Partist, I find it interesting that you consider tax deductions a form of entitlement. I guess I see them as an attempt at social engineering where the gov't is trying to reward certain behaviors. (i.e. having kids (read future tax payers), donating to charity etc) I would like to see a new flat tax system but I would be against the removal of all deductions from the current system based on the fact that eliminating deductions would give the gov't more money that it would leverage to get into more debt. I don't want to make this a political debate because I don't currently agree w/ the politics of either party. Either way, we will never see a tax system that does not have deducitons or loop holes. D's and R's reward their constituents by changing the loop holes to favor their side. Politicians would loose too much power if they weren't allowed to put loop holes in tax laws. Brining this back to the original discussion, if we live in a society that is going to have a social engineered tax system that favors certain activities, I believe that having children and education are some of the activities that should be favored. There would be severe economic issues that would arise if we faced a decreasing population or a decreasing level of eduction of the population. If you want to get rid of entitlements, I'd like to start w/ getting rid of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Then we could eleminate the coorporate welfare we are doling out to AIG, GM, Citi and the others. Once that is done we could shake down the dept of defense for their waste (they may be the least efficient organization in the world). After that we would need to do something about healthcare inequality where our taxes pay for lifetime healthcare of federal and state workers but almost no private companies offer that benefit. I think our quest for elemination of entitlements should start there and not with working parents trying to find suitable daycare for their children.

Annoe wrote: " jamies, it's not 37% of half...it is 37% instead of 50% so if your DH gets $1000 at full retirement age you'd get $500, but at 62 you'd get $370...." YES. At 66 the spouse can collected 50% of the benefit. Maybe this helps, from the SSA: " A spouse receives one-half of the retired worker's full benefit unless the spouse begins collecting benefits before full retirement age. If the spouse begins collecting benefits before full retirement age, the amount of the spouse's benefit is reduced by a percentage based on the number of months before he/she reaches full retirement age. For example, based on the full retirement age of 66, if a spouse begins collecting benefits: At age 65, the benefit amount would be about 46 percent of the retired worker's full benefit; At age 64, it would be about 42 percent; At age 63, 37.5 percent; and At age 62, 35 percent. " Here is a link that might be useful: Social Security Spouse benefits percentages This post was edited by maddielee on Mon, Apr 15, 13 at 15:24

Doug - the trends you talk about in terms of decreasing buying power, shrinking middle class, etc are real and truly disconcerting. The slightly paranoid side of me made sure I purchased a home that could, if needed, be a mini homestead (enough space and the right light exposure to grow veggies and raise chickens). It's simplistic, because if the economy really does fall completely apart I can't farm my way to prosperity on a mortgaged piece of land. In my local market inventory is tight for homes at or slightly below the median because the available homes have some perceived flaw (too close to the highway, schoolyard, train tracks, busy road, other houses). Or they need significant work. Homes in good condition and good locations are quickly purchased if the price is fair. People are justifiably SO afraid of a house losing value that they are unwilling to purchase something with a flaw because they fear being unable to sell in the future. It actually makes sense, but it makes it almost impossible to sell property that is flawed - even for fire sale prices. There is excess inventory at the high end, homes in the top quartile are very slow to move and people aren't listing unless they absolutely have to. This is one reason that we decided to remodel earlier this year instead of move (it was a big remodel, moving could have been less if what we wanted was available).. Now, back to this issue of potential buyers being leery of homes with flaws ... I think that is what is holding back the sale of this house. There are probably buyers who look at it and, when they see the HOA issues, think to themselves, "Gee, even if the HOA issues are fixed, how long will this taint the value of the home? How many years until the stigma falls away? What if I had to sell in that time?" Buyers can't commit to this house on a long term basis because everything about this economy feels SO unstable right now. Is there a shortage of rental property (SFH) in your area? Because that was the other thing we looked at when we bought. I would have preferred to rent but we have a dog and SFH rentals are almost impossible to find in our area for under $3k/mo. With taxes and insurance, our 15 yr mortgage is under $2500/mo ... So, worst case we could rent this place if we had to move out and we would likely cover the mortgage with the rent (or come close to it). I wonder if renting is an option for the OP? I know it's an expensive home, but still ... It may be an option, unless the HOA forbids it.

@k8cd I’ve actually been told by two locals now that the rental market is even more insane here than the home sales. One person suggested renting out our house because apparently SFH’s in this area are hard to come by. The only way I could make that argument with my husband would be to show that it would be extremely lucrative, though, because neither of us are interested in being landlords. @elcieg Why, yes, and I’m starting with my HOA’s parks and rec committee chair position! Ha! (I really have thought about joining the board, but it would be completely self-serving, so that doesn’t seem like a wise idea.) And thank you for bringing up misophonia. Although I was aware of it, I hadn’t really taken it seriously before now. I did more reading about it today, and I definitely plan to bring it up with my physician this week.