Pent up demand

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106 Comments

    • Fri May 30th 13:42 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Different Views on Housing Supply
      "Population continues to grow"

      Uh huh. So I heard it here first: "they aren't making any more land". Wow that is an ironclad argument.

      User 202386, your "way overcorrected" areas are still above traditional measures of affordability. My whole life I have heard that home prices cannot go down everywhere at the same time. People now see for themselves that it can and did happen. They are not going to stretch themselves to the limit to buy thinking that if they delay they'll be priced out forever. Too bad for the bagholders who are left looking for another fool greater than themselves to sell to.
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    • Fri May 30th 10:54 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Realtors, Prepare to Lose Your 6 Percent
      "A good agent provides value, whether it’s worth a percentage is arguable and nothing is stopping competition"

      BS. How about "minimum service" laws? or cartel behavior like freezing discount brokers out of the MLS?

      Most agents are a joke. When I sold my last house I had to figure out the market myself. My house sat for 6 months longer than necessary because I had it listed too high. Maybe my dipwad agent thought he was protecting my feelings by not telling me to lower my price. I would much rather have had hurt feelings and 6 months of mortgage payments/taxes.

      And for the money they charge they don't even show the house! It's some clueless buyer's agent who doesn't know the property and can't sell its advantages. A total ripoff.
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    • Fri May 30th 10:42 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Different Views on Housing Supply
      "Pent up demand" is going to make a great name for my garage band.
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    • Thu May 22nd 09:39 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Only These Three Things Can Halt Oil's Advance
      Right, steveross. Except you forgot the part where some of the rebate money gets siphoned off to go to the usual causes.

      Speculators would laugh at your castles in the sky and go right on betting on the futures.


      Oil at these prices causes pain, no doubt. But it's the Saudis that should be worried, because these prices are making alternatives of any sort much more attractive.
      View article »
    • Fri May 16th 10:04 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Foreclosures Prove Loan Modification Isn't Working
      Funny you bring up chicken, VoR. Because that is exactly the game the banks are playing. Can they pick up enough coins off the railroad track (raise capital) before the 5:09 comes through (and they have to write down their books).
      View article »
    • Fri May 16th 09:59 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      Learning From Bill Miller's Recent Underperformance
      The best part about "hot managers" like Miller, or John Henry, et. al. is that they almost always destroy more wealth investors than they ever created. Their poor performance always seems to come when the asset base is at its maximum.
      View article »
    • Fri May 2nd 15:22 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      "Pick-a-Pay" Defaults Deepen - Housing Tracker
      I agree with you ArnoldCountry that the lenders were crazy to offer those types of mortgages to "normal" buyers. Those mortgages were designed for people with uneven monthly cashflow; people who get paid primarily in large bonuses a few times a year.

      But this is what you get when the originator doesn't have to hold the paper. He can tell himself that the customer will refinance in a couple years or sell the place for a profit so that he can sleep at night. Then he pockets his origination fee and moves on to the next guy.
      View article »
    • Fri May 2nd 11:38 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Impending Mortgage Crisis: Part Two
      So just tell me your "normalization&qu... procedure then. It will be impossible to show you the error if you won't give the procedure that produces your data.
      View article »
    • Fri May 2nd 08:30 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Impending Mortgage Crisis: Part Two
      "A good house is more afforable now than at many times within the last 20 yrs, although he would have you not believe that."

      This statement is absolutely ludicrous. I'm curious what area you refer to jcrash? Where I'm sitting (NYC), price-to-rent is still out of whack by perhaps 50%.
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    • Thu May 1st 15:28 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Impending Mortgage Crisis: Part Two
      jcrash,

      Why do you keep rehashing your silly argument about "payment" vs. price? It makes no sense whatsoever to talk about payments (I assume computed against a traditional 80% fixed mortgage) when prices got so insane that very few first time buyers could come up with the down payment to afford the mortgage corresponding to the payment in your (dare I care it a) model?

      That's the primary reason for the severity of this correction. Lenders again require serious skin in the game from borrowers, and few have the money to put 20% down on a $500,000 house if they didn't get it from their rich pappy.
      View article »
    • Thu May 1st 07:11 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      12 Observations on Residential Housing
      Okay special person, I'll play your game: when Democrats say "tax relief for the middle class" it means "another refundable credit for people who don't pay any income tax anyway", i.e. a welfare payment.

      Yeah I made $200k last year. But I live near NYC where I pay more for rent than most home"owners" pay for their houses and where taxation has reached its pinnacle as art form. But the federal government considers me "rich" so I get none of the rebates for my 3 kids, etc. etc.

      Makes me want to move back out to the sticks and get a nice easy job with some county government and start sucking on the government teat myself.
      View article »
    • Wed Apr 30th 16:28 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Worst Is Over ... Again ... And Again ...
      baji, I suggest you drop that envelope in a mailbox without a stamp. Too many errors of logic to deal with in this little space...
      View article »
    • Wed Apr 30th 16:26 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      12 Observations on Residential Housing
      Oh yeah, jackh. You'll be able to cut the irony with a dull penknife when those of us of working age are living on dog food because of all the taxes we pay to keep retirees from having to live on dog food.
      View article »
    • Wed Apr 30th 15:23 PM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Housing Bubble Goes Pop
      Malkiel,

      A true investment creates wealth. The traditional "building equity" argument essentially treats the home not as a creator of wealth but as a store of wealth. Well then it's a poor one, as its value is taxed every year, it requires a substantial amount of money for maintenance every year, etc.

      People make money on the sale of homes to the extent that they intentionally or unwittingly speculate on location and win.
      View article »
    • Wed Apr 30th 10:14 AM | Rating: 0 0
      Commented on:
      The Housing Bubble Goes Pop
      Sorry Tom B. Last time I checked, we aren't close to running out of space to build new houses, so population growth won't have much affect. The effect of a preference for bigger houses will be shown as a premium relative to older/smaller homes, not as a permanent change in the overall price level.

      At the end of the day, prudent people can only afford to spend a certain fraction of their income to buy housing. House prices must be tied to incomes. Repeat after me: my house is an expense, not an investment.
      View article »
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