Here’s one area where Rich deserves alot of credit and which I have heard no one mention. Rich said the speculation was much higher than the 18% stat for SD that came out a few weeks ago. He postulated that people buying primary residences with risky financing in hopes of future gains were speculating.
I heard from a colleague, the Anderson folks said that prices were fine until late 2003 and then got wacky. They atributed the gains of 2004 and beyond to speculation. Those who have been on this board a while may have heard me saw that things made sense to me until 2004 began and that I thought that’s where we had to go back to. So now you’ve heard it from 3 sources of varying credibility. I think prices will go back to Fall 2003 levels plus 5 to 10% for more reasonable appreciation. In my area that would be about 20% off current levels.
