March 16, 2014

People Tend To Behave As They Think

Readers suggested a topic on bubbles and the masses. “What does the lunch bunch or water cooler crowd think about the market in your area (with an example of a comment or two overheard maybe)? I’ve heard people who are. Normally cheerleaders saying that it is slowing, it is flat, and aware of the FHA limit drops. One of them has a condo to unload so he is vested in wanting to see the upside. But he ain’t seeing it.”

A reply, “Spoke with someone two days ago who lives in a neighboring city (and has lived there her whole life). She commented on how insane prices had gotten, being pushed by Facebook employees. Her husband said that ‘once they could clear $1MM’ on the sale, they should sell. Her response ‘we’re there’, but if they sold, she asked, where would they move? Her whole family (parents and siblings) and clients are still in the area.”

One said, “My lunch bunch (Denver) thinks that the sky’s the limit. They all trade stories about how their neighbor sold in 3 days with 5 offers, blah, blah, blah.”

Another asks, “What makes a bubble? I think the precursor of a bubble occurs when a type of asset starts consistently increasing in value. There’s a run up, but the insiders are keenly aware that the market could crash. A mature bubble forms when the asset becomes a ‘magic asset’ - something that conventional wisdom says has no credible possibility of going down anytime in the near future, and even if it does, it’ll just level off.”

“I think according to this, stocks are in a pre-magic-asset phase. They’ve inexplicably gone up, defying conventional wisdom. They’ve shown resilience. Once the muppets get involved and the conventional wisdom starts suggesting there’s no credible chance of the market going down - at best leveling off - then the muppets will be harvested.”

“It’s almost a Heisenberg-Principle state of being: Only when the public doesn’t see a bubble, can a mature bubble exist. Houses are typically a hybrid physical/financial asset, consisting of the physical object plus the promise-to-pay (mortgage). The government buys or insures nearly all new mortgages, and those issued in the past five years. So there’s no credible possibility of loss there. Which is a magic asset. As far as the physical object goes, if the herd continuously sees rapidly rising prices, it will set up a feedback effect which will feed on itself creating the conventional wisdom that house prices only go up, and thus becomes a two-factor magic asset.”

One had this, “I personally am aware of three businesses that have closed doors recently. On the residential market nothing above 300K is moving however larger homes at wishing prices are piling up on the real estate web sites. Syracuse NY is where I am and it is a great Oil city. We have some of the best pot holes in the Country, broken water mains, the fantastic crime rate and beautiful dilapidated moldy crack shacks. The city has a land bank with 3800 (and adding every month) properties for sale from owners who owe back taxes. The taxes would make anyone move here as manufacturing jobs are plentiful. It is an affordable city if you are a welfare recipient.”

And finally, “I think that to take a new bubble to that point we STILL have to fully pop the old bubble. We never have. We started to lance it and then couldn’t take the pain.”

The St. Louis Post Dispatch. “While home sales were up in St. Louis County last year, the region hasn’t returned to a ‘normal’ market where there are plenty of homes for sale. ‘Homeowners are afraid they’re not going to get the price they want, and they want the price to be back to what the market was (before the housing crisis),’ said Laurie Helderle, a real estate agent with Re/Max Best Choice in Mehlville.”

“Many homeowners resisted putting their homes on the market in recent years because they had negative equity. ‘If you were underwater, you are essentially locked into your house,’ said Svenja Gudell, Zillow’s director of economic research. ‘To sell your house, you have to bring money to closing.’”

The Signal. “There will be less economic uncertainty and stronger growth in the U.S. economy this year, said experts at the 2014 Economic and Real Estate Outlook Conference in Santa Clarita. Overall, pointing to a number of regional and Santa Clarita indicators, the economy appears to be back to pre-recessionary levels, said Mark Schniepp, director of the California Economic Forecast. When put in perspective relative to inflation, however, markers like income and spending power show that the economy is almost, but not fully, back to normal. ‘Optimism is good because people tend to behave as they think,’ Schniepp said.”

“After a turnaround in the residential market last year, homes now need to be priced and marketed well, said Neal Weichel, broker with RE/MAX. With the absence of distressed housing deals, investors have left the market and buyers have more options, Weichel said. ‘Sellers have unrealistic expectations as to what their home is worth,’ he said, referring to comparisons homeowners make using online websites that estimate the value of a home in a given area.”

From Delmarva Now. “Rehoboth Beach is Delaware’s biggest coastal resort. The coastal town draws many vacationers interested in owning beach homes or condos, and willing to pay high prices in a community that has seen the median sales price grow to $647,000 for a single-family home.”

“But the area is also seeing a rising use of food stamps, according to data from the state Department of Health and Social Services. In 2003, 260 people received food assistance in the Rehoboth ZIP code of 19971, which then had 10,000 residents. A decade later, the number of food stamp recipients spiked by 324 percent, rising to 1,104 people by the end of last year. The area’s year-round residential population grew as well, but only by 23 percent.”

“Ed Speraw, president of the Delaware Manufactured Home Owners Association, said many poor people he knows don’t have the resources to move from their current homes. For people who’ve lived in and around Rehoboth a long time, he said, the region simply changed around them, with a rising cost of living. ‘People are in a bind down here. They have a lot of money invested in their home and they can’t afford to move out,’ Speraw said. ‘You can see where food stamps come into play.’”




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54 Comments »

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-03-15 08:28:32

‘Sellers have unrealistic expectations as to what their home is worth,’ he said, referring to comparisons homeowners make using online websites that estimate the value of a home in a given area.”

We’ve known all along that “zestimates” and other proxies overstate the value by 200%-300%. Look no further than the pre-housing debacle transaction prices on the same listing page.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-03-15 08:56:08

The upward bias in Zestimates© will greatly balloon in the days ahead as the Chinese investor brigade leaves the market and rising interest rates widen the gap between Main Street America’s household budget constraints and delusional wishing prices.

Comment by Ben Jones
2014-03-15 09:07:54

I don’t visit Zillow often, I’m not sure I understand what they do. Right now I’m looking at Rehoboth Beach DE on their site. To the right there are featured listings. Sounds paid for. I click on one at random and I see this description:

‘Great buy East of Rt. 1. You own the land! This home features a large screen porch on the rear that faces the peaceful wooded area of Munchy Branch. New gas heating and central A/C in 2006. New well pump in 2009. New flooring in 2008. Two new windows in the kitchen. Drywalled.’

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2096-Fieldcrest-Dr-Rehoboth-Beach-DE-19971/2111204766_zpid/

For Sale: $127,000

Zestimate $116,502 30-day change: -$1,001

Market guide: Zillow predicts Delaware home values will increase 4.3% next year.

Comment by Blue Skye
2014-03-15 10:05:56

Realtors pay for promotion on websites. They call it “Marketing Expense” I believe.

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-03-16 04:32:36

Does Zillow allow them to post specious Zestimates® for the right price?

 
 
Comment by taxpayers
2014-03-15 11:05:19

their logarithms are confusing- every market is going up ,but not buy much?
rehoboth is DC money- so until there’s a LP takeover it’s clear sailing.

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-03-15 11:12:15

Slope of logarithm is directly proportional to the compound rate of appreciation.

 
Comment by JingleMale
2014-03-16 06:21:05

Zillow is a lagging indicator. If the market is declining, Zillow will not show it for at least 90 gays.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-03-16 09:52:07

J._Fraud…. “zestimate” isn’t an indicator.

 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-03-15 11:52:21

That price is friggin nuts. A trailer on a half acre…. figure $20k for the used trailer at best, maybe $2k for the lot, 4k for the well, 4k for the septic.

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Comment by Blue Skye
2014-03-15 17:52:11

Yes, but you “own the land”! LOL.

30 year old trailer. Isn’t it past its best used by date?

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-03-15 08:36:05

“Her response ‘we’re there’, but if they sold, she asked, where would they move? Her whole family (parents and siblings) and clients are still in the area.”

Towards Housing Bubble peak 1.0, many priced-out Silicon Valley refugees found refuge and shelter in the less desirable environs of the Berkeley Hills and surrounding communities.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-03-15 08:37:12

“My lunch bunch (Denver) thinks that the sky’s the limit. They all trade stories about how their neighbor sold in 3 days with 5 offers, blah, blah, blah.”

Sounds like a serious case of over-extrapolation of past price changes into the indefinite future.

Comment by Ben Jones
2014-03-15 09:46:49

‘Man says it’s crazy Colorado Springs lets houses sit condemned; he’s trying for change’

‘In studying the city’s condemned house list, Olson has found several similarities among them: acute physical deterioration and financial distress often coupled with absentee owners.’

‘In fact, many condemned properties in Colorado Springs are upside-down financially. Thousands in tax liens, code enforcement fines and penalties, home-owners association fines and other debts have piled up against the properties.’

“Many are owned by people who live out of state,” Olson said. “They may have inherited the properties and don’t know what they own. Many think they are worth a lot more than they really are.”

 
Comment by In Colorado
2014-03-16 10:18:32

Sounds like a serious case of over-extrapolation of past price changes into the indefinite future.

No doubt, but when the euphoria kicks in reason flies out the window.

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-03-15 08:42:42

“A mature bubble forms when the asset becomes a ‘magic asset’ - something that conventional wisdom says has no credible possibility of going down anytime in the near future, and even if it does, it’ll just level off.”

Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.

– Yale Economist Irving Fisher, 1929

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-03-15 08:44:35

“The government buys or insures nearly all new mortgages, and those issued in the past five years. So there’s no credible possibility of loss there. Which is a magic asset.”

If the government guarantees it, then it is unpossible to lose money.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-03-15 08:46:47

“I think that to take a new bubble to that point we STILL have to fully pop the old bubble. We never have. We started to lance it and then couldn’t take the pain.”

Festering wounds are obviously the preferred way forward rather than lancing, draining and healing.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-03-15 08:49:00

“‘Optimism is good because people tend to behave as they think,’ Schniepp said.”

Stupid is as stupid does.

– Forrest Gump

Comment by Ben Jones
2014-03-15 09:42:12

‘Fresno’s housing inventory improved more than most cities in the last year, according to a new report by Realtor.com. Total home listings in the city increased 6.35 percent over the month and 53.32 percent year-over-year to 2,933 in February.’

‘Out of 143 large metros included in the report, only Stockton had a better year, with total listings jumping 101 percent since February 2013 to 1,740.’

‘Fresno’s median listing price in February was $229,000, up 1.37 percent from $225,862 in January and 22.16 percent from $180,543 a year ago.’

‘Housing inventory improved nationally as well. Total listings throughout the country were up 4.26 percent in the month and 10.14 percent from a year ago to 1,744,032.’

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-03-15 08:53:37

“The coastal town draws many vacationers interested in owning beach homes or condos, and willing to pay high prices in a community that has seen the median sales price grow to $647,000 for a single-family home.”

“But the area is also seeing a rising use of food stamps, according to data from the state Department of Health and Social Services. In 2003, 260 people received food assistance in the Rehoboth ZIP code of 19971, which then had 10,000 residents. A decade later, the number of food stamp recipients spiked by 324 percent, rising to 1,104 people by the end of last year. The area’s year-round residential population grew as well, but only by 23 percent.”

There is a simple remedy: Bring back affordable no doc, negative amortization option ARM loans with federal guarantees of principle, to get those food stamp recipients into $647,000 SFRs.

Problem solved.

 
Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine
2014-03-15 12:45:53

No one at the office discusses RE much with me. Most already bought houses the last ten years in the OC. One or two just recently bought houses. I am the only one renting an apartment, which is paid for by my muni bond interest and savings bond interest. Great location.

My office is going to be within walking distance of the Yardhouse. CEO likes drinkin’ - but I mostly do salads for lunch on weekdays.

When appropriate I explain I prefer living a very simple life for now, and my enjoyment is health and fitness instead of owning a house and spending all my spare time maintaining it like the sad pandas do.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-03-16 04:38:42

“…spending all my spare time maintaining it like the sad pandas do.”

They’re gonna get a lot sadder when real estate stops going up once again.

 
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-03-15 17:01:06

Oh dear.

‘Number Of Calif. Homes In Foreclosure Process Soars’

Comment by Blue Skye
2014-03-15 18:02:33

There is a shortage of housing in California, we’ve heard.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-03-15 19:48:28

“And Southern California was even worse. In some areas, the number of NOD’s more than doubled from the year previous.”

Up over 100% in SoCal? Oh my word.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-03-16 04:40:15

Shocked and awed! As luck would have it, we may be permanently out of the market, now that foreclosure rates are soaring and prices are on the brink of tipping down again.

 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-03-15 19:50:54

And it’s gets better.

“We actually think this is old distress from the old housing bust that is finally being dealt with.

Like we’ve maintained all along…. There are 4.4 million excess, empty and defaulted houses in CA that are in legal limbo.

 
Comment by rms
2014-03-15 21:42:31

“Have you ever thought it might be worth it just to cut your losses and try to start over?”

“No. Because it’s a family home. I have small children. And on top of that, mom and dad lives here, so…”

She shouldn’t have borrowed against it in the first place. Foolish.

Comment by JingleMale
2014-03-16 06:36:26

Exactly, RMS. If the “family home” is so important, why did she place $130,000 in extra debt against it to start up a new business? The best thing she can do now is walk away, to show her children the difference between smart & stupid financial management decisions.

 
 
 
Comment by aNYCdj
2014-03-16 07:28:39

Her response ‘we’re there’, but if they sold, she asked, where would they move.
———————

Nobody ever considers they might need a whole lot less space then 5 years ago.

you have 3bdrms can you fit into 2? Do you really need a huge dining room/ finished basement if you hardly ever entertain?

They could bank the $1mill and buy something smaller..but they wont.

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-03-16 08:23:23

I’d like to draw something out of this that the author doesn’t address:

‘Two Great Depressions: Roosevelt’s “New Deal” vs. Obama’s “Secular Stagnation” Why Franklin Roosevelt Didn’t End the First One, and Why Barack Obama Won’t End This One’

From what I can tell, this guy is saying that Keynes wanted a large, permanent government employment program. And that’s what we should do today.

‘Government investment is not merely necessary; it is the only form of investment, Keynes claimed, capable of bringing about full employment…the nature of capitalism is that demand requires not merely to be maintained, but to be increased, and that requires increased investment. The upshot is that government must be permanently involved in support of effective demand, and since the precondition of demand is the availability of jobs, the government must become a permanent provider of employment.’

But check this part out:

‘The conclusion drawn by both Summers and Krugman is that bubbles appear to be required to sustain not merely the listless growth of the post-Golden-Age era, but even the exceptionally sluggish growth rates of the new millenium. So powerful is the tendency to stagnation that even zero interest rates are insufficient to create jobs -much less full employment- or to get the economy running at full capacity. In sum, full-throttle monetary stimulus functioning to sustain bubbles is necessary to keep the economy from falling below stagnation levels of output and rates on unemployment. Bluntly put, if you don’t want a full-fledged Depression, you’ve got to keep the bubble going. Slow growth, high un- and underemployment and low wages are the best we can do.’

‘Expect no relief, says Summers: “The underlying problem may be there forever.” Krugman puts it in the form of a rhetorical question: “[W]hat if the world we’ve been living in for the past five years is the new normal? What if depression-like conditions are on track to persist, not for another year or two, but for decades?” (“A Permanent Slump?”, New York Times, November 17, 2013) To his credit, Krugman saw the handwriting on the wall well before the Summers speech. In his June 27, 2010 column, he wrote: “We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression…[T]he cost – to the world economy and, above all, to the milliions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs – will… be immense.”

Then he pulls out the typical left vs right Hitler card:

‘The powers that be have been putting in place for some years now, surely in anticipation of widespread social turbulence, the infrastructure of a police state. This comes as no surprise. Historically, capitalism in deep and protracted crisis and without an organized and active Left generates the makings of fascism. If the Left remains dormant, we are in for big trouble.’

I could say a lot about various aspects of this. But let’s cut to the chase:

These Keynesian’s are nuts. These people, if they are a little bit Keynesian or whole hog Keynesian, think of us as cogs in a big game that they can manipulate and twist and push to achieve some perfect controlled outcome. It’s nothing less than a state controlled economy. And when it doesn’t work, they’ll say they weren’t allowed to go far enough. They will always blame someone else for their failure, and in the same breath demand more money and power.

Comment by NihilistZerO
2014-03-16 10:47:15

I am so tired of the “full employment” straw man. The perpetuation of bubbles is to preserve the Oligarchs power structure and nothing more. A market economy may have a persistently high unemployment rate, but it will also have the greatest social mobility, both up and down. Also as market forces ALWAYS lower the cost of EVERYTHING even the unemployed, if in the social circle of anyone with a job, will have a better quality of life than they do that under fascist Keynesian economics. Not to mention they are always a step a away from employment as capitalisms natural creative destruction creates constant opportunity.

Comment by Ben Jones
2014-03-16 11:17:49

‘the perpetuation of bubbles is to preserve the Oligarchs power structure’

And people who buy this hogwash will defend the pillaging. Think about it, these clowns have had 70 YEARS to get this right, and they still sit around saying we need bubbles and space aliens to make it work. And they write some new slant on this gibberish and the New York Times will make it an editorial, or they get a Nobel prize.

IMO, Keynesian is just a familiar sounding term (makes all those longing for Roosevelt’s ghost happy) that provides cover for what is the real dominate economics; insane money printing by central banks, handed out to bankers and all the destructive forces that unleashes.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-03-16 12:29:58

“Also as market forces ALWAYS lower the cost of EVERYTHING”

And there is the crux of the biscuit. The price. I’m not talking about houses either. GovCorp is actively fixing and setting prices and I believe it’s deliberate.

 
 
Comment by Kidbuck
2014-03-16 14:30:51

Crisis and Leviathan. A great book that presents a great theory. The title says it all. Every failure of big government requires a bigger program of bigger govt spending to fix it. Forever and ever, Amen.

 
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-03-16 08:59:32

‘San Joaquin County, known demographically as the Stockton metropolitan area, also has a larger percentage of vacant or abandoned foreclosure properties than in California overall, said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.

Statewide, about 11 percent of foreclosure properties are abandoned or vacant, compared with the U.S. average of 21 percent, he said.

“In Stockton, we’re showing it’s closer to the national average; it’s 22 percent of the foreclosure homes are vacant or abandoned.”

RealtyTrac tallied 279 so-called “zombie homes” among the county’s roughly 1,300 distressed properties. While notable, it’s not a staggering problem compared to many larger U.S. communities, Blomquist said.’

“In some of these metro areas, we’re seeing thousands or tens of thousands of homes in vacant or abandoned status,” he said, noting that Miami has roughly 14,000 such abandoned properties and the Chicago metro area total is 12,000.’

Comment by JingleMale
2014-03-16 15:56:27

Miami = 14,000 vacant houses
ChiTown = 12,000

???????

These are top 25 cities in the US. HA says there are 25,000,000 vacant abandoned houses. Shouldn’t that show about 1,000,000 houses in each of the top 25 cities? Seems like HA is slightly off count…..HA!

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-03-16 16:17:53

My credibility isn’t in question here J._Fraud. It’s yours and your “general contractor” and $90k water meter claims.

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-03-16 18:13:54

‘Shouldn’t that show about 1,000,000′

It seems to me the more relevant question is why are there any houses being held off the market in a place as “red hot” as Miami?

Comment by Ben Jones
2014-03-16 18:47:35

So here’s some interesting news from a place that’s not even a big city:

‘Over 10,000 mortgage borrowers in Oklahoma County alone are now in the foreclosure pipeline by mortgage servicers accused of ripping off borrowers at the slightest opportunity, Oklahoma County records show.’

‘If current trends continue, many more will shortly join them. Isn’t this disturbing trend counterintuitive in a city where the economy is booming?
The rest of the state doubtless has homeowners in the same predicament, including Tulsa couny and the state’s 75 remaining counties.’

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Comment by rms
2014-03-17 00:54:47

“They maintain cozy, profitable relationships with the servicers in several ways. They’re getting their executives placed on the servicers’ boards of directors or in executive positions. Wells Fargo owns stock in Nationstar, shows Securities and Exchange Commission data. Bank of America does business with Nationstar, according to its last annual report.”

And these parasites worship at the same franchise too.

 
 
Comment by Rental Watch
2014-03-17 00:59:52

My understanding is that the “zombie” foreclosures as counted by Realtytrac are homes that are abandoned while in the foreclosure process, but not yet foreclosed (ie. the lender doesn’t own them yet, and couldn’t sell them if they wanted). There are almost 55,000 such homes in Florida (per RealtyTrac, 36% of the national total). Apparently on average these homes have been taking more than 1,000 years to complete the foreclosure process (!!!).

This thread is precisely what I’ve been talking about (for so long). Judicial states is where the mess is concentrated.

Florida? Judicial state
Illinois? Judicial state
Oklahoma? Judicial state

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-03-17 02:36:21

No.

California is where “the mess is concentrated”. Remember; California’s foreclosure moratoriums resulted in over 4 million houses getting set aside. All those houses still have to be deposed.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-03-16 09:38:24

‘Chinese government making another move to eradicate its citizen’s internet freedom, forced WeChat, a mobile communication and text service, to come under surveillance. Without any information, a many of public accessible accounts on the service went missing, owners reported to have them blocked and deleted by the Tencent.’

‘Developed by a Chinese firm Tencent, WeChat has almost 100 million users sending texts, audio, video and pictures everyday. It also has a bunch of other services including online payments, a proposed wealth management solution and virtual credit cards. But on Thursday, reports came out about massive deletion and blocking of accounts in the entire China.’

‘Ms. Tam, an overseas Chinese in Malaysia said, ”I believe it was to block sensitive issues, such as the persecution of religions, the widespread corruption, and the human rights issues. The CCP forbids discussion. Simply put, it is all about the power, and the money behind the power.”

‘WeChat is also famous for spying on users, a number of security researchers have claimed that this application is malicious and tracks a variety of information users have. The app continuously tracks your GPS location, the data on your phone including text messages and contacts and even collect voice samples and call records.’

‘China’s central bank has suspended virtual credit card services and barcode-based mobile payment services such as QR code payments.’

‘The announcement was made a day after CITIC Bank announced that it planned to partner with Alibaba and Tencent to issue virtual credit card-based QR code payments. The directive also bans financial institutions from setting up accounts on third-party payment platforms, including Tenpay and Alipay.’

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-03-16 10:32:50

realtors are liars

 
Comment by Doom
2014-03-16 13:03:51

The public knows the industry is loaded with liars and lazy agents but they continue to pay 6% commission so they deserve what they get.

The Real Estate industry is a cartel monopoly, we never see a Front Line PBS investigation of these folks and how they decide what homes they are going to show and at what value they want a neighboorhood to be.

RE agents do little homework and follow the party line, just list a house and let some else who needs the money pitch it and hope they sell it.

Ever know a real estate agent to list their own home at market value? Somehow they always get more and it always appraises, when they come to your home they always say it won’t appraise , they can undersell your home quickly and get their split 3% commission.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-03-16 14:23:15

Thank you Captain Obvious.

 
Comment by rms
2014-03-16 15:51:59

“…never see a Front Line PBS investigation of these folks…”

+1 I’d settle for Bill (belt and suspenders) Moyers & Company episode.

 
 
Comment by Jingle Male
2014-03-16 16:51:06

HA, Quit dancing the two step….show us the houses! HA, can’t do it!

Comment by LolaLOL
2014-03-16 23:54:39

Quit dancing? Quit pimping. What are you even doing here Jingle Fraud. You know now is not the time to buy but you post stuff trying to make it seem like it is. What is your game? Just defending stuff bought a couple of years ago? Shouldn’t you have moved on by now?

No, you just want to keep pimping hoping you can somehow forestall the inevitable crash that leads to your supposed good purchases cratering to where you lose your shirt, along with your dignity and your mind, both of which were lost long ago.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-03-17 05:42:59

I’ve posted photos of my work J._Fraud.

You’re a general contractor right? Post some photos of your current work.

 
 
Comment by John Berkowitz
2014-03-17 02:59:55

‘Optimism is good because people tend to behave as they think,’ Schniepp said.”

There is one quarter of Canadians, who spend more on housing than they can afford. This is what I call optimism. But maybe, it is better to be realistic rather than optimists. It is probably optimism what drives us to buy houses we are not able to pay. I’m not sure how the idea to buy is created in someones mind, but I believe there should be more psychologists rahter than economists involved in RE.

Comment by rms
2014-03-17 06:53:05

“It is probably optimism what drives us to buy houses we are not able to pay.”

Gotta wonder about the lender’s due diligence process. Remove the government guarantees, and the entire residential RE market would likely grind to a halt overnight.

 
 
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