Several readers posted comments about a topic on the real estate industry. "Desperate times call for desperate measures. As the reality of the bubble popping seeps into the RE sector, desperation may result in some blatent illegalities. A SoCal RE eCONomist openly called for collusion amongst agents last week in a feeble attempt to prop up prices in his Mid Year report."'

"What are the ways RE may be quickening their own demise. What are the most transparent acts of desperation you are seeing/hearing/reading from RE this week? Who in the regulatory sector should be watching more closely as things unfold. What measurements are the best and how could these be standardized?"

"IMHO RE needs to be regulated in the same manner as securities. Falsification, decepetion, misrepresentation and collusive tactices are fraud and should be punished. Changing statistical measures on the fly in ways that prop up the sellers/RE side as we saw this week with the affordability index seems just plain crooked. How does a whole industry get away with this crap?"

"I am in no way suggesting that consumers are devoid of responsibility. Just looking for honesty, truth, and some semblance of ethical behavior in an industry that is showing itself to be blissfully free of all three."

Another said, "RE actually affects many more people, and much more severely, as a majority of most people’s money is tied up in RE, not stocks. There is no doubt that these people need to be regulated if their statistics, predictions and recommendations are published in the MSM with the intent of influencing buyers’ and sellers’ decisions." And another,

"As a 'data' source for MSM, REIT has shown it’s colors and needs to be regulated or replaced. As RE now moves to 'educate' the sellers on 'realistic' pricing I imagine that many sellers will take their business elsewhere hoping to get the max profit."

"I also imagine that any attempts to introduce regulatory legistlation will be met with very stiff opposition from the RE lobby. But, as this gets increasingly uglier our esteemed representatives may start looking for scapegoats and if the choices are RE vs lenders I suspect RE will take the hit."

One replied, "In the past, my house has always been my home, not an investment. But it seems that in the time that I’ve owned, things have changed and real estate is now an investment. If that’s true, then yes, regulation is in order. And if that’s not true, and a house is really still just a home? Then let the prices reflect that reality. Either way, a change is overdue!"

Another concurs, "I agree, for the most part residential real estate purchases were not investments in the past. People bought houses to live in. There were always some purchases for rental and cosmetic fixup and turn over for profit. But these latter I feel were a small percentage historically."

"Something did change in this cycle and I believe it has to do primarily with how captial gains taxes on property were changed to encourage activity in the sector. Here in OC the shift was noticable 5 years ago. Real estate became about profit rather than housing families in communities."

"I also believe that the ways that real estate is measured have always needed to be changed irregardless of the agenda of the buyer. It has always been a cryptic maze of moving numbers that agents and brokers have manipulated/skewed/slanted to CONvince buyers and sellers."

The US News and World Report. "With home sales down by nearly a third in Florida last quarter, thousands of those who hoped to cash in on the real-estate gold rush are now facing the cold reality of working in one of the country's most cyclical businesses. 'Everyone's getting out,' Jiany Massad says of colleagues who have already traded in their real-estate licenses for jobs in the jewelry trade and Internet sales."

"'There's somewhat of a time lag here, but everyone's eventually going to feel it,' says Jay Butler, of the Arizona Real Estate Center near Phoenix, where housing-related commerce accounts for about a third of the local economy."

"In Florida, where in some coastal areas housing now accounts for as many as 1 in 5 jobs, the number of real-estate agents alone has increased by more than 40 percent since 2001, to 305,000. Brokers' ranks have also surged in California, to more than half a million-about one for every home the California Association of Realtors expects to be sold this year. 'The numbers just don't add up,' says Vince Malta, CAR's president, who predicts a coming shakeout as less experienced agents find they can't earn enough to stay in the business."

"'It was quick, easy money, but then rates go up and it's over,' says mortgage trainer Christopher Cruise, who recently visited one mortgage lending operation in Rockville, Md., that let all 71 of its loan officers go."