Best quotes of these articles. The first is about bubble psychology, the 2nd shows how dire it was. Could this happen in San Diego? Boarded up condos?
Once it was admitted that it might just be possible that real estate would not go up forever, the essential spirit of prepetuity that every bubble needs was gone. Buyers became fewer and more choosy. Houses that once sold in a week stood unsold for a year. As demand fell, prices stopped rising, then began to fall.
And, of course, all bubbles, in every commodity, whether it is land or stock or gold on tulips, always end some time. No matter how sure people are that their particular rocket will always go up and never come down, it always happens. A word to the wise
My pal Jerry P. just bought a condominium in Century City, in Beverly Hills, for 60 percent of what it sold for in 1980. Down the street from me here in the Hollywood hills, four houses have been on the market since 1981. The asking prices now are about one-third less than they were three years ago. Up and down Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, apartment houses that were converted to condos lie empty, boarded up, not one unit sold, in bankruptcy, with banks holding title.
