“At Some Point, Gravity Takes Over”
The New York Magazine. “Jeremy Kushnier waited until last year to buy his one-bedroom in Morningside Heights. ‘I just got tired of paying rent,’ says Kushnier. ‘I wanted to build some equity.’”
“So much for that: Sixteen months later, Kushnier’s selling his place and moving to Los Angeles. If he gets his price, $509,000, he’ll do slightly better than break even. But a little negotiation could wipe out his profit altogether. ‘The tough thing is, the market went down,’ says his broker, Désirée Halac. ‘A lot of people are offering 10 percent less.’”
“If you bought recently and have to sell now, you may be in a position not heard of since the early nineties: You can actually lose money on a New York apartment.”
“Some eager sellers are in the grips of an outside force like job relocation or a baby on the way. Others, like Corcoran’s Paul LeMarc Brown’s clients, have simply changed their minds. A year ago, LeMarc Brown handled a couple’s purchase of a Fort Greene co-op for $310,000. A few months after the close, they decided to visit One Hanson Place in downtown Brooklyn and fell hard for the redeveloped tower.”
“Now their old place is available for $345,000, which will—again, if they are lucky enough to get their price—leave them with a profit of less than $5,000.”
“Kushnier’s co-op doesn’t allow sublets so soon after an owner moves in—ruling out that option—and the expenses are piling up. ‘It’s a financial burden,’ he says.”
The Boston Herald. “Three Greater Boston locales have dropped out of the exclusive ‘million-dollar club,’ areas where median-priced houses cost $1 million and up. Market tracker The Warren Group reported yesterday that Brookline, Dover and Lincoln’s median prices all fell below $1 million in the nine months ended Sept. 30.”
“‘What goes up must come down,’ said Tim Warren of The Warren Group. ‘(Brookline, Dover and Lincoln) are all premiere communities where prices went up very far, very fast. But at some point, gravity takes over.’”
“Warren said median prices tumbled to: $944,750 in Brookline, from $1.1 million a year earlier; $897,500 in Dover, from $1.05 million a year ago; $875,000 in Lincoln, from $1.14 million in the same 2005 period.”
“The pullbacks don’t surprise brokers. David Wluka, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, said people who list homes for $1 million or more ‘tend to have more flexibility on pricing. In most cases, (a few thousand dollars either way) isn’t as critical as it is to somebody selling a house for $300,000 or $400,000.’”
“Brookline agent Aliza Dash said she thinks her town’s prices have dropped because ‘people aren’t willing to pay astronomical prices for average houses any more.’ But Dash actually sees some benefits to the lower costs. ‘It’s nice that we’re getting back to realistic prices - or at least prices that aren’t quite so outrageous,’ she said.”
From CNN Money. “As housing markets have cooled, buyers are making demands that wouldn’t have flown during frothier times. ‘The market has turned in the direction of buyers,’ say Chuck Bartolo, a broker in Spencertown, New York. ‘They’re feeling empowered.’”
“In addition to agreeing to make more repairs, to lower their prices and to throw in extras to get deals done, sellers are also more willing to accept contingency clauses in the contracts that make the sale dependent on certain conditions being met.”
“‘A year ago,’ says New York City real estate attorney, Neil Garfinkel, ‘you couldn’t get any contingencies written into a contract. They are now finding their way back in.’”
“Garfinkel doesn’t expect the types or numbers of contingencies written into contracts to change if markets grow colder. He thinks the impact will be more on prices than on contract details. Right now, we’re in a fairly balanced market, in his opinion, and that has certainly helped buyers out. ‘There’s much more parity,’ he says.”
The latest on Kara Homes:
‘Kara Homes has asked a U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge for permission to hire a crisis management firm and a chief restructuring officer to help guide it through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The beleaguered homebuilder filed for Chapter 11 on Oct. 5. It has since run out of cash and its operations have stalled.’
As I suggested last week:
“The motion comes on the heels of a dueling request by the U.S. Trustee, which asked Judge Michael Kaplan on Friday to appoint a trustee to take control of Kara because company founder Zuhdi Karagjozi has not been able to line up interim financing to keep operations going.”
Don’t blame the UST at all. This guy clearly couldn’t manage the company at all. Good grief, it fell apart at the first tiny little dowturn! They need to stop the bleeding and sell it off.
This thing is a goner. Bet it gets sold for parts.
And reading further. Ha! Here’s the real issue! The creditors’ committee doesn’t want new professionals hired. They want to keep feeding at the trough themselves!
Kara’s motion for a chief restructuring officer has the backing of the unsecured creditors’ committee, because a trustee would hire its own law firm and financial adviser, costing both time and money, said Michael Sirota, the committee’s lawyer.
“We think that a chief restructuring officer of Perry Mandarino’s qualifications is the equivalent, if not superior, because it prevents having to bring in having a Chapter 11 trustee with a new set of professionals,” Sirota said.
“This thing is a goner. Bet it gets sold for parts.”
Do the parts go up for sale by absolute auction? We might get some interesting insight to salvage value if we had access to the price for which the parts sell…
Posted Topic “At Some Point, Gravity Takes Over”
When does “common sence” take over?
No wonder why this guy has no acting jobs……. his timing is so far off the mark.
——————————————————-
Few jobs are as irregular as acting. Which may be why Jeremy Kushnier waited until last year to buy his one-bedroom in Morningside Heights. “I just got tired of paying rent,
Yeah, kind of hard to reconcile these statements:
‘I just got tired of paying rent’
‘Kushnier’s co-op doesn’t allow sublets so soon after an owner moves in—ruling out that option—and the expenses are piling up. ‘It’s a financial burden,’ he says’
Tired of paying rent but in a financial burden cuz he can’t rent it out?
I wonder if he’s tired of paying the mortgage. Tired of being upside down. Tired of being stressed out.
I bet he would trade it all in to be paying rent again. Ah, the grass is always greener on the other side.
Tired???
That guy is going to be exhausted before too long.
I can hardly read this blog anymore without busting out in loud laughter.
How does an out-of-work actor afford a 500k place anyway?
the “non yuppie” name for morningside heights is HARLEM
he spent 1/2 a MIL on a 1 bedroom essentially in one of the worse parts of manhattan. The article dosent mention if its a condo or coop. You can get a 1 bed in midtown for about 50K more for a condo.
Am i on another planet? I just dont understand what would motivate someone to move there, and pay a premium for a LOWER quality of life
Rich,
He’s cutting edge of the new genre: Upsidedown out of work actor. Finally a valid reason for all these young kids to have angst!
But according to Boston-area realtor Brigitte Senkler,
Lincoln MA down over 25% in real value so far — she must mean a blue-chip stock in 1972.
Chrysler’s still a blue chip, too. Or maybe an airline — Pan Am, TWA, United, Braniff
GE’s as blue as chips come. Go look what it’s done since 2000. For that matter check out IBM. Remember when GE and IBM mattered?
But Blue Chips stocks always go up! Just ask Crammer
“Remember when GE and IBM mattered?”
Um… I believe GE is the largest company in the world, or at least close to it, so yes I would say it matters. IBM is still up there too. 2000’s brief stock bubble aside, GE’s done pretty darn well, up about 500% since 1990, and relatively steadily at that. Same with IBM - up about 300% since 1990.
GE is #2 behind XOM. IBM is around #18 among US-based companies, #30 worldwide. Neither has had particularly outsized gains compared to the overall market, and in fact both have lagged the mkt since 2001.
I thought stocks continued up through 1972 and tanked in 73-74. Am I wrong, STS?
That is correct. I must have been thinking about The Poseidon Adventure.
“‘What goes up must come down,’ said Tim Warren of The Warren Group. ‘(Brookline, Dover and Lincoln) are all premiere communities where prices went up very far, very fast. But at some point, gravity takes over.’”
We have talked about the economic law of gravity a lot here. The intuition seems to be that, like an airplane which climbs too steeply, a rapidly inflating home purchase market runs a risk of stalling out, and going into a nose dive. Does anyone who reads here know whether there is a formal economic explanation along these lines? Because if there is not, maybe someone in one of the Fed bank research departments should get busy and develop one.
Not that I know of. The process of a bubble inflating is more like the fringe of economics…where supply, demand and affordibility metrics stop being considered and where emotion drives pricing almost completely. This is where, because of the emotional content, psychology becomes more useful than economics. Economics tries to explain market behavior from a logical and factual stand point (which, for the most part, most of the time, markets adhere to). Unfortunately, when greed (or fear) becomes too great a part of the equation you can throw logic out the window. As the wings of emotion become ever more “pitched” in a market, the upward trajectory becomes increasingly unsustainable. It takes ever more fuel and thrust (Fed easing?) to propel the market upward when it appreciates too rapidly for the type of plane/asset category to continue forward AND upward. At some point, either the emotional excitement can no longer be sustained (as it is with anything in life, no?) or someone has to bring cocaine or speed to the flight to boost it, artificially, a bit further and higher.
We all know what happens eventually. This process, with respect to “asset” prices has far more to do with human nature and psychology than anything “economic”….at the extremes.
Some pretty bright economists are trying to figure out how to factor in psychology to their models these days…
http://www.econ.yale.edu/~shiller/
http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/odean/
(be sure to run your cursor over his photo!)
http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/richard.thaler/research/index.htm
elsa.berkeley.edu/~rabin/
I don’t like the gravity analogy much myself … For one thing, “what goes up, must come down” is not really true – all those satellites in orbit aren’t gonna come crashing down again. Also, the idea that asset prices follow some natural law that can never under any circumstances be violated is just patently false.
Annata,
As long as they are in orbit around planet Earth, without any delta V (or burning of fuel for thrust to maintain orbital parameters) as sure as the sun rises, they will eventually fall back to Earth due to orbital decay. So, not true on the satellites.
The law of gravity applies. It just depends on your frame of reference.
A satellite in a stable orbit will not fall back to earth for the same reason the earth and the sun do not “fall” towards each other (angular momentum). This is why I don’t like the gravity analogy. Gravity doesn’t mean “what comes up must come down.” There is no economic analogue for assets and pricing.
Maybe the analogue could be something about fools being attracted to asset bubbles by a force proportional to the inverse of their IQ squared?
‘For one thing, “what goes up, must come down” is not really true – all those satellites in orbit aren’t gonna come crashing down again.’
That is not what I said. There is no need for an airplane to ever come back down again, provided it has an unlimited supply of fuel. Similarly, perhaps if the Fed can print us enough money, we will never need to see the end of the housing mania.
“Also, the idea that asset prices follow some natural law that can never under any circumstances be violated is just patently false.”
And for God’s sake, I never said asset prices follow some natural law. That sounds more like something the Fed would make up (like the NAIRU, or the natural law that says Asians save and Americans spend, etc.).
“Also, the idea that asset prices follow some natural law that can never under any circumstances be violated is just patently false.”
Here is a “natural law” for you: Interest rates are a fundamental determinant of housing prices (Peach, FRBNY). I guess the law of gravity should be applying to housing prices about now according to Peach, since interest rates have risen by a lot since he assured us that lofty prices were justified by “fundamentals.”
‘For one thing, “what goes up, must come down” is not really true’
Perhaps you would prefer this idea expressed another way, “In the long run we are all dead.”
Especially if you consider inflation. Most assets don’t come down in nominal terms due to devaluation of the dollar.
Right — but every time in the history of US real estate that home prices were this high in real terms (measured as average home prices compared to either rents or incomes) they certainly did manage to revert over the next seven-or-so years. Please tell me if you know of any exceptions to this “natural law.”
And what assets might that be? Stocks and RE, for starters, certainly do come down in nominal terms. We call that a “bear market”.
The only asset that never comes down in nominal terms is cash itself.
“The pullbacks don’t surprise brokers. David Wluka, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, said people who list homes for $1 million or more ‘tend to have more flexibility on pricing. In most cases, (a few thousand dollars either way) isn’t as critical as it is to somebody selling a house for $300,000 or $400,000.’”
The median has dropped over $100k in these places. Hardly a few thousand dollars either way.
man was talking about only thing he care about: broker commissions.
I never trust anyone in the industry who refuses to address the changes in percentages, rather than solely dollar amounts.
this is a bad-faith argument anyway. the price of the house has nothing to do with the impact of those “few thousand dollars.” it’s the level of leverage on the loan that determines the impact. since people are buying more expensive homes on greater leverage, those few thousand dollars have every but as much impact.
i have that old saturday night live ad running through my head: “don’t buy things you can’t afford.”
Beazer Home Sales crash 58%, Toll Brother Sales Crash 55%
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061107/homebuilders_slump.html?.v=3
Beazer Homes USA Inc. of Atlanta reported a 44 percent decline in profit as higher revenue was offset by squeezed margins. The company said there was “significant” discounting in most markets.
New orders for Beazer fell by 58 percent to 2,064 homes from 4,937 last year, as the housing market continued to slow. It has cut 1,000 jobs, or 25 percent of its workforce.
Luxury home builder Toll Brothers Inc. of Horsham, Pa., said home-building revenue fell by 10 percent and signed contracts were down by 55 percent compared with a year ago. The company, which released its quarterly outlook ahead of earnings, also said it will incur a hefty charge against profits as it pares down the number of lots it controls.
This gloomy news is certain to lead to a contrarian rally in the price of TOL and BZH stocks, or is that a short-covering rally? Whatever…
Now you know why the NAR started their $40 million dollar BS campaign last weekend. The major HB’s have to report earnings, and everyone knew it is going to be gloomy. My surprise is that Baezer didn’t mince any words in telling Wall Street the truth as to what is happening on the group. Maybe David Lehear and all the other NAR spinsters should be mailed copies of Baezer’s outlook on the market. Doesn’t take a PHD on economics to suggest 2007 is going to be really bad for homes.
They are mocking the fact that no matter how bad the outlook they describe, their stock price remains magically aloft on a permanently low plateau. I wonder what would happen if they were more upbeat? That will be the next shoe to drop, no doubt…
“So much for that: Sixteen months later, Kushnier’s selling his place and moving to Los Angeles. If he gets his price, $509,000, he’ll do slightly better than break even. But a little negotiation could wipe out his profit altogether. ‘The tough thing is, the market went down,’ says his broker, Désirée Halac. ‘A lot of people are offering 10 percent less.’”
Sounds to me like this person will lose $50,000. Thanks NAR. Always a good time to buy.
Jeremy Kushnier waited until last year to buy his one-bedroom in Morningside Heights. ‘I just got tired of paying rent,’ says Kushnier. ‘I wanted to build some equity
Finally we get a real story about somebody (who clearly should have kept renting) getting in real trouble because he was trying to “build equity.” I hope that, after this bust, I never hear that line again. At least until 2025.
wait till he hits LA LOL. At least in NY for half a mil he could walk to something.
If the guy has half a brain, he’ll be eagerly renting again when he gets to L.A. … hopefully he’s learned his lesson by now.
What is truly striking to me is the $509,000 “one-bedroom in Morningside Heights” part. And $345,000 for the “coop in Ft. Greene (Brooklyn).”
It is breathtaking in that both neighborhoods are ghettos, through and through. Mania indeed.
“If you bought recently and have to sell now, you may be in a position not heard of since the early nineties: You can actually lose money on a New York apartment.”
A loss is an economic event, not a cash event. Someone who bought a place last year where the market value has declined 10% has a 10% loss. Whether or not the loss is realized through a transaction does not change that.
When the HB’s see a decline in value of land on their books FASB requires them to write down the value. This results in an immediate hit to the income statement. The HB’s must recognize a loss whether they sell the property or not.
“This results in an immediate hit to the income statement. The HB’s must recognize a loss whether they sell the property or not.”
If they can get into the ground with a new house shortly before the end of the accounting period, do you know if they still have to count a loss on the underlying piece of land? Not knowing, I’d have guessed they shove it forward at book into the cost of the building and pospone recognition a year.
Actually, they do not have a gain or loss until sale. When they sell they have a “realized loss”. At this point it is prospective (or in the future). This may sound a bit like legal parsing, but the IRS only counts gains or losses when realized.
Zillow has competition!
http://www.cyberhomes.com
much better than zillow… this one had my place by 5% i would guess… off a little on sqft and beds but this is a 3 story townhouse so its always a little tough.
Except for its slow as a dog…
It needs work. It lists my parents’ McMansion (5/3.5 in PBC, FL swampland) as worth $700K. Never. That place Zillows for $599K, and it’s been sitting on the market at a wishing price of $635K for half a year now without so much as a looky-loo. (I think they need to drop their asking price by at least $100K, but they’re too stubborn.)
The site is still in beta. You can click a link and tell them what you think and why the price is not accurate.
Thanks for pointing it out. I think for now, though, I’ll keep my mouth shut, and hope some GF uses a faulty valuation site, gets the mistaken impression that my parents’ place is a good deal, and takes that turkey off their hands. They may embody everything that’s been wrong with this housing bubble, but they’re still my parents.
zillow is still in beta, too.
It had my parents place more accurate. The company is the largest title insurer in the U.S.
Had my home 30% LESS than Zillow!
Not to say that its innaccurate but just goes to show how big a gap exists in figuring prices even with “better” technology.
Totally bogus. It showed my place being worth almost 200K more than it’s assessed at, which is about 50K more than I could actually get in today’s market.
It still showed my house as a dirt lot. It was built in 2004. Hello, lag.
my house zillowed at $1,023,000 and cybers at $558,000. the only good thing i can say is that the actual value is somwhere in the middle.
These kinds of valuation tools might work in a newer subdivision or a high rise condominium, but will be pathetic when used outside of those narrow situations.
My neighborhood is dense and urban with a mixture of single-family houses, small condo buildings, and high rise condo buildings, all a mixture of old and new construction. In many instances the land is worth more vacant than it is with existing structure, so there are alot of teardowns. way too many variables for a program that picks nearby comps that have nothing in common with my property.
Yep, total crap. Had my rental listed at 715k (which I rent for 1000 mo). Duplexes throughout our area have closed for 550k within the last year and they are in far better shape then mine. That 550k still doesn’t make sense when you need to rent one half out and your lucky if you get 1k per mo for a 2 br. Even right next door to me (idiot bought it for 605k in early 2005) and he can’t find anyone to live in his other half - he’s definately bleeding money.
I wonder if its owner, Fidelity National Information Services, is directly related to Fidelity National Title Insurance Company.
Stock ticker fnf and fis, but yes, they are somehow related.
borrowers and mortgage brokers will love this service. just checked on a house in laguna niguel, ca that sold 2weeks ago for around $660,000.
cyberhome values it at $899,000.
cool
Lame, slow, and way off the price for my area. Totally overestimates both homes I haverented in N Scottsdale by as much as 150k.
Anyone hear anything about the impact of the big Wall Street bonuses? I mean really these guys on the Street should be able to help keep the party going right?What about foreigners? I htought they love New York? I would be very interested to see how this stuff affects New York
Wall St. bonuses are a myth - they are heavily skewed to the top, and those guys already own estates in Greenwich. Plus, last year was a record bonus year and the selling year was terrible. And there aren’t as many of them as people think. There will probably be a few who buy, but then again, most of them are reading the papers too, no, and realize it’s not a good time to buy.
The bonus is not a myth - I have a relative working in financial services, one year out of college, who just received a bonus large enough for a substantial downpayment. However, it is unlikely to be spent that way - she is very aware that now is not the time to buy.
How come it never rains money out here on the left coast anymore?
Umm, yes they are!
While the bonus may look like a “substantial downpayment” to you living in Boonyville, it’s not even close to a downpayment for New York prices. Not after NYC taxes (11.5%)
you gotta love it.
NAR puts out it’s “good time to buy” on the same day the NYT drags phoenix housing mkt through the mud
is this like buying your cruiseline ticket whilst the titanic is sinking in full view out in the harbor?
And I thought, New York never goes. “It is very different here.” Yeah, right!
Sarcasm off!!!
Oh, the agony, agony, agony. Good, NY goes down. Couldn’t have happened to a more arrogant, cocky, self-absorbed crowd. Sorry to say, the center of the universe is not New York.
Sorry to say, the center of the universe is not New York.
Your mistake, NYC is the center of the universe.
Just spent a night in Brooklyn w/ some housing non-bears. I wouldn’t call them bullish, but I had to temper my comments with an admission that NYC “might” be different (even though I know it isn’t). Yawn.
“an admission that NYC “might” be different (even though I know it isn’t).”
I don’t cut them even that much slack anymore. Assuming I want to be polite, I say, “Well, let’s hope you’re right” or “It’d be great if you’re right, wouldn’t it?” Yes, ’twas I, Brutus.
Living here in NYC has been funny. Last year people would laugh at me when I told them buying real estate then was a terrible idea. They thought I was crazy. Now they’re all terrified I might be right. I don’t bring it up any more because I feel bad.
But not that bad.
Who dares to say NYC isn’t different? The rats here are bigger than any you will find in Toledo, Gary, Indiana or Los Angeles. Try to beat that.
I expect a 50% haircut here in New York. I was in Jersey City on Sunday. They are building the heck out of it. Ditto Hoboken. Ditto Brooklyn. Ditto, well you get my point. GLUT is the word.
I can’t wait for the pressure to affect rents. The thought of paying $2,000 per month and getting a decent apartment gives me a stiffy.
Amen brother!
Screw JC, and Hoboken.
They’re building the crap out of 10th ave, and 1st and 2nd below 57th, and all the marginal neighborhoods in Chelsea, and Hell’s Kitchen, and south of Murray Hill.
Who’s going to buy all of this?
50% might be extreme for most buildings in NYC but the once the 421a tax abatements start ending, some buildings will drop like flies. In the next 5-10 years, people in abated nyc buildings could see their taxes go up by many thousands…even without a bursting bubble, a lot of prices will start falling.
A year ago, LeMarc Brown handled a couple’s purchase of a Fort Greene co-op for $310,000. A few months after the close, they decided to visit One Hanson Place in downtown Brooklyn and fell hard for the redeveloped tower.”
Only yuppies would pay over $300k for a glorified apartment and then in the same year have the audacity to think they can “move on up” with a tidy little profit to boot. Our cities have become thick with these types - let ‘em lose their shirts.
Well said.
This can’t be good news. Remember these guys?
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061107/crescent_mover.html?.v=1
What probably happened is that the yuppies got mugged on the way to the grocery store. Ft. Greene? You gotta be kidding….
Seriously. That place is a pit.
“an outside force like job relocation or a baby ”
Some of the side effects. Will people hold off on having a babies until they can get out of a condo or be unable to move to a better paying job? A dip in birth rates and molasses dumped on the jobs market?
Not sure. Babies have become the lastest fashion accessory on No. Calif. You’re nobody unless you own a home and have a toddler or one on the way.
You think maybe a baby bubble?
BROOKLINE!! My home town. I distinctly remember the argument I had with my neighbor that ever-desireable Brookline prices would eventually come down - and perhaps quite a lot. Now they are.
Scott are you out there trolling? Please read this.
(Good think I convinced the parents to sell at the ‘05 summer peak. Now if they had only listened to me and rented for 3 years instead of downgrading)
OT:
On the way from the car to the office today I was thinking about all the consumer and mortgage debt this country has and how we all marvel at the ability to keep it all afloat. I know many of us have made predictions about a fast or slow landing. I have a feeling that this may play out alittle longer than we think in light of the American conumer’s ability to keep going. Therefore, I was thinking long term this morning. No doubt that the current 30s-40s crowd, my generation is going to get hit very hard and I think we will definately see the aftermatch in the next 20-30 years when all the different types of debts become due, the entitlement programs and pyramid schemes of the gov’t can’t hold up any longer and we all want to retire. What do you guys think? I think housing will tank sooner, but maybe we are underestimating the debt-runners and the banksters abilities to keep the shell game going. At some point all the bills have to be paid. What I fear for is knowing that many 30-40 somethings will have a 500K total debt package waiting for them at retirement in 20-30 years and nothing else to show for all that work, but a bunch of toys and a house that, if sold, might pay the debts off and that’s it. Then what, hope you have that nice pension waiting for you. Anyway, any thoughts welcome. I was just pondering that maybe all of this debt will take longer than expected to unravel. Don’t worry, I am not thinking about buying, esp. living in South OC. Renting is just fine. I have just had it with all the debt sloshing around and was wondering how much longer we can go on.
Yeah, I’m 60, don’t need my social security before 70, but thinking of taking it ASAP anyway just because once you start taking it, the powers that be have a harder time taking it away. OUR parents made out like bandits in this system, not that I begrudge them personally.
I agree. The Greatest Generation is reaping all of of the pension and social security benefits…not the boomers as some people here seem to think. That’s the bad news…the good news is those of us with GG parents/relatives/friends still alive don’t have to support them (at least not as much as we might have had to). I have two relatives in their 80s that I am responsible for and if it weren’t for their pensions and social security I would be hosed. I’m also helping putting my niece thru college. Sandwiched between two generations with expensive needs and no pension for myself, and no hope of social security. Luckily I sold my overvalued Silicon Valley ranch house within a few months of the boom peak. I’m now renting
I think OCDan has a point. As a young renter (29) I face a hobbesian choice: 1) hope real estate drops so I can afford a house but likely lose my job (btw — I don’t work in real estate, but my job is not depression-proof) or 2) hope that the economy keeps rolling along and rent the rest of my life.
badger boy
Forget about 1or 2 life is not like that. You can have both 6-way till Sunday….ditch the either… or!