“Like someone smart once said, buy when everyone say sell and sell when everyone say buy.”
Right you are, asianautica!
I have in front of me the front page of the Los Angeles Record, a newspaper dated July 13, 1903. The banner headline reads: REDONDO BOOM CROWD GROWS GREATER DAILY, BUT, APPARENTLY THE BUBBLE IS NEARLY READY TO “BUST”
Of course the bubble did bust, within weeks, and a lot of people lost their shirts. Henry Huntington, who precipitated this boom in the first place by buying land cheap in Redondo when nobody else wanted it, turned around and sold the land for a fortune after hinting that he would build a streetcar line to service Redondo. When he retracted the plan, the boom collapsed. Huntington re-bought the land for pennies on the dollar and used the profits thus earned to build his streetcar line to Santa Monica. At least that’s how my grandpa told it. He was selling lots at the time and made a lot of commissions that year!
