D. McHattie

Housing's Big Picture Isn't Pretty

I agree that the mindset will change. But it hasn't yet.

Witness the crowds at Home Depot and Lowes again this spring. Witness the dramatic increase in sales of foreclosures. Witness the continued existence and popularity of HGTV.

Only when the severed digits of these knife-catchers lie strewn about the suburbs will the mindset change completely and irrevocably.

This will be the summer of knife-catching and false hopes.


On May 24 08:14 AM Daniel Herkes wrote:

> Another problem, possibly serious, is the long term psychological
> effect of the uncompleted subdivisions that dot the U.S. landscape.
> These "ghost towns" don't look very good; denuded of topsoil - only
> the most arduous weeds can purchase a foothold - yuk! Even if the
> communities succeed in rezoning the failed subdivisions, the mind
> set will settle with the consumer that "this place did not make it."
> A failed developed will not replace the topsoil, A failed developer
> cannot not correct the disrupted drainage caused by the exposed clay
> pan. The surrounding neighbors will not forget the uncut weeds, and
> the coyotes that have made dens in the dirt hills. These stimuli
> produce a decidedly negative mindset . . .
>
> As long as the empty subdivisions set potential buyers will avoid
> the poignant memory of a failed dream, and fail to respond to the
> lure of a new house. Well, it's only new until you buy it! The longer
> they set, the more powerful the memory.