Van Update

Well, the van passed the smog test with (very) flying colors. So, we won't be buying a new-to-us van. We'll just get the window fixed and drive it for a couple more years. I'm kind of glad. I would have actually felt really bad about a perfectly fine (almost) car being sold for parts. Now we just have the battle with the insurance company. Probably next week.

In other news, we're just watching the value of our house sinking minute-by-minute. It's likely dropped more than $80,000 now since its peak, plus we're being told to put in more like $15-20K (instead of $10K) to win the highly competitive beauty contest. All the foreclosed properties are flooding the market, bringing all the prices down. It's anticipated that it will only get worse. Oh, well. It's all funny money anyway. At least we bought six years ago and had a hefty down payment. Other people are in much worse shape. In fact, in the news last night it said that 19.8% of Portland homeowners owed more on their home than it was worth now. Ugh. We're not in danger of that, thank goodness!

Oh, well! Wherever we're moving to the housing prices are falling also, though maybe not as much in terms of dollars since the housing is so much less to begin with. We're eager to be moved out and done with this.