Quote Originally Posted by adillenal
South Texas Sun- I for one certainly remember the late 80's and the oil bust. Not a pretty picture.
I worry about a repeat which can easily happen. I guess the older I get the more conservative I am becoming concerning economics.
BUT I love my pool and am very gald we built it but am also glad it has no connection with my mortgage. (Only have one)
Hi Adillenal, I'm glad we're building our pool too and although it's pretty nice, we're still working within a budget.

If I had to choose between no pool and one that I couldn't afford, I'd get out there in a kiddie pool if I had to!

It's funny. I had a very similar discussion to this with our pool builder. He said that he was having trouble getting financing for some of his customers because they had minor credit problems and wanted a home-equity-based loan. His pools are beautiful, but not real cheap.

He (the PB) pines for the simple days of building fiberglass pools, which he said were really just as good as gunite pools and seemed to last longer than liner pools, but still weren't too expensive to "build" or upkeep.

I think I'd go for fiberglass if I were financing, but find a PB whose price was commensurate with the lower installation cost. (in other words, spend 20-25k, but not 40k in equity!)

In the beginning of our project, I got quotes from PB's that were all over the map, obviously intending to take advantage of homeowners' ignorance of what a pool should cost and the corners that could be cut in the process. We were also offered loan packages that obviously put loan "points" into the PB's pocket. It's a real battlezone out there for the unwary homeowner.

But we decided against financing, opting to pay for a nice IG pool, because we had been shopping for homes where the pool was the deciding factor AGAINST buying the place. It would invariably be low quality or need repair. Too small or built into a landfill that had been "slabbed" over and the slab was cracking.....and on and on.

We wanted a pool that would add value to the overall home, and I think we're getting it. We're nearly done and although July 4th isn't going to find us swimming, our PB assures us that we will be by the middle of July. I told him, "if we weren't, he would be, and without water!"....lol.

I don't know if you watch the "Accuweather.com" climate forecasts on the nightly news, but they're talking about 1930's "dust bowl' drought conditions for our midwest plains, possibly for a decade or more. Shades of depression era, eh?