I salute the realtor in my old San Diego new home community who, over the course of 2 years, bought and sold 5 new homes, lived in each for a few months, and then sold them at a profit to young families. I also salute the brave new home employee down the street who cut to the front of the pack via an internal program that allowed employees to buy before families and the other 120 people waiting in line. With undaunted courage, he paid 525k, and sold 18 months later for 850k. the true hero though is my next door neighbor who never furnished his house, missed the peak, and tried to sell for 2 years. He dropped his price 150k and still couldn’t sell. Suddenly though, out of nowhere, it appeared ‘sold’ in the MLS at the full list price! Whether he funnelled 150k back to the buyer, we will never know, and for this reason he is our real hero. Lastly, I salute all of the people who bought in the later phases, paid 7-800k for their homes, but still managed to put in 100k yards. Those overpriced palm trees and cracking stucco retaining walls have never looked nicer, especially with the for sale signs lingering in the yards. I salute all of these heros, and feel no remorse for the fact that their actions have resulted in a housing market so out of whack that it denies returning Iraq vets, even colonels, the opportunity to buy a home near Miramar or Pendleton. Why don’t we use taxpayer money to bail out these investors so that we can keep prices artificially high!