[quote=jpinpb]There’s still too many investors buying cheap places and fixing/flipping. Hard to believe, but I’m still seeing it, particularly the cash only places and places that are in need of fixing. Buy w/cash cheap, fix, sell higher but to someone qualified under FHA guidelines.[/quote]
Couldn’t agree more, jp. We are a long way from the bottom, IMHO.
One thing I was thinking about just last night, though…maybe this is part of a larger plan.
1. Hold inventory off the market, using taxpayer money to cover expenses and losses during this period, but not taking the kind of losses that would occur if all the inventory were allowed to go to market. This keeps prices elevated on a temporary basis.
2. Hype the market through the MSM and other media. Have some big names call a bottom. Hope this gets more people all worked up about the market bottoming, and they are told it will rocket back up in no time.
3. Shove taxpayer money into the market via the $8K federal gift and the $10K state gift for new homes. Lower rates to ridiculously low levels so that fixed income investors are once again forced to deploy their money in much riskier ways. It also makes the ROI on housing go up with all the gifts, low rates, and somewhat lower prices.
4. …which brings “investors” into the market with **cash** (that would otherwise be in fixed income investments???) or government loans. These “investors” plan to either flip these properties or rent them out for a while, “until the market goes back up.”
5. Continue with all the subsidies until the banks have repaired their balance sheets (as well as they can) via dumping on all these “investors”, then reign in all the subsidies and crank up rates because inflation will have taken hold in a big way.
6. At this point, all the govt lenders (Fannie, Freddie and FHA guaranteed loans), “cash investors” and hard-money lenders will be on the hook instead of the banking oligopoly, and the govt can let the market fall to its intrinsic value.
We must always remember that they are not here to protect taxpaying citizens, or even the govt (currency and/or public debt). They want to protect certain banking interests.
