I have been seeing info saying that HELOC originations are up. The pessimist in me jumped to the conclusion that people are using these to maintain lifestyle. I don't really have any way to prove it, but that was my first reaction.

Anyone know if HELOC originations are really up big?

My COL expenses are relatively low (cheap mortgage, no car payment, etc). But the "extras" are getting crazy expensive.

Spent a good amount of time today trying to book spring break travel, since Southwest released their schedule.

My son's plane ticket to Birmingham, AL is up about 20% compared to previous years. Even the alternate flight to/from Memphis was up (usually it's cheaper).

I mistakenly thought I could book something for my BF and myself since the kids will be gone.

Flights to Cabo are $800-$1000 each. Costa Rica is $1300. Caribbean flights are all $1000+. I'd looked a few weeks ago at Vancouver, but that direct flight is now gone (guess it got cut). Flights with a stop are $1000. Even Phoenix is $500+.

And I was pricing flights leaving Tuesday and coming back on Saturday.

Hotels are crazy expensive, too. La Cantera is charging $800/night that week.

I refuse to pay those kinds of prices, but there must be demand.

And they are about to do an expansion, which I'm sure will mean even higher prices when complete.

Believe it or not, there are places getting hit worse. I was in FL for the launch last weekend, and we went to the local Publix to buy groceries.

One particular item that I buy here for $5-$6 was $9.99 there. Fresh fruit was crazy expensive, as were dairy products and nuts.

Funny, though, the restaurants there haven't seemed to catch up. The two places we ate out still seemed "cheap", relatively speaking.

I noticed Amazon had a financing for 12 month option the other day. 10-30% apr

TXTransplant said:

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Dill-Ag13 said:

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Lost Pines in Bastrop used to be $300/night. It's $600/night. That was only 3 years ago. It's wild

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I saw that in my search, too. Just left me SMH.

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Sister went to lost pines and said a couple was feeding their dog in the restaurant off their plates, wtf.

Went to Wyoming but the only way we could afford to was on points with Southwest and Hilton. An older Homewood Suites in Jackson was $850 per night. The newer chic places were $1,050 per night on the low end.

Travel is the biggest head scratcher to me. Places we've been eyeing going to are up 50+%. Yet airports are still busy as ever. And I assume these hotels are staying booked as they aren't lowering rates.

TXTransplant said:

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Dill-Ag13 said:

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Lost Pines in Bastrop used to be $300/night. It's $600/night. That was only 3 years ago. It's wild

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I saw that in my search, too. Just left me SMH.

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We went to Lost Pines in early August and it was $400, plus it was a slightly upgraded room. All the online reviews I checked out (previous years) when researching stated they paid $400. It actually surprised me that rates had been flat.

AgOutsideAustin said:

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TXTransplant said:

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Dill-Ag13 said:

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Lost Pines in Bastrop used to be $300/night. It's $600/night. That was only 3 years ago. It's wild

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I saw that in my search, too. Just left me SMH.

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Sister went to lost pines and said a couple was feeding their dog in the restaurant off their plates, wtf.

Went to Wyoming but the only way we could afford to was on points with Southwest and Hilton. An older Homewood Suites in Jackson was $850 per night. The newer chic places were $1,050 per night on the low end.

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I want to know who in the H-E-double hockey sticks is paying these crazy prices for airfare and hotel rooms. When you get to $800-$1000 for a domestic/North America ticket, and $1000/night for a hotel room, that's high-end/luxury travel prices. People that can afford that are staying at Four Seasons-type properties or renting luxury houses and flying private, not slumming it at a Homewood Suites.

All I can figure is it's all getting charged and people aren't making their payments.

I just want to get this kid out of school so I don't have to travel during peak season anymore.

Jackson has always been damn high, though. I used to work in rock springs a decent bit so every once in awhile my wife would come and we'd drive to Jackson. I've stayed at that homewood suites and it was $500+ 8 years ago. We stayed on points.

htxag09 said:

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Jackson has always been damn high, though. I used to work in rock springs a decent bit so every once in awhile my wife would come and we'd drive to Jackson. I've stayed at that homewood suites and it was $500+ 8 years ago. We stayed on points.

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Yeah, I know from experience that certain destinations are just more expensive because of limited availability. There are several national parks with that issue. Which is a shame, because that should be the most affordable vacation (and that was sort of the idea behind creating national parks in the first place).

They are becoming destinations only for the super-wealthy, though.

I priced out a bunch of different Southwest flights yesterday and noticed that many of them had no Wanna Get Away fares available at all. IDK if they offered so few that they were snatched up right away or if maybe they aren't offering any at all to certain destinations.

I used to be able to always find something at that fare, even if it was a crappy flight time.

htxag09 said:

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Travel is the biggest head scratcher to me. Places we've been eyeing going to are up 50+%. Yet airports are still busy as ever. And I assume these hotels are staying booked as they aren't lowering rates.

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I was shocked at how many $500+ hotels I looked at yesterday that are already showing no availability for Spring Break.

Phoenix/Sedona was an option for us. I really like the Fairmont property in Scottsdale. Fully booked and rooms are $800+/night. There were a few others in that area that were similarly priced and also showing no availability.

TXTransplant said:

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AgOutsideAustin said:

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TXTransplant said:

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Dill-Ag13 said:

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Lost Pines in Bastrop used to be $300/night. It's $600/night. That was only 3 years ago. It's wild

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I saw that in my search, too. Just left me SMH.

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Sister went to lost pines and said a couple was feeding their dog in the restaurant off their plates, wtf.

Went to Wyoming but the only way we could afford to was on points with Southwest and Hilton. An older Homewood Suites in Jackson was $850 per night. The newer chic places were $1,050 per night on the low end.

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I want to know who in the H-E-double hockey sticks is paying these crazy prices for airfare and hotel rooms. When you get to $800-$1000 for a domestic/North America ticket, and $1000/night for a hotel room, that's high-end/luxury travel prices. People that can afford that are staying at Four Seasons-type properties or renting luxury houses and flying private, not slumming it at a Homewood Suites.

All I can figure is it's all getting charged and people aren't making their payments.

I just want to get this kid out of school so I don't have to travel during peak season anymore.

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People are doing it. We went to Santa Fe/Taos a few weeks ago and I had to "downgrade" our stay in Santa Fe to a place a bit off of the plaza because rates on the plaza were $1,200 per night. We still paid $700-800 with about .8 mile walk into town.

Taos was in the $500-600 range. I looked at other locations besides NM and this was about the most affordable thing I could find that got us out of town and achieved what we wanted to do. It was our first vacation in 3 years and probably our last nice one until we get through the current state of insanity or the world collapses.

I think those travel price jumps are the Spring Break Tax. Everything seems to double for 3 weeks in March.

I seriously don't think I could get up and go to work every day if I went three years without a vacation and didn't know when my next one was going to be.

I'm going up to 5 weeks vacation soon and was hoping to travel more once my kid is off to college. If this keeps up, I may have to rethink that plan. I go so frustrated yesterday, I gave up on a spring break trip. We want to go Sicily this summer, and I'm already cringing at what that may cost (if we can even reasonably get there).

If I can't afford to travel 3-4 times a year, I don't want to live in Houston, or even Texas. That's about the only perk of living here - being so close to a big international airport and a smaller one for domestic flights.

dummble said:

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I think those travel price jumps are the Spring Break Tax. Everything seems to double for 3 weeks in March.

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Oh definitely, but the jumps are worse this year, on top of already inflated prices.

My son always has to fly during spring break, and his ticket was up about 20% this year.

I think hotels are being used as remote work sites and, thus, there are many more people making reservations than in the past.

Has high speed wifi and luxury accommodations? Beats working in their apartment.

South Platte said:

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I'm a lol poor. No way around it, even if my net worth is much higher than anything you see in those stupid articles about what the average 50 year old has saved. I try to force a low cost of living but it's freakin' expensive to be alive these days.

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Whats your net worth?

Pro tip:

El Monte Sagrado in Taos we stay there the last 5-6 years for spring break. Get on their newsletter. They offer 30% off, one night free deals and you can get there for <$250/night. The Native American suites are cool for 2 adults and 2 small kids who can sleep in a sofa bed. They have other rooms/units that are reasonable. It is 2 minutes from the Taos square, valet parking, restaurant pool onsite, firepit, workout room, billiard room, etc. it's not 5 star but nice.

I worked with a girl back in the early 2000's that ran up 25k on a credit card without her husband knowing. She was scared to death of what her husband was going do when he found out. I left the job, so I never heard the resolution, but I'd guess if I ran into her, they are divorced.

Similar to the comment above about HELOCs, I wonder how many people are borrowing from their 401k accounts to fund their lifestyles.

I know at least 3 people who have been long-term unemployed. All three lost their jobs right before covid and then went at least a year before finding another permanent job. One still isn't really working (but her parents are very wealthy and I'm assuming give her money).

I know for a fact that two of them started pulling from their 401k. One was already taking loans from hers to pay for her kid's college before she lost her job. The other used the money to go back to school and found a new job (albeit at a pay cut and in CA, which has a much higher COL) within a few months of graduating.

Didn't covid legislation make it easier to pull money out and defer the timeline for paying these loans back?

I see lots of people posting crazy hotel prices. Does no one stay in air bnb's? Air bnb prices dont seem that expensive these days. I've always preferred air bnb's over hotels.

I've seen some good airline deals. I know Frontier sucks, but I saw one way's from Tampa to Houston for $33 dollars. But I mainly credit card churn for bonus miles, and use miles for "free" travel.

We aren't ever organized enough to book in advance in airbnbs, typically book about 6 weeks out and by then a lot of the good spots are booked