none. Greater fools are still buying

farbet and SD Realtor, you ain’t lying! I know a guy who just picked up a 2 bed condo in a not so desirable part of town for 300K. Said his family will help him out if he needs it…

Car Dealer Tactics on the New-Home Lot
To Sell in a Slow Market, Builders Slash Prices and Offer Financing Deals

By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 8, 2007; Page A01

Won-Ki Choi and his wife Janice had their eye on the townhouse at East Market at Fair Lakes for some time. But the $536,449 price tag was much too high for them.
…….
“It’s one gimmick after another,” Baker said.

But the buyer should beware, housing experts say. The sales typically come with conditions, disclosed in the fine print, such as use of the builder’s lender. And in the case of the auctions, buyers can often negotiate the lower price or incentives even if they don’t make the decision that …..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/07/AR2007100701626.html?hpid=topnews
Immigrants with cash are buying.Iranians in La Jolla, Asians in Carmel Valley and Poway IMHO..
Its just a fact. Immigrants save a lot. They don’t purchase an item unless they can cover the cost.They hate debt.Period.
However, 2nd and 3rd generations live the American Dream- they use OPM.The article shows that only one bidder for the still overpriced house. I am not sure they(Wong T CHOI) did not do their homework here.

Quoted from the Washington Post article:

He was the only bidder.

"This is your lucky day," Jerie Wolicki, a company receptionist, told him amid applause.

The fact that he was the only bidder is very telling. This guy is a knife catcher and he'll get burned.

Lucky ? 🙂

Immigrants, money and real estate

I agree about immigrants and how they do a good job saving and pooling money in their families. Still, it is foolish to overpay in a declining real estate market. I guess they are not so smart after all. Must be nice to lose money and not care.

Too many people only look at “the monthly payment” rather than what they should really focus on:
i.e., Value for the price, total interest over the life of the loan and how much less they would pay if they simply rented for another two to four years and watched the prices drop further and further………and further.
They just have to have it, NOW and the extra $100’s of thousands of dollars that they will pay when you add it all up doesn’t mean anything to them…………it’s just about the monthly payment to them. It’s not smart (in fact, it’s the epitome of stupidity) but that’s the way it is with too many people.

Since home prices have been going up for so long, many folks look a prices that are 20% off the peak & think that they got a great bargain. So, they jump in.

It’s the psychological factor. Just as it took years for people to become “believers”, it will take years for the reverse to occur.

As the old adage goes:
“Dumb money always follow smart money”