Thanks for the comment and all the participation in this forum. I personally have benefited from the “free consultations”.
That said, let me suggest an alternative point of view. You say:
“These people are not rock stars and they haven’t agreed to trade their privacy for fame and fortune.”
I don’t see why rock stars or any other stars are entitled to any less privacy. I don’t think Angelina Jolie appreciates 10 photographers tagging behind her when she is buying clothes or something. It is certainly ok if someone *agrees* to some publicity so that it helps their movie. I don’t think that translates into them agreeing to trade all their privacy (all the time) for money. But it’s part of their life and unfortunately they have to deal with it. I would say that homeowners in “rock star” living places like San Diego, will have the same problem. There will be people like me who are fiscally conservative and who want to buy. But if I put 100K down in a 500K loan (a stretch for my 105K salary already), I’ll get a shack. We are looking for supporting analysis on when to buy and I for one appreciate ocrenters analysis. It helps me a lot. People like me are going to be analysing this stuff and reading about it. That’s the bottom-line and there’s going to be a “market” for it just like the “National Enquirer”, although I think we are “better” than the National Enquirer :-).
Re: privacy. It’s not like I published their names or anything. Actually I don’t know anything other than what I wrote in my post and am not bothered to find out either. That’s of no use to me. My motivation is to see if the market is at least turning, and following ocrenters examples in his blog, I have been looking at the Shadowridge area in Vista.
Note that it’s *quite different* for realtors and appraisers. You have access to things like social security numbers, bank account information, salaries, etc., which are sensitive. So you do need to be subject to privacy laws. But publicly available info like selling prices are fair game. In any case, it doesn’t warrant angry outbursts about “armchair analysis” etc. I do admit that my comment about hummers was gratuitous, but my point was merely that there are a number of people who have squandered their equity away. This might bring prices down faster, I don’t know (I certainly hope so).
We can disagree on what to write in a public forum in something other than an in-your-face way. It doesn’t serve any purpose. I respect your point of view, but that’s an opinion and not facts, and we are not going to come to any agreement if our premises on what is “private” are different. I have written above, why I think I haven’t violated anyones privacy.
BTW, I’d be surprised if more than a few hundred people are reading this forum (*). I consider it more as a support group for me than anything else. My point of view is so different from other people regarding house-prices that I need some forum to virtually meet some like-minded people. I don’t see anyones privacy being violated practically, even if house sale prices are assumed to be sensitive information.
(*) with all due repects to Rich of course. It’s a fine web-site and I do think more people need to read the stuff here!
