So… Who’s left?

[UCGal]

Scaredy/Walter/Squat decided to give up piggington for a year.
Now FLU and AN.
TG hasn’t been seen in a very long time.
sdr hasn’t been seen in a long time.
DaveLJ has been posting a lot less….
Allan in FB isn’t hanging out here as much.
harvey/Pridk hasn’t posted in a long time.
fewer posts for from Arraya, afx, and Acetia (took me almost as long to learn the difference between them as it did between sdr and SDR.)

I’m sure there are others… but that’s off the top of my head…

I suspect piggington is changing… Not necessarily for the better.

[earlyretirement]

I think it’s the nature of these former “bubble blog” type sites. I used to spend quite a bit of time on Patrick.net but now never visit it anymore.

I think with the rebound and also the anemic inventory levels…..far less people are interested these days.

I guess if things keep going the way they are going…..soon people will be back calling for another bubble to burst.

[no_such_reality]

Well, I really should be putting my time to better use. Hopefully, I’ll correct the current situation and return to more sporadic posting in the near future.

[spdrun]

Hopefully, I’ll get the short-sold condo that I’m accepted on — then I’ll be on here even more b**ching about tenants 🙂

[NotCranky]

The active forums barely move compared to a few years ago….even during working hours.
I still wonder what made Bugs leave so abruptly. He was awesome.

[bobby]

I joined Pigg a 5 years back when I started my search for a house. Bought one last year and although I still come here occasionally, it had been less frequent.
now I comment on political or social issues but not much on real estate..

[spdrun]

Wait? This is a real-estate forum? :p

[paramount]

I like to bounce landlord type issues off the board.

I think TG posts on Temecula Patch under the alias “That Temecula Guy”.

[CafeMoto]

So True it’s slowed but I still come here and read great advice, plus the humor. Remember Ox’s one liners?!

[EconProf]

When I discovered Piggington years ago it was a lonely voice in the wilderness, a prophet calling out a housing bubble, contrary to the conventional wisdom of the day. Now that most people realize that we were right, we are less interesting….in short, a victim of our own success.

[flyer]

I think you are right, ER, and EP.

It’s definitely been interesting to see the evolution of topics and people over the years, and I still enjoy checking in. Doesn’t keep me from doing anything else I need or want to do, so, why not?

Hopefully all that have come and gone have realized their dreams, since, IMO–whatever else you do–that’s what really matters!

[CA renter]

[quote=earlyretirement]I think it’s the nature of these former “bubble blog” type sites. I used to spend quite a bit of time on Patrick.net but now never visit it anymore.

I think with the rebound and also the anemic inventory levels…..far less people are interested these days.

I guess if things keep going the way they are going…..soon people will be back calling for another bubble to burst.[/quote]

Totally agree with this, ER. I used to frequent Piggington, The Housing Bubble Blog, and Jim the Realtor’s site every day, but have pretty much stayed only on Rich’s site for the past year or two. When there’s a lot of money to make or lose, people are willing to devote a lot of time to it. I’m sure many of us were spending the equivalent of full-time hours just researching and trying to figure out the RE bubble back in the day, both on econ and RE blogs, and in real life (touring existing houses and new housing tracts, mall watching, asking questions in local businesses, etc.). It actually got to the point for me where many of the salespeople at new developments around North County started recognizing me and figured out what I was doing (getting a sense of what was going on and reporting it back on the blogs), and it was clear they weren’t too keen on it.

But things are out in the open now, so it’s not like we’re this revolutionary operation trying to discover the latest secrets in our jacked-up economy. Yes, I think we’re continuing on the bubble trajectory, but at least a lot of other people, even in the MSM, are talking about it.

Still looking forward to the new bubble debates going forward, and hope to see all the familiar faces once again. We’re still not done, IMHO! 🙂

[earlyretirement]

Yep CAR. Also, I believe a big part of it is many of these semi-permabears have now bought here in the last year or so. I used to read a few Housing Bubble sites and even the most die hard of bears has now jumped to the other side and purchased.

So many of these people that diligently called the housing crash and waited on the sidelines to buy have now purchased a house. And now that they purchased, they don’t want to see another crash and probably don’t mind another bubble brewing up.

Personally I think prices are coming up too far too fast. It’s simply not healthy. But with human nature, these people that have purchased (and used to read/post) might not even want to think about a potential crash coming.

Things move in cycles. Nothing moves in a straight line forever. I kind of laugh at sites like Patrick.net now. Yes, he was right for many years. But then he ends up writing a book AFTER the bubble had already burst and prices were on their way up. I think I read that the guy still didn’t buy a house and is a renter.

I respect many of the people that called a housing bubble many years ago. I saw what was going on back in 2004 and saw it coming. So I know how difficult it was for some of these guys to have called it when everyone thought it would go up forever. But I have no respect for someone that calls a bubble, sees prices crash tremendously and then try to say prices will fall forever and end up being a life long perpetual renter.

That just doesn’t make sense to me.

[Jazzman]

ER I think this misses the point about so-called ‘permabears’. I certainly don’t see myself (or many others) as one thing or the other, but I’ve found it useful to improve my short term memory, so a few jogs from those ‘bearish’ corners is a good thing. Furthermore, I don’t recall anyone saying prices will fall forever, but I do recall many saying prices never fall. For those (bears or whatever) who did buy eventually, it was probably out a sense of despair that the game was rigged and there was really nothing anyone could do about it. I personally don’t believe we are out of the woods yet, because of the overwhelming support for home prices and the swathe of foreclosures yet to clear through the system. I don’t think it has anything to do with being down on the economy, but more to do with being cautious. On the other side of the coin, I don’t see bulls either, just those who took a hammering during the downturn now seeking some false sense of vindication. It’s all a bit childish really.

[afx114]

Lurk mode, engaged.

I still visit often to see what’s cooking. I still have interest in the end-game of the bubble explosion and in San Diego real estate in specific and macro-economics in general. I’ve learned a lot here and still visit to catch up on piggs’ general consensus on various topics of the day, because I respect what all (or most) here have to say.

I just don’t have much to say anymore. It’s easy for me to pop in with snarky one-liners (which I still admittedly do occasionally), but I feel that in order to properly engage in a discussion, it takes an investment in thought and time, both of which I have little bandwidth for these days. I guess buying a house and having a kid will do that to a person.

Never change, Piggs. Never change.

[Author]

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