“short of Charlie Manson moving in — it can’t be any worse,”

[Allan from Fallbrook]

HLS: This entire housing boom was predicated on the buyer’s inability to do even basic math.

Who in their right mind would buy into a 100% LTV 2/28 loan for a home that was substantially overvalued by any meaningful economic set of standards?

I hear your argument, but it is flawed in one significant way: It contains logic.

Add in the emotional component to home ownership and you have people like this; people who will hold on till the bitter end, and will believe any piece of good news the MSM or NAR or MBA feeds them. But, at some point, it all comes apart. And that is when things are gonna get real ugly.

[JES]

Job losses aren’t helping either. Even worse, this run up in prices has caused some real disparity between what people should have been earning, and what they were able to earn during the boom. Many of these same people were heavily involved in speculation, and many are losing their jobs right now. Where will they go to match that 100k a year mortgage broker job when they have no degree and their only experience is in an industry that is falling apart.

[JES]

Job losses aren’t helping either. Even worse, this run up in prices has caused some real disparity between what people should have been earning, and what they were able to earn during the boom. Many of these same people were heavily involved in speculation, and many are losing their jobs right now. Where will they go to match that 100k a year mortgage broker job when they have no degree and their only experience is in an industry that is falling apart.

[JES]

Job losses aren’t helping either. Even worse, this run up in prices has caused some real disparity between what people should have been earning, and what they were able to earn during the boom. Many of these same people were heavily involved in speculation, and many are losing their jobs right now. Where will they go to match that 100k a year mortgage broker job when they have no degree and their only experience is in an industry that is falling apart.

[CMcG]

I know the IE is in trouble but I was absolutely shocked this weekend when we made the dreaded, horrible, hot, boring drive through the Central Valley on I-5 from San Diego to the Bay Area this weekend to take the kid back to college. Last year, my head was buried in a book, but I took a look to the east and was stunned by all the pretty-new-looking housing tracts in areas like Coalinga in the middle of nowhere. I understand these areas are in more serious trouble than the IE. Question: Where do all these people WORK? In the prison system?

[CMcG]

I know the IE is in trouble but I was absolutely shocked this weekend when we made the dreaded, horrible, hot, boring drive through the Central Valley on I-5 from San Diego to the Bay Area this weekend to take the kid back to college. Last year, my head was buried in a book, but I took a look to the east and was stunned by all the pretty-new-looking housing tracts in areas like Coalinga in the middle of nowhere. I understand these areas are in more serious trouble than the IE. Question: Where do all these people WORK? In the prison system?

[CMcG]

I know the IE is in trouble but I was absolutely shocked this weekend when we made the dreaded, horrible, hot, boring drive through the Central Valley on I-5 from San Diego to the Bay Area this weekend to take the kid back to college. Last year, my head was buried in a book, but I took a look to the east and was stunned by all the pretty-new-looking housing tracts in areas like Coalinga in the middle of nowhere. I understand these areas are in more serious trouble than the IE. Question: Where do all these people WORK? In the prison system?

[Author]

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