or is transported long distances, goes up in price -- and that's virtually everything these days.

--Steve

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'I') WANT home depreciation, so I can afford to buy one.

[yesplease]

IMO, people mistook the increase in asset prices due to the printing presses running at full throttle as some huge shift in housing value, and from that we have our bubble. That being said, since the dollar dropped so much, housing prices are more or less in line with historic values give or take 20-30%, and I suppose at this point it doesn't matter which (Why not both?) goes down to make up the difference. Now people seem to be going into gold/oil for security, but they don't call it pump and dump for no good reason.

[dorlomin]

I think that oil is probibly quite overvalued at the moment. The growth in oil has come from China which is now having heavy inflation problems. The last time oil hit $100 the Chinese forced the refinaries to hold down prices, this nearly drove them out of bussiness. They cant hold back on the cost forever, so the cost of doing bussiness is going to go up in China, and the markets for there finished goods in America are going to go down.

I also think most people dont relise how thin the margins Chinese manufacturers work on.

Edited to add this link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7286911.stm

China is not selling as much.

[paimei01]

One day the Chinese will regret the time when they only had bicycles

[dorlomin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dorlomin', 'I') think that oil is probibly quite overvalued at the moment. The growth in oil has come from China which is now having heavy inflation problems. The last time oil hit $100 the Chinese forced the refinaries to hold down prices, this nearly drove them out of bussiness. They cant hold back on the cost forever, so the cost of doing bussiness is going to go up in China, and the markets for there finished goods in America are going to go down.

I also think most people dont relise how thin the margins Chinese manufacturers work on.

Edited to add this link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7286911.stm

China is not selling as much.

[Tyler_JC]

I don't own a house and I rarely drive. Neither hurts me directly.

Indirectly the economy is harmed by house depreciation and high gasoline prices, thus affecting my ability to find a job but the direct impact is somewhat limited.

[emersonbiggins]

Perhaps the homeowning portion of the 69% that voted for "gas prices" still think that their home is increasing in value?

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', 'P')erhaps the homeowning portion of the 69% that voted for "gas prices" still think that their home is increasing in value?

[jato]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'E')ven if you have to move and your house has declined in value, the new house you'll be moving into has also declined in value. The net effect could be a wash.