samo

Rising U.S. Vacancies: Real Estate Is Headed Down

George...very correct on your 4 points. Though #4 won't help prices much...as economy recovers in 5 to 10 years, supply demand equation will firm up on real estate, so prices will look to rise a few %s, then Fed will increase rates, and price of real estate (all assets) will soften as a result...causing flat line prices for years.

On Bubbles and Depressions

Leverage is what makes the current situation worse than 2000...both at the bank level and the consumer level. Going back to normal debt/equity positions will solve the problem - but that comes by either (1) profits used to pay down debt (i.e. time) or (2) conversion of debt to equity (i.e. bankruptcy). We are in for some painful years...

Mortgage Delinquencies in Canada Nowhere Near as Low as U.S.

You are right...US systems is better....only problem...only 20-40% of Americans have that better system. The rest have it worse, or don't have it at all. There is a flaw in your conclusion based on teh study you are quoting. It's that type of thinking that is causing you to get 'snowed'...


On Mar 24 11:58 AM CalifNative wrote:

> SuzieClue:
> "What's wrong with American's...canadians. They have a better health
> system"
>
> What's wrong is as a country it's uneducated. On a well documented
> study of the World's Health Care Systems, Canada placed 58, just
> under Poland, and close to many third world countries, while the
> US was rather close to the top. Americans don't even understand that
> when the Government runs things, everyone suffers.

A Deflationary Spiral? Not Likely in the U.S.

the best answer to this mess is to handout checks to the masses instead of the banks....it's really quite simple...

Mortgages: Loan Officers Slamming the Barn Door

As long as underwriting involves anything called 'no doc', banks are going to have problems. The beauty is that they deserve their fate. Ahhh...I love the smell of economic justice in the morning...

Will Housing Bottom in 2010 or 2012?

Correct...boomers retiring will aggravate situation. Residential eal estate won't be a play for a least a decade...

The end of all sequential, easy money bubbles is inflation...no more assets to put your cash in so you find hard assets (commodities) which causes prices to increase for all. Welcome to the world of stagflation until the excesses (cash) are driven out of the system via widescale devaluation of assets...

The Reverse Ripple Theory of Metropolitan Home Price Corrections

I suspect your theory might be a bit off. I would argue that newer neighbourhoods are more likely to have bigger price swings because of a combination of (1) more supply (i.e. liquidity) being added in these areas and (2) newer homes (akin to higher relative prices for a new car than a used one with 1 mile on the odometer). The result is when the demand rises, prices get frothier at the 'margin' than in areas where there's a more solid historical data on pricing.