Paul Meisel

Where Was The Bubble: Houses, Rates or Credit?

Houses don't usually go to zero even in Detroit -- cheap shot, Barry.

But -- local markets can see some huge swings. I was hunting in rural Iowa a few years back. The number of unoccupied farm houses was incredible -- farmers retired and sold or leased the farm land, but the farmer already had a house. They were either rented very cheaply or just abandoned.... on the other hand in some markets you can sell for over half a million what would cost one third of that in a smaller city in the midwest.