It’s cold pretty much everywhere in North America – it’s even pretty cold here in Tampa, FL (if you can say that temperatures in the 60s are cold!).

Clearly, winter is finally upon us… both seasonally, and economically.

Harry has talked about this economic winter season for many years. It’s a period we’re currently in, despite the Fed’s useless attempts to keep us out of it. They’ll just never learn that you can’t mess with Mother Nature!

According to Harry, we still have a few more years until our economic winter is over. That’s why Harry rents his home here in Tampa.

And that’s why, like Harry, I’ve been renting for the last few years as well. I don’t know about him, but I’m getting tired of renting, not to mention that rent costs have been climbing sharply! So, a couple weeks ago, I started looking to buy a house. I’m in no rush to buy anything because I don’t think interest rates are going up anytime soon. But these current property prices are just crazy.

Sure, they seem to have stabilized a bit in my area – they’re not going up as fast as they were a few short months ago – but they’re still a hard pill to swallow. In fact, I asked a close friend in the area who bought three years ago and is looking to sell soon how much his home has appreciated. He told me that he is looking for a 30% gain! Not bad, even compared to the stock market.

Sure, real estate is mainly driven by local factors, something that’s very true in Tampa. Personally, though, I don’t care about school districts or living in the suburbs; I want to live where the action is! My kids are grown and I want to be near decent restaurants, fun things to do, friends and my work. No commuting, thank you!

Don’t get me wrong: I have nothing against the suburbs. I lived in one or another for most of my life. In fact, housing prices in the suburbs, at least now, are more attractive than in the city. The suburbs of Tampa were hit really hard by the downturn back in 2006, whereas the city wasn’t hit nearly as hard. According to Zillow.com, the Tampa suburb I lived in suffered more than a 40% decline in value from 2006 to the bottom in 2011, and is still down about 23%.