shygye Posted November 8, 2007 Report Share Posted November 8, 2007 The rumor here is the properties were hyped/over inflated' date=' to capitalize on the lower mortgage rates...interest rates low? raise the selling price...interest rates high? lower the price...either way the customer gets screwed... The single biggest problem is/was they sold houses to people who really could not afford them. The banks probably figured "...what the fuck, we can sell it to another schmuck for more later..." That theory only worked for so long...now time to pay up. Over all, this country is plain fucked. We gave away all our jobs, raised the cost of living, over 1/2 the people have no health care, most have little or no pensions, those that do have them hanging by a thread, as the current trend is to default on them...in California alone, 1/88 homes in in foreclosure...time for another revolution maybe?[/quote'] It's hard to feel sympathy for people who got in over their heads or bought 2 or 3 houses for investment purposes. This is the way the free market corrects itself....if it's allowed to. Agreed. I work with some greedy mother fuckers who were all looking to get rich quick...bought 3-4+ homes all interest only, in many cases with a negative cash flow on the rentals. This took product off the market for people looking to buy 1 home/first home, and also fueled demand which drove up prices. Oddly, I still know guys who refuse to admit that real estate properties can and do go down at times...1986(?)-1995 maybe was a bust in the SFO bay are market, it is usually the last to fall, and the last to recover, shit here is just too damn over priced. As salaries decline, and jobs disappear, the inevitable correction will occur. OH, this disproves your hypothesis that foreigners buying USA real estate was the cause of soaring home prices. I told you it was Americans buying that was causing the price increases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bust Posted November 8, 2007 Report Share Posted November 8, 2007 Maybe time for the Australian Govt to off-load their Gold reserves again.I remember last time in 1997 they took an essentially short-term view of the outlook for gold, whereas central banks are supposed to take the long-term view and to safeguard the currency and the nation against long-term dangers. They are supposed to look after the interests of future generations. However, that decision does fit in with the current management style of the Australian Central Bank which is perceived by other central banks as adopting a risky and aggressive trading style in the management of its currency reserves. The one thing that may stop them is the weak $US which is thanfully keeping oil lower than it would be if the $US was stronger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bibblies Posted November 8, 2007 Report Share Posted November 8, 2007 I haven't been in the UK for over 3 months but I can only hope people are getting fearful over their precious house prices. For years I've been listening to idiots saying things like "property always goes up...", "invest in solid bricks and mortar...", "rent money is dead money...", "the stock market is just gambling...". And the litany of TV programmes that are simply "property porn" that pander to the masses while ignoring any other asset class is incredible. Every man and his dog started to think he could be a professional landlord and that would keep him into retirement. Money stopped going into traditional pensions (stock market) and started to go into property instead. Fuck 'em, I say. People should be investing in things that actually grow, like business, to help the economy, not be skewed towards this sickening property obsession. Even at its peak, the masses never went for the dot coms on anything like this level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted November 9, 2007 Report Share Posted November 9, 2007 there are so many smug dickwads droning on about how much their house value has gone up, bore me to death! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted November 9, 2007 Report Share Posted November 9, 2007 I built my last house myself. No inflation in the value of the house I paid for! Plywood costs $x.xx, end of story. So, the price of housing never effected me, up, down whatever, I was in control of my costs. That was 10 years ago. Fast forward to today, my house is still worth what it cost me to build, plus, plus, so I am ahead. One thing that I have little control over is the tax I pay every year on the house (property tax). They try to raise it and I protest and keep it the same ($375 / month), not cheap but 3 times cheaper then what a lot of other people are paying!!! That is me, I was lucky. My house has been paid off for several years now. My total costs are far less then if I was to try to rent somewhere. I just keep the house for an investment as I seldom have lived there and it is mostly empty but looks new so would be easy to sell. Shame on the US gov, the banks and the people who knew that they could not afford a house in the event of any downtrun, but it is what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTO Posted November 9, 2007 Report Share Posted November 9, 2007 I say invest in Beer Laos, not a long term investment, coupled with Pistachio's, these are reliable investments, keep 20% cash though for long term gains such as 7 or 12 year old whiskey. Avoid Cigars, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vegasdave49 Posted November 9, 2007 Report Share Posted November 9, 2007 Here in vegas I believe we have the highest % or foreclosures in the country. I was speaking with a realestate agent. He said that something like 40% of the used home market was purchased by speculators. Add to that the whole lier loan thing and you can see that the housing market is dropping her. I purchased my condo over 10 years ago. So basicly I am locked into a huge. $320 a month mortgage LOL. Of course even with the drop in prices I am way ahead of the game. I think the difference is I just wanted to have my own place to live, not a place to flip and make a quick buck. I think when food prices go up considerably and gas hit $5 gallon people will be in for a real rude awakening. Meanwhile I will continue to live cheap, drive my 10 year old 30mpg+ toyota, and eat mac and cheese. So for me not to far to fall. LOL. I dont care if the $ goes up or down I will still make money from trading forex. Well thats the plan anyway. LOL I have always tried to maintain a lifestyle that only needs a McDonalds wage to support. Being as these are the jobs of the future I am well positioned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreeTime Posted November 9, 2007 Report Share Posted November 9, 2007 Some more detail on that Merrill Lynch bigwig who had a hand in the 7.9 billion loss to bad debts. Thousands of people in the USA will lose their homes through loans they should never have qualified for, and this slick fellow is able to walk away with 161 million: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7070603.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jitagawn Posted November 9, 2007 Report Share Posted November 9, 2007 Sensible and prudent lifetstyle. Redgarding the US economy I say just look at the fundamentals that the FEd has given us(now 9 trillion dollar debt) and anybody with a grain of sense can see we are headed for trouble. From what I read the UK is about 18 months behind us and headed in the same direction Party on ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted November 9, 2007 Report Share Posted November 9, 2007 That is how the rich get richer in bad times.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.