Effect of high gas prices

[.... callchet ....]

Mortgages affected by high gas prices. In general throughout the country.

[DeadEyeDyck]

1. I remember paying

1.95 a gal. when I bought my jeep in 03. I paid 1.39 tonight. I am not able to answer the poll since it is a non sequitur, in my case.

[MrModerate]

2. More importantly, alternative energy developments . . .

Strangled in their beds (again) by artificially low prices driven by hysteria and not fundamentals. I'd *love* to see oil at $200 a barrel for years -- then there might be a chance of driving the world away from its lethal dependence on an unsustainable energy source.

[David Ricardo]

3. Please tell me the difference between hysteria and fudamentals

I'm dying to know the difference.

Keep in mind that supply and demand are both influenced by future expectations, which I'm guessing is what your hysteria tag deals with.

[MrModerate]

5. I was specifically alluding to market manipulation . . .

In that actual consumption over the period of recent price swings ($38-~$160) has not "justified" such increases/decreases.

Fundamentals are harder. One could make the case that a barrel of oil should cost $1,000 or $10,000 -- or more -- in that it's absolutely irreplaceable and carries a potentially species-ending (and that's just us!) cost to use.

[Citizen Number 9]

4. Not much of an impact at all.

Average commute is 20 min - that's about half a gallon or up to 20 gallons for the month. The difference between $2 gas and even $5 gas is $60 for the month.

Since average mortgage payment is about $1700, that's such a small portion I opted to go with the "hardly any".

Besides, when the gas price really rises, people start carpooling or working from home or working 4 days a week or riding their bike, or taking mass transit in order to save a bit on that gas cost instead of risking their mortgage.