I’ve been having conversations with friends who are thinking about buying RE now and I’ve could not help but notice more threads from buyers popping up.

Am I missing something?

I Have a few questions that I like to ask people about the economy to get a better insight into their perspective.

Today I read some articles that really put those questions well so I thought I’d see how many Piggies cared to respond to the questions.

If you are buyer today, how do you reconcile your decision with:

Number 1- The fact that the unemployment rate continues soaring higher each month, that “mass lay-offs” are at record levels, and with state governments across the U.S. slashing spending to meet budget shortfalls (i.e slashing jobs) conclusively demonstrates that “official” government reports have absolutely no connection to reality.
Even if this rate of decline is now linear (i.e. falling at the same rate each month), this does not imply “stability”. Jobs are being lost in the U.S. at least as fast as during the Great Depression – if not faster. To suggest that this implies “moderation” is simply stupidity, from people who have absolutely no understanding of basic arithmetic. http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/407380-jeff-nielson/9938-u-s-mass-lay-offs-at-record-high
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That guy says 20 million by the end of the year, admittedly this seems high so let’s go with this guy at just 15 million. (Remember these are not the Gov’s BS U3 numbers that we all know are lies):
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There are now 12.5 million people officially unemployed, the Labor Department said. Most economists don’t view the official number of people unemployed as indicative of true joblessness because the statistic does not include those unemployed who have given up looking for work. Add those and the number of unemployment probably is closer to 15 million, and the jobless rate easily exceeds 10%.

In addition, there are now 8.6 million people forced to work part-time because they were unable to find or their employers would not grant them full-time work. Add those part-time workers to the unemployment rate and the percentage of people underemployment/unemployment approaches 15% — light years away from full employment. http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/03/09/u-s-economy-now-five-million-jobs-below-full-employment/
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Maybe 15 million is high too. So let’s call it 13 million for the sake of this thread. So base your answer on 13 million unemployed plus 8 million underemployed.
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Number 2- There is absolutely no comparison to be made between the current economic collapse in the U.S. and any other economic event of the last century – including the “Great Depression”. U.S. housing prices are falling more than three times as fast as during the worst of the Great Depression, while debt levels are at least ten times greater (for both individuals and governments) loadhttp://seekingalpha.com/instablog/407380-jeff-nielson/9938-u-s-mass-lay-offs-at-record-high )

(this is a two parter involving falling RE values and consumer debt)
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Number 3- Discovery Bay’s ForeclosureRadar.com compared its database of Bay Area foreclosures to MLS listings for the past 120 days and found that fewer than one-fifth of the foreclosures showed up as for-sale listings.

“Foreclosure numbers are artificially depressed,” said CEO Sean O’Toole. He puts California’s shadow inventory at about 100,000 homes. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/08/MNL516UG90.DTL
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Realtors feel free to chime in on why buyers should be discounting these things.