‘Say Farewell To The Housing Boom’ On Long Island
Newsday sees an end to the housing bubble. “Say one last farewell to the housing boom. In the clearest evidence to date of a housing market shift, the latest Long Island data showed Nassau County’s median home price rose only 4.4 percent from March 2005 to March 2006, the smallest annual price gain since May 1998.”
“Adding to the pile of evidence, the number of homes for sale is still 74 percent above last year’s levels for the three counties, while closed sales in the region are down 6.7 percent.”
“Based on the current selling pace, it would take more than eight months to sell the total supply of Nassau homes for sale, and nine months to sell Suffolk’s inventory, the highest since 1998.”
“The numbers aren’t a surprise and some are expecting more to come. (Broker) Ed Gitlin said he foresees 10 percent annual price declines on Long Island, perhaps as soon as June.”
“The slower market could affect the overall economy, too, as some consumers may slow spending to make up for higher interest rates or lower housing values. ‘Borrowers were using their houses like ATM machines,’ said Bob Moulton, a mortgage broker in Manhasset. ‘They were taking the money out to buy cars or go on vacation, and it’s got to have some trickle-down effect.’”
The slower market could affect the overall economy, too, as some consumers may slow spending to make up for higher interest rates or lower housing values.
Duh!
Bush is the decider. He says that he gets to decide if there is a housing bubble and he gets to decide what is best. High housing prices and high gas prices are good for the economy. He’s the decider and he decides that all the profits that Exxon and Toll brothers are making are good for his bottom line and that of the RePUKEblican party.
Bravo.
What?
Do your parents know you’re using the computer?
I’m all for partisan jabs, but how about some content with the name calling?
They can’t blame the Dems for this one. This happened on his watch. He put the blame of the dot com bubble on Clinton, and you know what? The majority of it has something to do with Clinton, but not all of it.
Do you see Bush doing anything to combat this housing affordability or high gas prices? I hope the Dems take control of Congress and impeach his butt for the Valerie Plame issue where he leaked intelligence. For the illegal wiretaps. For the corruption we see coming out of his party. Housing is going to be just the thing to bring him too his knees. He will shoulder the blame because he has done nothing except let the average american, the working middle class become exploited for the gain of the wealthy, those he gives his tax cuts to–the ones he wants to make permanent. I guess we can keep borrowing money from China to fund all these wars that continue to push gas prices higher and higher into the stratosphere.
I’m sick of it and I am speaking up. Many of them are sick of it as well. For many die hard Republicans, it’s hard to see when they always look at things with rose colored glasses.
What a bunch of loony, fact-devoid raving.
This is a REAL ESTATE blog, leave your 8th grade political views at home.
What a bunch of loony, fact-devoid raving. This is a REAL ESTATE blog, leave your 8th-grade-level political views at home.
Guess what. Politics have a huge impact on REAL ESTATE. Take your pre school beliefs and hit the road.
>>Politics have a huge impact on REAL ESTATE.
Sure, but does name-calling inform us?
Ask that of Unrealtor.
Right, UnRealtor is doing name-calling here, not the paranoid genius raving about “RePUKEblicans,” etc.
Can we get back to REAL ESTATE now?
and why don’t you got back to peddling shlocky shitboxes while you’re at it.
Funny how Republicans get offended when you make fun of their name. Hey, I believe in calling a spade a spade. Sorry if it hurts your feelings.
You just assume people are Republicans. Maybe they are Democrats who think it’s impossible to win office with people like you making enemies instead of friends.
Perhaps so. I think Balance is a good thing, but we clearly do not have it at the top and there are no checks and balances in place. The Dems will have to undo all the damage the Repubs made, and when they do, hopefully they don’t go to far.
Either way, I personally think it is too late and we are in a rude awakening for the economic problems that ly on our doorstep.
It’s more than just a housing bubble–it’s economic rot.
Check out this blog; it’s great!
http://economicrot.blogspot.com
I disagree with nearly all of your analysis, including the part where you said it was fair to blame the “majority” of tech bubble on Clinton.
Blame the tech bubble on the greedy VC’s, the greedy execs, and the Wall Street IPO marketing machine. This is what caused the bubble and these are the people who stole from the public. I haven’t seen anyone being sent to jail.
Use a gun, go to jail. Use your head, go to the country club.
I disagree! the partisan snipe was timely and short and inoffensive. I think Id appreciate it even if it were as deft and aimed at the other side.
wait! I replied after a long delay. Now it looks like Im commenting on the wrong blog entry. I was commenting on Tom’s first swipe, which was lighter than the second.
Does anyone think that the current Pres has an inkling of what is going on? I doubt that the Housing Bubble figures heavily into the morning briefings GW gets from Dick “deficits dont matter” Cheney.
“Does anyone think that the current Pres has an inkling of what is going on?”
Did his Dad have an inkling of the price of a gallon of milk? (For those too young to remember this is probably how Clinton got in—populist sentiment was that Bush 31 was out of touch with the average American)
Upstater and all those critical of Bush. NO US domestic terrorist attacks since 9/11. Pretty good record. What is more important? Also Bush tried to get to the ball rolling to scrap the Ponzi scheme known as social security. It was designed to keep old folks who had lost lives savings in the bank failures of the depression from starving. Those people are long gone. The govt. does n’t owe people a living ’cause they make it to 65. Off my soapbox now
and back to RE.
Amen Anon!
>>RePUKEblican
Hmm. So that’s inoffensive? Maybe so, but I think that’s what got the “childish” comments going.
Try using wit instead of potty mouth. May be a bit more convincing.
Ah yes, I skipped over that offensive word. Sorry. The posts have been accumulating too quickly.
Tom,
Clearly you’ve mis-underestimated our strategery (sp?)
LOL. I guess you just saw his press conference on CNN re. Rumsfeld. I thought that was pretty funny too.
Bush: “I am the decider.”
I did, hence comment numero uno.
Your juvenile politics are polluting this REAL ESTATE blog.
In his recent post, he nearly redeemed himself with a few morsels of reasoning.
The facts is that the screamers are whipped up to the point where they just can’t help themselves.
Most of us aren’t here to bash each other. We just want a front-row seat to the show, no matter what our politics are. We just want information to help us know what the best move to make is.
Can we talk about Religion now?
Does it make anyone wonder why a few of the minority here have hissy fits when the utter and complete policy failures of these republiKKKans is mentioned? Could it be they decry “this is a real estate blog” because they worship at the republiKKKan altar?
Maybe people just don’t like jerks.
Comment by Michael Anderson
2006-04-18 15:05:34
“Maybe people just don’t like jerks.”
Likely the reason everyone here despises republikkkans.
This is a Housing Bubble / Real Estate blog.
Please, be kind enough to leave politics at the door.
>>Likely the reason everyone here despises republikkkans.
Childish. I’m not a Republican, but I’m beginning to understand why people vote that way.
Yeah, I think I’ll vote that way because everyone makes fun of them… I wonder why? They have done NOTHING since being in power. 6 years later and what do we have? Gas has tripled in price, and housing is so unaffordable, you’ll be lucky if your kids can buy a house without a large inheritence. There is going to be a lot of blame, and why? Because of the policies of those in power that fostered this environment to begin with which was fueled by greed.
NOTHING should be replaced with ANYTHING
Oops strike that.. I did type it right the first time.
And I guess it is not OK for me to say RePUKEblicans, but it is ok for you to say child? Hypocrite.
Today speaking about Rumsfeld, Bush said, “I’M THE DECIDER!! ME ME ME! NOOOOO!!! I won’t go to my ROOM!! I DECIDEDERED I AINT GOTTA!”
I’ve never heard such a long series of lies over many years like I’ve heard out of the mouth of Bush. Incredulous.
Perhaps there should be a measure of whether you should be Republican or Democrat. If your adjusted gross income (having just done your taxes, you all should know it) is less than, say $45,000, you should be a Democrat; over that, you should be a Republican. Just for CYA and quality of life in the future.
Other better-informed cutoffs? Tax folks?
Tom, a present for you, enjoy:
http://www.freedomagenda.com/iraq/wmd_quotes.html
Txchick57, you apparently have some psychological defect whereby you choose to live in a place you deem a “hellhole.”
I think you and Tom should go on a date.
Robin,
$45.000? Gasp! Based on the Bush tax cuts, and it depends a lot on where you live, but in NYC, at least, the rational ‘cut-over to Republican’ point is probably somewhere around $500,000/year. The AMT nicely negates all the so-called tax cuts for the middle-class in the high cost blue states.
Amen! Ive just donated multiple Gs to the Feds because of the AMT. You must be awfully rich to have benefotted from the tax cuts. Basically all your income must be dividends and cap gains.
Everyone was wrong on the intelligence, but Bush clearly manufactured it for his own reasons.
War with Iraq = Higher gas prices = more profits for my oil buddies and companies like Halliburton.
Do you see the conflict of interest? I do, especially when you see Halliburton getting all the no-bid contracts and on top of that, they are charging us inflated rates for service that isn’t even provided. We don’t have the proper checks and balances at the top and the Republican control has clearly train wrecked our economy and you just don’t see it. It’s basically stealing from the next generation to fund our excess. That is why we need a Dem legislative branch to offsite the RepubliCONS. Maybe you will lake that versus the RePUKEblicans.
Tom, Whats hilarious is the vocal rabid minority that throw out anything to get the focus off the fact that Bush fabricated the entire WMD. They use former presidents who haven’t been in office in 6 years, wives of former presidents, old candidates for president…. anyone and anything to spin, hide and obscure the fact that Bush is a pathological liar.
In _The Oil Factor_, Stephen and Donna Leeb say that the government will have to do whatever it takes to sustain inflated real estate prices–otherwise the economy will collapse.
A. Do you think they’re right about this? Is protecting the bubble the government’s only option?
B. Is it possible to sustain unreasonably high home values for more than a short time? If so, what would the gov’t have to do?
(I’m no economist. I’m just trying to understand the whole bubble phenomenon.)
How does supporting the bubble protect the economy? Higher home prices eat away at consumer spending ability. Can prices really go any higher right now? I doubt it. And a plateau doesn’t help either - people can no longer tap the housing ATM and are spending a large percentage of income on mortgage payments. High home prices are bad for the economy in the long run. IMHO Trying to keep housing inflated is only putting off the inevitable.
That’s the biggest problem I had with Leeb’s new book — his total dismissal of a housing crash as a possiblity. He maintains that the government simply won’t let it happen because the consequences are simply too dire. At least he’s half right.
As boomers retire or lose their jobs, they are getting the hell out of super expensive markets like Long Island, and frankly the whole NY/NJ/Ct tri-state area. We see a good number moving up here, I can only imagine the numbers in other areas like the Carolinas. Some are even making an early move in order to take profits on their real estate before prices tank and tank they will. The younger generation doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of money to support prices and prices have to come down.
Ten percent down by June sounds plausible, although I tend to think we won’t see this until the fall when all urgency associated with start of the school year subsides and sellers are looking at a long winter. And in some cases - the second long winter in a row.
Portland, Mainer i agree with you completely. the boomers retiring will only accelerate from this point forward which will put increasing pressure on housing prices that are already way disconnected from salaries. couple this with crazy high taxes and i just don’t see how prices will stay up even with 2 income families being the norm for families going forward.
Boomers won’t retire. They don’t have any savings.
A lot of them will be retired.
True. Watch for an increase in the number of lawsuits about work-based age discrimination as the boomers retire. Later, watch for boomers to sue to sit at desk for $100k a year while two helpers wipe the droll.
Hey! I resemble that remark!
Odd that on this blog one should have to point out history, but even destitute people are hard pressed to delay retirement by more than a few years. The demographics of retirement age are very strong. People in their mid sixties do not simply keep working, or at least they never have at any time in the past. We are not in a New Economy, just a stressed out one. It would be far more realistic to expect a small delay before this generation retires a bit more poor than the last.
That is actually very wrong. It has only been recently that people have started to retire when they hit the 60’s. In 1900 - the average retirement age was 74 ( yes even though the average life expectancy was 50 ). This was only 1% of the population though.
Yr Life Exp Ret Age % of Pop
1910 50 74 1%
1940 61 70 5%
1970 67 65 10%
2000 73 62 15%
Everyone should expect to work five more years than their parents did. If you are not keeping fit, it wont be good.
Sidney, you hit the nail on the head. Luckly, everyone is keeping in shape and not getting fat. Err, scratch that last bit…
I’m a boomer. I have savings. I’m not retired but I have my own company (no one will hire a person past 45 or even 40 yrs in hi-tech). I sold my house slightly after the peak (Oct ‘05). I am now renting for awhile.
Many of my boomer friends have lots of savings, and lots of equity in their homes. Some still have jobs but most have their own businesses or do consulting. I find the younger people (30s early 40s) to be the ones without any savings and the big spenders. Just my 2 cents.
>>I find the younger people (30s early 40s) to be the ones without any savings and the big spenders.
That’s may be true, in part. I’ve seen the boomers broken up into two categories (1945-1955 and 1956-1964) with very little in common between them. Mostly, we watched you older boomers go to Vietnam, be hippies, do disco, become yuppies, etc. We were influenced, but we didn’t participate.
We younger boomers seem to have little in savings. But I’ve also seen awful statistics about your group’s savings. Some your age seem to be saved only by the passing away of your more savings-oriented parents.
I think all of us really were hurt by the confusion of the transition from pensions to 401k. My Dad retired with both. A lot of younger people have neither.
“That’s may be true, in part. I’ve seen the boomers broken up into two categories (1945-1955 and 1956-1964) with very little in common between them. Mostly, we watched you older boomers go to Vietnam, be hippies, do disco, become yuppies, etc. We were influenced, but we didn’t participate”.
After the Boomers go through their savings, they will get more money out of their homes with reverse mortgages. Those who live long enough will one be back in tents one day - Woodstock Lives!
When I was younger I wasn’t in the boomer group and now I appearently am, since it appears that some people consider 1956-1964 to be part of the boomers. In the 70’s to be considered a baby boomer you had to be born before about 1956 or so, as I remember it.
As I recall it, in the 70s, the cutoff was usually 1962, because I remember that I missed it by one year. Next thing I knew, it was 1964 and I was in.
I didn’t know many boomers buying 500K houses at 24.
Spare me.
I’ve observed several older couples (late 60s, 70s) who have sold their Northeast homes in the last 6 months (cashed out), and rent a few towns over for chump change in comparison.
The bubble funded their retirement.
“I’ve observed several older couples (late 60s, 70s) who have sold their Northeast homes in the last 6 months (cashed out), and rent a few towns over for chump change in comparison. The bubble funded their retirement”.
You’ll see more and more of this. If boomers follow suit, enough homes will go on the market and “Gen M” will one day be able to buy some of the homes. Meanwhile, rents will go way up beyond chump change.
Also, people with capes and ranches or bedrooms on the first floor will get better appreciation on their homes because stairs will become a problem as the boomers age.
“stairs will become a problem as the boomers age”
Tell that to my 90 year old gram who lives at home w/incredibly steep stairs and my (now deceased) 97 year old great gram who only broke her hip when pulling the push mower(!) out of the basement (and up the stairs)
The boomers have turned into wusses with all their supposed needs. Thanks again marketing guys….filling all those needs we never knew we had. (signed a boomer who’s not planning to go soft)
Good for them.
It’s a zero sum game…
They might be funded, but their grandchildren will nothing but tax and debt slaves.
There’s no free lunches.
that’s a broad generalization. there are a lot of wealthy boomers selling their homes in the suburbs and moving to NYC. It’s a great place to live in your old age: easy to get around, lots of great restaurants and shows, top-notch doctors, etc..
OT:
Credit Cruncher
“In ‘Maxed Out,’ filmmaker James Scurlock takes a scathing look at the lending industry and reveals the tragic consequences of excessive consumer debt.”
Would this flic qualify as a comedy?
This writer is a moron. Not two months ago she ended one of her real estate articles with “the five reasons that there is no bubble on Long Island”, or something to that effect, citing reasons like “they aren’t making any more land”. Writes like one of Lareah’s lackeys.
BTW, I believe she made the “no more land” comment when LI inventory was up 64% YOY, not recognizing the obvious irrelevence of her talking point.
Every time a developer cuts into a forest or a farm, they’re making new land. There is plenty more land to make–just look at a night shot of our hemisphere for lights to see how little land we use.
It’s water that could end up being a problem.
You didn’t just say that, did you?
Here’s a day shot of our hemisphere:
http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/rsd/images/goes8_lg.jpg
Lots of blue stuff.
Hehe. Can you drink all that blue stuff there?
Agree - Water will be the biggest problem in 10 years and will result in world wide conflagrations.
Isn’t it true that places like LA wouldn’t even exist without piped in water?
The west is pretty arid so there must be other places like this too. You want sunny weather all year - OK, something’s gotta give.
Meanwhile in some places like Long Island the ground water is not good. Big bottled water country. Meanwhile, NYC has some of the most pristine drinking water there is.
1. If you go to the local history museum in San Diego you will see that in the 1890s SD was a desert.
2. At Lake Tahoe, near Reno, there are fully grown forest way below the surface level. That means not too long ago (in a geological sense) the lake level was a lot lower.
3. When I studied American history in college (a long long long time ago), I came upon some early Spanish Mission reports that said according to the local Indians, their oral history talked about droughts lasting 75-100 years.
SJ
The article said that the Intermezzo is localted directly in the airport flight path and close to a wastewater treatment plant and all that for 1.2 million starting price. Just because it has a water view does not make it a good place to build.
Sorry I meant to put this comment in another spot.
Read the fine print. It says H2O view. Waste water is still water. What do you expect for $1.2M the ocean? And don’t forget the desirable convenient airport location.
LETS SEE - NO ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ON THE WAY UP THAT THEY WERE RESPONSIBLE AND NOW THEY WANT TO NOT OVERSHOOT:
Fed’s Yellen worried about overshooting
MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:59 PM ET Apr 18, 2006
SAN JOSE, Calif. (MarketWatch) — A top Federal Reserve official said Tuesday she’s getting more worried that the Fed may push interest rates too high.
Janet Yellen, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, said the impact of past rate increases have been delayed and could hit consumers harder than expected.
“I am increasingly concerned about the well-known long and variable lags in monetary policy — specifically, that the delayed effects of our past policy actions might impact spending with greater force than expected,” she said.
This lagged effect could show up especially in the housing market, where a slowdown in price appreciation could dent consumer spending, she added.
“While I expect the housing sector to slow somewhat, I will be highly alert to the possibility of the policy tightening going too far,” she said.
Yellen is a voter this year on the Federal Open Market Committee, which has raised rates at 15 straight meetings and is expected to boost rates again on May 10. See our complete coverage of the Fed.
Recent data have shown a slowdown in housing and a moderation in inflation, leading some analysts to expect the Fed to pause after the May 10 rate hike to judge the effects of its actions. Others call for more rate hikes, insisting that the economy is at full employment and is threatening to overheat, creating more inflation.
Looks like either the NAR, MBA, NAHB or the Bush Admin got to the FED???
Janet Yellen (ex Vice chair, Federal Reserve) has always been dovish.
This was not priced into the market. These comments have the 10 y down the market up higher
Perhaps Janet Yellen owns a big fat house in the SF Bay Area.
How ‘highly alert’ was she to the certainty that the previous policy easing went too far and more significantly lasted too long?
Sorry OT, but a good read from the inside.
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/rubino/2006/0418.html
Maybe should hit the media with this..
I read that this morning… great article
La Jolla condos for everyone!!
NOT all Connecticut is expensive
Tolland Windham counties are oriced BELOW Portland Me-while Middlesex and New London Counties are about the same. Only pricey Fairfield county near NYC is pricey. Hartford county is priced about the same as southern ME-
The one difference is you can probably make a lot more money in Hartford than Portland. Portland is filling up with the wealthy, the equity bandits and the consultants who can work anywhere there’s an Internet connection. If they had to buy their houses with money made in Portland, they’d be in tiny homes on postage stamp lots.
Nope, these folks have come down from Krypton and in Portland are able to buy tall buildings in a single bound. Not that any of our buildings are tall.
Southern Maine, CT, NJ. What’s the difference?
The FED comments continue to come out today. Ben can we get a thread on this? These clowns seem to be saying they want to support 200% run ups in prices?? They let this occur and now they want to protect it? Too late!
OT but Fed related. Check out this trailer at http://www.freedomtofascism.com
It is really obvious that something is just empty propaganda when even talking points are missing from links and the site, it is just propaganda video intended to hook the gullible. It isn’t just this blog that is getting polluted, our whole culture is drowning in poorly thought out, off topic dreck like this.
OT:
Check out this bubble apologist. He spends the bulk of the article describing bubble conditions and with the wave of a hand dismisses any possibility of a bubble.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0418/p09s02-coop.html
From that link:
“As homeownership increases, house prices will continue to rise - not every month in every market, but from year to year broadly across the United States. And a substantial supply of rental homes and apartments will be available as well.”
Let’s remember this quote come the next month or two, when YOY declines in US median house prices will be upon on us - or very close at hand.
I had respect for the Hudson Institute, but this guy has not been paying attention.
Maybe he’s right as far as he goes, but the percentage of homeowners is slowing.
gold and silver going parabolic…I wish I had loaded up more now…I thought they would save the dollar…I guess they think housing is more important.
Ah yes, the parabola. Nice shape. Remember when the home price appreciation chart looked like that?
Yes, I missed the last pullback and am wishing I had backed up a second truck last month.
Right now, I’m waiting for a pullback and colsolidation before the mext leg up. Hopefully we can see another entry point before July
predictions:
start to see widespread price cuts in NY/NJ/CT in June. Median price down 5% YoY by Sept.
OT, yes, but since we’re on an OT roll, this article by the Houston Assoc of Realtors is basically surreal - they have been reduced to having fake “fireside chats” to cheer each other up.
http://mcentral.har.com/DispArticle.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=12759
“attempts by Congressman Mike Oxley, the powerful chair of the House Financial Services Committee and others to allow banks into real estate”
This is from the article mentioned above - does anyone know what this means?
Since the depression banks aren’t allowed to own real estate (they didn’t foreclose on) besides their offices and branches. Some banks would like to not be subject to these restrictions, and some congresspeople are working to make that happen.
Thank you.
To Ben:
on Howard Kunstler’s blog http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/ there is a very interesting post called “Jitters”. Read it, it is very interesting, no matter whether you agree with this ultra-green enviromentalist. It tells a story on how supposedly highly paid people miss a mortgage payment because the electricity at work went out on Friday, and salaries were not deposited.
It would be interesting to discuss how Americans live from paycheck to paycheck in all walks of life.
I don’t know. I’ve had that happen to be even as I had a house worth or two of money in a brokerage account. You can easily allocate brokerage money to any kind of “cash” account you want and outdo the checking account interest rates.
Once you become used to your cash flow situation, you rely on it.
Maybe these people are living check to check. Or maybe they aren’t. It’s hard to tell from this anecdote.
Dent on the credit record, hello?
I don’t see how you can call stashing any spare penny into a high-penalty and volatile place “relying on cash flow”. I’ve never seen a business operating this way, everywhere I see a liquid reserve especially for these kind of situations.
You don’t have to have to have a grands upon grands collecting dust in a checking account - any MM pays a good rate, or you can setup a T-bill revolver. Both are very liquid, and you don’t have to miss a mortgage or CC payment.
>>Dent on the credit record, hello?
Honestly, I don’t think that matters anymore. People get loans easily enough anyway. Heck, I’ve seen people who just went bankrupt get sportscars.
My wife gives me hell if I let the checking account balance get too high (savings account too) as it pays less than 1% interest. She’s got everything plugged into CDs with a little slush money to cover rounding errors. A late fee on the mortgage would be easily covered by the interest we’re getting by not having money wasting away in a checking account.
Putting money into CD’s in a rising rate environment is suboptimal. I prefer to stay in MM cash.
Bubblegram:
Long Island Home Sales =
Smelling loss on ahead
= Home end. All losing ass.
I think that even if prices remain flat through the summer, you will see 10% down or greater. June, July, Sept. are the high water mark, so if March is only up 4.4%, you going to go either flat/down in April and May and moving through the summer you will see negative YOY comps.
Real Estate is toast-
The FED may like to stop raising rates- but with Oil through the roof and Gold/silver going ‘parablolic’ they may not be able to.
As far as GW Bush and the GOP is concerned- they have made socialism an ‘art’ for; the top 5% of the population, the greedy corporations and their top shareholders, and fat lazy and overpaid CEO’s- at the expense of hapless home buyers in bubble areas taking IO loans- so much for the vaunted ‘ownership society’ Just my political thoughts.
A lot of people who get the recent child tax credits are greedy and lazy too.
A lot of people who get the earned income tax credit are greedy and lazy too.
GW is handing out money like it grows on trees, but then it does, doesn’t it? From what I’ve seen the largess is spread a lot wider than the top 5%. Bush is acting like a democrat with rich friends.
Peter,
You’re probably a “Greedy Corporation” if you have any type of retirement account - 401K, IRA, annuity, even defined benefit, some of the funds are most likely in the stock market. Don’t you want your retirement to get high returns?
If the Fed stops raising rates we won’t have to hear realtors say, “Buy now before rates go up!” If people believe rates will stay where they are and that home sales are cooling, they are not going to rush to buy. Best of both worlds - market psychology changing without rates going through the roof. Sounds good to me.
I hope you’re right - my biggest fear is people saying “these rates aren’t too bad” and rushing to buy because rates are rising anymore. People may stop worrying that I/Os and ARMs are a bad deal b/c they will think rates will just stop rising. It could make the bubble WORSE to stop raising rates.
Yes, but on the flipside why would they buy with an I/O if prices aren’t still climbing? Many people rushed in to make a quick profit. No more quick profits, no more rush to buy.
IMO, of course.
You may be right, especially in areas where there were a lot of flippers.
Lunar,
Buy now before rates go down and prices go up. WOW! I could be a realtor!
Stop it Jim, you are making my brain spin! LOL
Speaking of “brain spin”, consider this:
In the early 90’s when housing slowed on the coasts, mortgage rates were dropping.
I wouldn’t bet on housing to fare very well in most places even if rates come back down in the near term, never mind staying in the same range.
I suppose longer term could be anybody’s guess (considering perhaps the Helicopter, China, dirty bombs and all that…).
NEWSFLASH: Real estate insiders go bearish in blogs
In mostly anonymous postings, agents are reporting big problems in the markets.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/18/real_estate/agents_bearish_in_blogs/index.htm