‘Housing Slowdown Is Well And Truly Here’
Some housing bubble reports from Wall Street and Washington. “Countrywide Financial said Thursday that August mortgage fundings fell 24% to $40 billion. ‘Total mortgage loan fundings..declined year over year as a result of the expected industry slowdown,’ CEO Angelo R. Mozilo said.”
The LA Times. “Countrywide Financial regularly warns customers about the risks of paying less than the interest due on loans offering that option. Now Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo is calling some of them personally. Mozilo reached out to borrowers as part of a ‘little experiment’ to understand the reasoning behind making only minimum payments on so-called pay-option loans.”
“Mozilo said he wanted to know why customers were paying only the minimum. ‘The answer was, ‘I’m doing it because the rate of negative amortization is less than the increased value in my house each month,’ Mozilo said. ‘The average age of our borrower is about 38 years old. They have never in their adult lives seen values going down. The concept is alien to them.’”
“‘What we’re finding out is that they’re pretty smart,’ Mozilo said. ‘It’s like voters: Individually they’re sort of idiots, but collectively they seem to make the right decisions.’”
“The U.S. housing market is just returning to normal and is not poised to crash, several economists and industry leaders told lawmakers on Wednesday. ‘Markets in Florida, California, Arizona, Nevada, Virginia and Maryland have exhibited trends far above the local historical norm,’ said National Association of Realtors President Tom Stevens.”
“‘Because of these exceptional trends, it would not be surprising for these markets to experience a price adjustment,’ Stevens added.”
From Reuters. “The two executives who led Fannie Mae to an $11 billion accounting scandal can expect federal regulators to file lawsuits against them, the head of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said Wednesday. When asked if legal action was likely against Fannie Mae’s former CFO Timothy Howard and former CEO Franklin Raines OFHEO director James Lockhart did say ‘they are the top two.’”
The Associated Press. “The U.S. economy is headed for a slowdown caused by a cooling housing market, the International Monetary Fund warned Thursday. ‘The forecasted (U.S.) housing slowdown is well and truly here,’ Raghuram Rajan, the fund’s chief economist said. ‘Indeed, rising inventories of unsold houses suggest things will get worse before they get better.’”
The Wall Street Journal. “Coming up with the money for a down payment on a new condominium may soon be as easy as charging it: American Express Co. is expected to announce today that it will allow some customers to use its cards to make condominium down payments.”
“Siva Tayi, a potential Manhattan condo buyer from Houston, plans to charge the 10% down payment on a $1.2 million two-bedroom unit on his Platinum card. ‘I thought it was a good idea to use the [card] and gain the points,’ says Mr. Tayi.”
Danielle DiMartino at the Dallas News. “So we know the housing market is melting down. What we don’t know is when it will stop. ‘The housing experience of 1999-2005 was a classic case, in our opinion, of how a boom (1999-2001) turns into a mania (2002-2003) and ultimately morphs into a bubble (2004-2005),’ Merrill Lynch chief economist David Rosenberg wrote in a recent report.”
“‘Unwinding the excesses of the past six years will undoubtedly take time, but the adjustment won’t likely be any less painful, and in the process will act as a lingering constraint on confidence and spending,’ he said.”
“Goldman Sachs’ chief eceonomist, Jan Hatzius, figures national home prices will decline 5 percent in 2007, further pressuring borrowers who are upside down. ‘If there is little or no equity, it will be hard for homeowners to sell their way out of trouble,’ he warned.”
“Although we don’t have nationwide data, it’s clear that universally lax lending standards have turned some homebuyers upside down from coast to coast.”
Looks like Ms. DiMartino is putting down her pen:
‘ In the past several months I’ve received numerous e-mails asking why I haven’t written an ‘I told you so’ column on housing. My answer has always been that there’s nothing to celebrate.’
‘To the contrary, a huge amount of work will be required in the coming years to address the fallout of the largest financial bubble in history. The ramifications extend far beyond the realm of residential real estate.’
‘To that end, I will write one last column tomorrow and take my leave. My hope is that I can do more by saying less as a member of the private sector and soldier on the front lines of the economic battlefield.’
She was too good to last long, in journalism.
Speaking honestly about the housing market situation is clearly a risk for a MSM commentator, whose employer has the ongoing conflict of interest posed by dependence on real estate advertising. Best of luck for Ms. DiMartino to find another employer where integrity matters more than ad revenues.
- The ramifications extend far beyond the realm of residential real estate.’
“extend far beyond” … how true.
Didn’t people on this blog (yes, THIS VERY BLOG) recently wonder how she could get away with her articles in that cheerleading rag of a newspaper? I’ll miss her, for sure. Sounds so peaceful, “take my leave”. Gotta wonder if they also have her taking a severance package that forbids her from saying anything about being sacked.
Any good newspapers out there looking for a journalist with a semblance of independent thought?
“Any good newspapers out there looking for a journalist with a semblance of independent thought?”
No, we tried that once and it didn’t work out too well.
She has accepted a position at the Dallas Federal Reserve.
No kidding! That’s great. They need someone to counteract that cheerleader Fisher.
Put the tinfoil hat on….
The Fed bought her silence????
DiMartino has been great, and I don’t think she was sacked. Her move definitely sounds like one she wanted to make and I have to believe, the Dallas Fed will benefit immensely from her presence.
The DMN, as any business, struggles to find competent people and they should definitely have great regrets about losing her. I doubt her replacement will be anywhere near as good, but someone should suggest CR of Calculated Risk for spot.
UFB! They must have canned her! I knew they’d do it! Ross Perot, Jr. and other condo developers own that city.
what % of newspapers revenue comes from RE ads ?
big I bet
they’re dying anyway, so much for the chineese wall =paper thin
Actually a RE bear market is better for newspaper ad revenues than in a mania when anything sells for any price.
According to Jon Lansner of OCR.
for the first few months then
__________________flat line
internet wins
That’s my take too. She is a modern day Cassandra and it does get annoying to hear the bear case all the time, but its a necessary role to fill simply to balance out the flood of hype constantly dribbly out of CNBC and other MSM. I’ll miss her perspective.
Mozillo’s quip that “individually they’re sort of idiots, but collectively they seem to make the right decisions” is hysterical, because he’s gotten it absolutely backwards.
Collectively they are IDIOTS. If individuals are doing a neg-am and keeping ahead of their debt by the appreciation alone, what the he** do they think they are going to do when the thing has to start getting paid down and they can’t pay the full amortization amount on what will be a bigger balance. Sell? Individually that may be a smart thing to do, but collectively it doesn’t as everyone has to put their asset up for sale at the same time leading to a death spiral. Ugh!
The headline didn’t agree with the body of the article.
Looks like the article got hacked to pieces by the editor.
The Dallas Morning News is a complete rag. Fishwrap. Litter pan liner. I’m amazed they let her write this kind of stuff this long.
Agreed, Tulips
Buying a home is not a collective effort, nor is there a collective outcome if there’s a default. So, even if Mr. Mozilo’s second (minor) premise is correct, the argument still fails.
His argument:
Individual home buyers are idiots
Collectively, home buyers make good housing decisions
Therefore, as a whole, good decisions have been made.
I would almost argue the opposite. Humans as a whole are stupid, while the individual can be smart. Ever heard the phrase “mob mentality”? It does not refer to intelligent actions.
Or as I always say as a member of the amoral minority (as opposed to the moral majority), look to the French revolution.
I don’t agree with Mozilo’s major or minor premise.
In focussed, managable groups with clear goals, rewards, resources, and leadership, humans can acheive incredible things.
WIthout these, individuals or small groups are smarter. Mobs act idiotically. An unruly, greedy mob of individual actors created this bubble. Not so smart a decision.
‘What we’re finding out is that they (think they’re) pretty smart,’…
She really did an outstanding job covering this thing. Her analysis wasn’t excellent just because we agree with it — it was excellent becuase it cut through all of the BS and went directly to the heart of the matter.
I really will sleep better at night knowing that people like Ms. DiMartino are employed by the Federal Reserve. I’m sure her influence will be modest at first, and goodness knows that the Fed has its share of cluless incompetents. But in the crash to come, the wheat will be separated from the chaff.
Congratulations to Ms. DiMartino on the new position!
I think he was joking about her going to the Fed.
Something seems to tell me she said she would be in the private sector, and I’m not sure the quasi-govt Federal Reserve is that.
No joke. I wrote her a note asking where she will be writing next, and she answered that she would be working forthe Federal Reserve of Dallas.
And what many of those minimum payment types don’t seem to remember is that most of those loans have a provision where the interest rate will automatically reset if the loan reaches a certain percentage above its initial value. Tick, tick, tick, the bombs are ticking.
My sentiments exactly. The comparison to voters is really hilarious considering how badly our current elected officials are performing.
“They have never in their adult lives seen values going down. The concept is alien to them”
“What we’re finding out is that they’re pretty smart. Individually they’re sort of idiots, but collectively they seem to make the right decisions.”
I must be in the individual idiot camp, because this makes no sense to me.
In addition, did Mr. Mozillo call his borrowers idiots?
Could the collective wisdom to this gropu help me make some sense of all this?
Cognitive disconnect alert!
non sequiturs - all of them. this band of quotes had me rofl.
“‘What we’re finding out is that they’re pretty smart,’ Mozilo said. ‘It’s like voters: Individually they’re sort of idiots, but collectively they seem to make the right decisions.’”
yes - he did call his borrowers idiots and yes, he logic is all flawed….
I would suspect that the ‘right’ decision in Mr. Mozilo’s book might not be the ‘right’ decision for the homedebtor.
Countrywide: Please give me 50% of your gross income for the next 30 years, and lock yourself into a depreciating asset. Now, that was a good decision!
P.S., You’re an idiot.
THIS IS A LIE. Anyone 38 years old has seen the S&L scandal and bust.
That’s not true. How would they have time to pay attention to national issue’s with American Idiot and Celebrity Pokeron tv.
I am this age and I worked on some “going concern” banks!
In So. California
I dunno… I know people that age from Texas who barely remember the big real esate bust in the late 80s. They were there, but they didn’t care enough about that sort of thing to actually pay attention.
I’m 39 and I vividly remember my uncle losing everything in the ’80s Calif. real estate bubble. One moment, he and his wife had fancy cars and expensive real estate in San Jose and Sacramento. The next moment, they were divorced and became middle-aged people living with their very elderly parents out in the sticks. Nice people who made some very bad decisions.
It’s all going to happen again to another set of nice people who made bad choices, only this time it’s going to be a whole lot worse.
Shoot I’m only 28 and I saw more than enough of the S&L scandal and bust.
a 38 year-old was probably 22 when all that happened. probably still in school or just trying to get started in the job world. probably paid no attention, especially if they didn’t live in an area hit by the bust or in the financial field.
hell, there are people who are older and were probably caught up in the bust that basically don’t remember it.
John is absolutely right. People tend to “operate” from recent memory. I know it’s bad, but that is human nature.
Anyone who is 38 had a front row seat for the dot com mania. No mercy.
fool me once, shame on you
fool me twice, shame on me
Hey didn’t Scottie say that on Star Trek once??
Yes, in a roundabout way, he called his customers idiots.
I guess the Truth always finds its way out of the black hole of disinformation.
‘It’s like voters: Individually they’re sort of idiots, but collectively they seem to make the right decisions.’
Yeah, the same collective wisdom we saw in November 2004. We’re doomed.
Fortunately, I’ll be looking to buy a home around 2009, at a reasonable price, with . . . wait for it . . . an actual cash down payment.
(UFB! They must have canned her! I knew they’d do it! Ross Perot, Jr. and other condo developers own that city. )
On the contrary. Sounds like she is on her way to being a cazillionaire repackaging bad debt and foreclosed properties. They’ll need someone like her — someone who might be believed when she says the market has returned to fair value and it is safe to buy.
has Angelo called you yet ?
that’s cute
hey JAN prices are already down 5%
I love how timid these fckers are
This quote was in my daily email from WSJ real estate.
“As the number of residential properties on the market swells and prices in some locations fall, homeowners discover that homes in better locations…are selling the fastest.”
What a concept! Location, location, location.
Location is always important.
Before it meant the difference between getting 15% or 25% YoY price appreciation. Now it’s the difference selling after 5 months or not selling at all.
Not to mention the units in the “never should have been built” places. Good luck unloading those.
I think all the Realtors and Mortgage Brokers are about to find out about vocation, vocation, vocation!
LOL, Mozillo agrees with this blog; his customers are idiots.
i wonder if he posts on this blog - that would be good fun
He definitely has someone he pays lurking here, but only Ben knows for sure.
I say yes, for chrissake they just had congressional hearings on the housing bubble.
OT: Getstucco:
I responded to you on thread 1443.
I think you misunderstand my motives/beliefs regarding what’ll happen in the stock market. the reply is there if you’re interested.
I enjoy the debate, even though you seem a little annoyed!
clouseau
Not annoyed — sorry if I conveyed that impression
“Flipped” is heading to Cleveland Friday. The Buffalo is documentary about buying inexpensive homes usually at foreclosure auctions then reselling them after little or no improvements with devastating consequences to the neighborhood and financial institutions
http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/060914/1345360.html?.v=2
“Anti-Flipping Task Force ” are they serious… ROFL,
i thought we let market forces dictate the sell/buy price.. you know like in ‘Capitalism’, and if someone wants to mortgage their 1st born to get a piece of the action, well more power to them..
yeah, lets make sure the genuinely disadvantaged go to crappy schools, and the elderly have to scrap for medication, but the truely idiotic should have a ‘Task Force’ to protect them from being greedy and hurting themselves..
re. the “Anti-Flipping Task Force”:
Are you referrring to Buffalo? If so, here’s the problem, it’s rampant all over upstate NY and probably anywhere else in the US where property is dirt cheap:
People from “away” go in and buy these 10K properties intending to make a quick profit re-selling.
They find they can’t unload the property at a higher price because HELLO, the reason they were so cheap in the first place is because nobody wants to live there. And if they DO want to live there it’s ONLY because RE is cheap. So they do not want to buy your inflated property.
The property sits, empty, or they become absentee, usually out-of - state landlords who are sick of the thought of their NY property that has to be carried through rough winters and was more than likely a sub-standard building to begin with.
The property becomes a drag on the whole neighborhood- neglected at best or abandoned at worst.
These out of state would be flipper-owned properties are a real bummer for the people who are trying to bring these neighborhoods back to life.
Take a look at just about any upstate city/town and you’ll see the problem immediately. And I’m sure that, during the speculator mania of the past ten years, the problem has only gotten worse and worse.
People who live in those have been trying to figure out different ways to deal with it.
When houses become homes again in the US (if they ever do), that’ll take care of the problem. Overnight.
The ONLY reason people bought them was to make a killing. When that doesn’t happen, they pretend the building doesn’t exist. Out of sight, out of mind.
““Siva Tayi, a potential Manhattan condo buyer from Houston, plans to charge the 10% down payment on a $1.2 million two-bedroom unit on his Platinum card. ‘I thought it was a good idea to use the [card] and gain the points,’ says Mr. Tayi.””
What is the interest rate on that?
I have a bridge a few blockss away to sell you!
You’re flipping the Brooklyn Bridge?
Pay no attention to him. I actually own it. My nigerian friend just sold it to me.
I can give you a screaming deal on it. Just wire me $150,000 into my swiss bank account, and I’ll sign the deed over to you.
What is the interest rate on that?
Most likely 0%, as traditional Amex cards must be paid off at the end of the month.
It’s a GREAT idea to pay for big stuff on a card with rewards, air miles, or cash back. You keep the money for another 30 days and gain interest, you get generally 1% to 5% of the purchase price back, and pay exactly the same as the guy who writes a check or uses cash.
The easy credit system works to your advantage if you play it right.
Amex isn’t the only platinum card. My Spidey sense tells me that Mr. Tayi couldn’t pay back the entire thing at the end of the month if his life depended on it.
Just curious. Why do you think this?
Fine print on platinum card.
*Your purchases are approved based on your account experience and personal resources. Proof of resources and security may be required.
** As a Charge Card, the balance must always be paid in full each month. 30% annual interest rate applies to balances not paid in full (0.0822% per day). Payments must be received and processed by the date of the next monthly statement to avoid finance charges.
AMEX chargecard has awesome rewards.. i actually thought about taking up on their platinum card offer, but when i see the annual fee (somewhere around $500 per card) I stayed with my gold
People with excellent credit ratings just got AMEX offers of 0% on purchases for one year and 3.9% for the life of the loan.
So that means credit is DEFINITELY tightening up!
Danielle DiMartino in Dallas News writes: “In Dallas-Fort Worth, the median home price has declined to $152,500 from $157,500, or 3 percent, from June to August. That $5,000 haircut might not sound like much, but for most people, that’s a whole year of appreciation”
And I thought Dallas did not have a bubble. Wow!! Buckle down, we are in for a bumpy ride ahead. All these people that bought into the undervalued market idea are going to be toasted. Texas has one of the highest tax rates in the nation (~3% of appraised value) and very high insurance rates. So you go figure how much you have to make in return to just break even when you sell.
Oh, s**t, don’t even go there. It’s going to be uglier in Dallas than San Diego, or Phoenix, or Miami.
It may be uglier in Dallas, but you can bet on a monster drop in San Diego by Christmas.
“15% is in the bag!”
Don’t mess with Texas… real estate.
-
So Franklin Raines may NOT get away scott-free? I thought we saw in earlier articles a few months back that he would probably never face prosecution?
this is good news. Day of reckoning.
I doubt that - the prices in Dallas are still down to earth - while there is a large inventory, the average family can afford the average house. Something not seen in California or Florida.
You can trade 3 or 4 Texas homes in good working order in a decent neighborhood for one stinking pile of unrepaired stucco, wood and burglar bars in the worst neighborhoods in Calif.
Why Calif. has anyone living in it is beyond me.
Maybe you can trade em but you can’t give them away.
Lol. Do they have a high state sales tax in Texas and do they have high house insurance rates ? Anybody know ?
There is a decent sales tax (8.25%) in Dallas. However, there is no income tax… Flipside is that property tax is 2-4% and there is no Prop 13.
Thanks .
>Why Calif. has anyone living in it is beyond me.
TX has crappy weather and crazy Republicans by the gallon.
I hope all of countrywide’s customers know they are idiots. Hey wait - I am one of them!?!??
““Mozilo said he wanted to know why customers were paying only the minimum. ‘The answer was, ‘I’m doing it because the rate of negative amortization is less than the increased value in my house each month,’ Mozilo said. ‘The average age of our borrower is about 38 years old. They have never in their adult lives seen values going down. The concept is alien to them.’”
This is a joke. The originators of Option-ARMs did these loans to put people into houses they could not afford with normal payments. I have people come to me at the bank where I work, to refinance these loans, and often they cannot even afford interest-only payments. Many are stuck with the lowest payment option and the resulting negative amortization. They are also stuck with very high margins and high rates mostly over 7% (I have seen up to 8% recently.) Looks like some the the main originators of this loan are now realizing their risk and are taking “action” to help things. Incredible.
(My bank has never originated Option-ARMs, neg-am products, and neither have I.)
What area are you in, Lender? What do you see on the horizon?
I am in coastal Southern Los Angeles County. Prices here have dropped about 7 to 8% from their peak in the second Quarter. Higher priced homes over $1.25 mm may have dropped as much as 10%….its hard to tell since so little of this has sold. Inventories are growing and listings times are increasing. My opinion is that we are just starting the downward slide because foreclosures have not yet reached any significant levels.
Folks,
What is the US senate doing by inviting these ‘experts’ with a vested interest in keeping the housing bubble going? Tom Stevens/NAR, David Seiders/NAHB… what can we expect from them other than glossing over any market weakness?
As for Richard Brown of the FDIC– simply saying that housing busts are ‘rare’ events, based on historical data, he ignores the obvious: the current bubble is a ‘rare’ event in itself and history is no guide to how it will burst.
I think we (the royal “we” of bubble-believers) would prefer it if the Senate committee members are soothed by industry shills/”experts” into believing that there is no housing bubble, much less one that is bursting (which seems to be how the hearings are shaping up). Why? Because then our fine legislators will do nothing. The housing market is currently collapsing under its own weight, and we sure don’t need concerned politicos meddling in this thing so early on.
I watched this on CSPAN early this morning. What a joke..not that I expected anything different. I was somewhat pissed that they want to give the RE industry more access to the FED. I think there should be a BIG Chinese wall (we can always import one from China..WALLmart can help us out) around the FED. They should be free from the Washington lobby.
It seemed like every question directed to the NAR rep was answered with, “um, we don’t have that data”, meanwhile I think the good folks here would be able to source the data without an issue. For example, when Sarbanes asked about where the concentration of ARMs is, all I could think of was that map that was posted here within the last week. There are many other examples, but I’ll spare you nice folks the rant. The NAHB rep seemed a bit less sanguine, but still appearing to try to hedge his comments. The FDIC guy was scary in his view of the situation. Makes me glad my bank also has DIF insurance.
I am still in the camp as I have stated before that this is going to pop sooner than later. IMO..that doesn’t mean an immediate bottom, but the first few steps down will be the largest.
My impressions exactly Pen.
The lack of stats on the part of these “experts” was alarming. Or perhaps hokey is a better word. As it seems impossible, or else really irresponsible, that they do not have access to that info.
The heads of the Homebuilders and OFHEO were the most stomach-able.
The NAR president was a squealy little realtor, nothing more, nothing less. Nothing to add to the conversation beyond “Interest rates are killingthe market!!!! Help us!! Help us!!!”
The suggestion, by Senator Sarbanes I believe, that the distinguished panelists should have more access to the Fed was particularly odious and scary to boot.
The general consensus seemed to be “For God’s sake, don’t let this market fall into line with incomes! It would be a national tragedy if Americans were actually able to AFFORD those houses they’re buying. Keep the toxic lending party going at all costs.”
And the guy from FDIC scaredme so bad I actually considered taking my money out of the bank. He seemed like one clueless case. Definitely not somebody who has the smarts to be in any position of responsibilty.
NAHB head was the most respectable out the bunch. I loved it when he told the Senator that he felt he had plenty of access to the Fed as things stood.
Tune in next week when our asleep at the wheel lawmakers get an earful about what’s been happening in the lending industry lately- unless of course the panelists forget to bring their stats with them to the hearing!
“Any good newspapers out there looking for a journalist with a semblance of independent thought?”
I think you are reading her departure wrong. My guess is Ms. DiMartino will be coming to NYC to make money, which is what she hints at.
The woman has an MBA in finance. All of this stuff will need to be securitized post-bust, either by the government (RTC II) or someone else. Then it will need to be sold by someone who has some credibility to say it is priced at fair value. How many such people will be available in 2008?
Would you buy a distressed mortgage debt/housing REIT from Danielle?
No, it was just a rhetorical question.
It does sound like she is off to pursue other (more lucrative, no doubt) interests than journalism, outside the public spotlight. And why not? If readers, advertisers, and your employer are going to give you grief and aggravation, then you might as well get that in a job where you might still get grief and aggravation (and stress) but can make a reasonable salary/bonus — instead of what I imagine the Dallas Morning Fishwrapper would pay a columnist.
As to whether I would buy distressed mortgage debt from her: Yes, depending of course on the discount and my perception of the risk. Just because she knows the business and has her own perception (perhaps right) of where it’s going, that doesn’t mean she’ll be scamming people with bad deals.
What might happen, conceivably, is that she might work FOR firms like insurance companies that are interested in buying those types of products as investments. Risk analysis? Better to have an honest, open-minded, even sometimes bearish analyst on the team than not to, you know. If she can help them avoid some bad future-default deals, she’s paid for her salary and bonus in a blink.
But as someone poiinted out above, she wrote to him that she’s indeed going to the Fed in Dallas. So I stand corrected regarding my guesses as to where she’d gpo. Good, keep them in line, Dani!
Anyone who is 38 also saw the NASDAQ meltdown 5 years ago. Markets may stray from fundaments for a while, but then the party’s over.
“Anyone who is 38 also saw the NASDAQ meltdown 5 years ago.”
And is at about 40% of the old high now.
The two executives who led Fannie Mae to an $11 billion accounting scandal can expect federal regulators to file lawsuits against them, the head of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said Wednesday. When asked if legal action was likely against Fannie Mae’s former CFO Timothy Howard and former CEO Franklin Raines OFHEO director James Lockhart did say ‘they are the top two.’”
hehehe…my guess is the underlying mess is going to be a lot more than $11 billion in accounting shenanigans.
My guess is FNMA’s 1 trillion in portfolio holdings in general are 18/20% overvalued given the garbage quality of the appraiser’s used to value the originations.
What the guarantees are for all the junk peddlin’ to the Asians I don’t have a clue.
But throw in an expected 40/50% future decline and all the derivatives written against the collateral…and it’s all gotta be like a financial hydrogen bomb ready to go off.
All the RE activity going on at the moment is like the rats scurrying about the deck before the Titanic went down.
I’ll be on my Life Boat the S.S. Renter.
Better to be in the S.S. Own My Home Free and Clear
““The U.S. housing market is just returning to normal and is not poised to crash, several economists and industry leaders told lawmakers on Wednesday.”
No rumor is true until it is officially denied. — Bismarck.
Jas Jain
“‘What we’re finding out is that they’re pretty smart,’ Mozilo said. ‘It’s like voters: Individually they’re sort of idiots, but collectively they seem to make the right decisions.’”
Ah yes. This is why we have the wise and competent political leadership we have today.
Individually people are idiots; collectively they’re drooling idiots.
You are right. The opposite of what was said in quotes is generally true — people are reasonable as individuals but in crowds, or herds, they are maniacs (there is a quote to that effect by someone).
Jas Jain
Persons are intelligent, sometimes. People are stupid, always.
Sammy Posts “Persons are intelligent, sometimes. People are stupid, always.”
So are you a person or a people?
So, in essence, persons who wanted to buy a homes to live in, in effect, became a committee that decided that homes were now houses, a commodity that could only increase in value.
Many of them paid for books and seminars that smoothed the mental transition.
Most of us have known some of them, him/her, what became “it.”