[PerryChase]

I just talked to a buddy who lives in New Jersey. My friend shares a 5 bedroom house with 5 other friends. One of the housemates is a Realtor. Last year the Realtor convinced the homeowners and another housemate to each “invest” in housing. Well, the two investment houses are now languishing on the market even with steep price reductions (they are chasing the market all the way down). One “investor” moved into her investment property to cut housing costs. She was just laid off and is looking for roommates to help cover her mortgage. The landlords are pissed with the Realtor and they are now considering kicking the Realtor out of their home. Apparently, the Realtor told them that making money on housing was a slam dunk. Each “investor” lost $100k already.

The way I see it, greed will ruin people financially but also destroy many friendships. The coming downturn will leave countless psychological scars.

[PerryChase]

Zip Realty is great. You can customize the email that you receive. It’s great if you want to get update when new houses get listed.

You need to add “areas” if you want to jump between metropolitan areas. That has nothing to do with ziprealty. It’s because MLS databases are local.

In my view, zip realty is the best online service. I never got an unwanted phone call from the zip agents.

[PerryChase]

Living in Western Europe is substantially more expensive than America in my opinion. I’m not sure Americans retirees are ready to trade-in their roomy houses for a small flat in Europe. Plus Americans are foreign language averse so the only places their could live are Ireland, the UK, perhaps the Scandinavian countries, Germany and Switzerland. Those countries are too cold and dreary in the winter.

By comparaison, you could buy a house in areas of America (Florida, Georgia, Carolinas, etc..) for $100k.

Eastern Europe would be cheaper for sure.

[PerryChase]

Let’s face it. It’s true that foreigners study hard and get good grades. When I was in school, American studends worried about the Asians killing the curve.

If we want the jobs, we’d better get off our lazy asses and start studying. Boston_and_OC is right, American students spend too much time partying.

[PerryChase]

I have a friend who’s currently listing his house for $540k. He paid $420k for it in 2004. He said that he would feel “ripped-off” under $500k. Honestly, my research shows that this house would sell for about $420k today.

He’s gonna be chasing the market all the way down to $300k. It’s junky house and I personally wouldn’t pay more than 200k for it.

Problem is that he needs to sell and move up. He still thinks that he can keep on “investing” his way up. I just wished him good luck. This guy is an engineer. Yep, some people get it, some don’t.

[PerryChase]

sebNY, tu es francais? Ma mère est française et j’ai grandi et étudié à Paris. Les Américains travaillent dur mais ils ne réflechissent pas beaucoup. Malheureusement, la situation en la France, avec les gens comme Le Pen, n’est pas vraiment meilleure. Quand les temps sont incertains, il est toujours plus facile de blâmer les personnes qui n’ont aucune voix.

[PerryChase]

Mr Brightside, thanks for you update. I love your site and I check it frequently. I plan to buy Downtown one day.

Do you think that developera will build towers with $200/month HOA? $500 to $750 per month HOA is too expensive for working and middle class people to afford. A Downtown full of luxury towers would not be a very pleasant place to live. I’d like to see a NYC kinda of feel in San Diego.

[PerryChase]

I believe that only 20% of Americans own passports. American should travel more. If they traveled more (going to beach in Mexico does not count) they’d realize that we aren’t that great (relatively) and that others are catching up to us quickly.

One of the advantages America still has is that we can attract the best and the brightest. If we don’t welcome them then they’ll be staying home finding ways to compete with us. Would you rather smart foreigners worked for us or compete against us?

[PerryChase]

Working part-time in old age is a good idea so long as you enjoy what you do. People who work live longer (god forbid) healthier lives. I plan to work, at least in some capacity, until I die.

Traditional retirement was made for an industrial age where people’s bodies were exhausted from a lifetime of physical labor. There’s no reason to retire anymore.

My dad is 78 and I convinced him to go back to grad school rather than staying idle at home. Elderly people need to exercise their minds in order to avoid Alzheimers disease.

[PerryChase]

Sorry, Barnaby33, I think that protectionism is always a bad way to go. Foreign H1B engineers help us keep a high level of innovation in America and help ensure that discoveries belong to American companies.

If foreign engineers don’t work in America they’ll work somewhere else and we’ll loose out on the fruit of their work. But if they work here, they’ll grow our economy and improve our standard of living.

[PerryChase]

Can anyone remember the malaise every one felt during and after the Vietnam War? Aside the military spending that was a drain on the prosperous 1960’s, the psychological defeat of the war affected a whole generation.

When Iraq goes to shit (which I think it will), people won’t be very much in any mood to consume or buy houses. That’ll be especially true if housing crashes at the same time.

If you look back at the past few years, you can see that the real estate market tracked exactly the situation Iraq. When Bush declared “mission accomplished” the sky was the limit for American power and real estate prices. Now the situation in Iraq and housing are in supposed “soft landing.” Anyone in the know would say that the situation has taken a turn for the worse (despite the lagging indicators that still point otherwise).

Buying an overpriced house in the last few years was a big mistake just like invading Iraq was. It’s either bail out now to save what’s left or be prepared to stay “invested” for the long haul. Anyone ready for 10 more years?

People who “invested” in overpriced housing will have to take responsibility for their bad decisions. The unfortunate part of Iraq is that we’ll all pay for one misguided leader’s decision.

[PerryChase]

Lereah is now blaming the sellers for causing the slow market. This is a tactic of deflecting, obfuscating and not taking responsiblity while implying that the situation is improving. It’s also denying that there’s a need to deal with the tough times ahead. Denying that things are going south today, will not make them turn around tomorrow. I guess it’s easier to live in a bubble than in reality.

Yeah, Karl Rove is not on TV but he’s perfected this type of spin. Rove has many good students who do appear frequently on TV.

[PerryChase]

I beleive that we’ll be facing 2 parallel problems in the next 10 years.

1. The crash of real estate. Millions of people will see their wealth evaporate.
2. The ever escalating cost the war on Iraq. The war boosted the economy in the short term but we’ll have to pay for it somehow.

These two problems will bring back the bad-old-days we had in the late 1970’s and 1980’s in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

I don’t beleive that Fed can do much to fix these problems.

[PerryChase]

duplicate

[PerryChase]

powayseller, William Wheaton, professor of economics and former director of the Center for Real Estate at MIT, is also an economist prediction a real estate crash. I’ve not read much on him so I’m not sure he’s a realist like Roubini.

[Author]

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