patrick.net

Additionally, alternative energy careers will probably boom in the next 10 years given the increased demand for energy coupled with the decreased availability of oil.

I do not have much faith in alternative energy because the industry still lacks politcal power. I believe any future energy crisis will be "resolved" using political or military means.

Sadly, oil will remain king until unbearable pain is felt and damage is done.

Excellent.

History always repeat itself.

Dipanjan, I am humbled.

History always repeat itself.

Agreed - speculative nimrods are rarely capable of learning from their past mistakes (the current RE bubble being spawned from the tech bubble is a "prime" example). And even if they could, today's herd will always be followed by a new generation of little nimrods, who have no personal experience of the last cycle and therefore no fear. Greed, however, is a constant.

Moreover, HARM, there are so many new paradigms, which are different every time. :)

@hymie - Just a suggestion, but I'd recommend using tinyurl.com to cut down on URL length.

All 309 passengers survived plan crash in Toronto today. Thank God.

Miracles do happen in crashes.

Dipanjan,

I'd love to know what each bank's actual exposure is to MBS holdings and derivatives. The MBS/GSE's connection to loose lending was actually the subject of a previous thread: "Too Big to Fail?". I know they've managed to offload quite a large % of it (half or more by some estimates), but I have yet to find anything that gives you an actual breakdown by bank/lending institution. Maybe that's because they'd rather not have us know. ;-)

Ugghhh... guess who's back?

Ok, how many of you would like to see me silence the Sauce until he learns how to use TinuyUrl?

MP, I'm not interested in censorship. How lazy can you be, man?? You've been posting here for what, 3 weeks now?

MP, how do you know what it closed for?

I don't think we should censor MP. Every class needs its clown.

MarinaPrime Says:

August 2nd, 2005 at 7:09 pm
Further Evidence Housing is Still SUPER STRONG.

I just saw this 2b/1bath Cow Hollow top floor condo two sunday’s ago. It had THREE PRE-EMPTIVE OFFERS! It just closed yesterday for $305,000 OVER its $895,000 asking price!

Well FU, a-hole. You been spewing your crap on Ben's board as well. Are you a drone?

@HousingBubble Troll,

Calm, please - I know MP's extremely annoying but he hasn't been abusive (yet).

Gotta step out for a bit -- behave everyone ;-)

_smile_

MP is spamming all the housing bubble boards with the same posts.

Really, the picture is getting pretty clear. And it is... how do you say... amusing.

In other news: has anyone else noticed that Las Vegas is in the unhappy situation of having Mordor located directly to the west of it? One wonders how land prices will hold up when the Goblins start rolling in...

Cheers,
prat

You know, I've been one of the most "vocal" about getting rid of MP. But if Primetroll keeps writing poetry, it's worth it to let him stay.

"What could that rent for? 2k? Maybe 2.2k?"

Interestingly, I lived in a two bedroom victorian flat with my wife not a block from this listing two years ago. Our rent was $1850.

It is a lovely neighborhood. Practically pacific heights (in fact, some maps have pacific heights starting at Union st.), nothing like the uncouth flatlanders a bit lower down the hill...

_smile_

Cheers,
prat

Someone's been impersonating the Sauce --those last posts were fakes.
Gone.

Sauce is bad enough by himself, but FAKE Sauce...??

Very gentlemanly of you HARM.

_hat tip_

Cheerio,
prat

thanks, Prat.

primetroll, you've brought tears to my eyes *sniff*. Such a sublime ode to a sub-prime toad...

_madonna voice_: Don't cry for us Mah-ah-ah-rina.... The truth is we never cared for you, All through our wild days, our mad existence, we (sort of) kept our promise... Don't feed the trolls.

g'night,
prat

Sauce, we're *still* waiting for you to answer Josh's challenge from the last thread (see "Boomers & the Bubble") to actually show us that $1.2 million Marina mansion you're supposedly living in. Don't you want to prove to us "sad" losers once and for all that you're not really a 13-year-old impersonating a $400k/year grownup bigshot?

Thought you guys would appreciate this link:

http://realtytimes.com/rtcpages/20050802_powderkeg.htm

(do I need to put brackets around that? I guess I will find out in a second...)

No one believes that someone who has the time to troll at least 3 blogs (that we know about) has a full time job. I know I get repetitive, but c’mon. He/she lives w/mom, not in a prime location, using us as a real life video game. We know this. Anymore I tolerate the troll just to get more posts from Primetroll. I am in awe.

Don’t worry, we (semi)regulars are just having a bit of fun troll baiting. We can’t be gloomy and serious all the time, can we? “)

True. Where would we be without primetroll's (and TWIT's) Sauce-inspired poetry? And let's not forget we have Sauce to thank for that hilarious NYTimes post in the last thread.

Sure, he usually trite, arrogant and annoying, but once in a while he's good for a bit of fun.

G'nite, all...

So, where were we? Sauce will prevail if we let him disrupt our discussion.

ptiemann, an inverted surfer-x would be waveboarder-y, his "evil" twin.

Peter P

So, where were we? Sauce will prevail if we let him disrupt our discussion

All one has to do is look at how much time has been wasted responding to his posts to see that is true; which is EXACTLY what he wants. Why are we wasting our time?

All one has to do is look at how much time has been wasted responding to his posts to see that is true; which is EXACTLY what he wants. Why are we wasting our time?

We should religiously ignore its posts and perform daily garbage collection. We should just condition our eyes to skip its comments.

We should religiously ignore its posts and perform daily garbage collection. We should just condition our eyes to skip its comments.

I agree.

Correct, and the seller has no obligation to sell to people who make full price or higher offers.

I thought the buyer agent can sue to get her cut of the would-be commission. Maybe I am wrong...

Hello All.
Have been lurking for quite a while and agree with a lot of the sentiments, both bulls and bears. I have been quite bearish on RE for a number of years now, and have been a RE invester in both residential and commercial in the past (currenlty out of RE). I purchased my first block of land paying 18% interest (current rates seem very low !).

I find it interesting to see the market dynamics of asset investors as they swing from bulls to bears and the effects of supply and demand.

Usually when an investor feels that have been very successful they become very bullish and cannot see changes coming. Likewise bears wait for the sky to fall and sometimes miss oppurtunities. (Better to be safe than sorry I believe.)

Anyway, saw a comment by somebody that likened the risk of RE price falling or rising as being 50%. These chances are becoming similar to a game of luck (and some people are very lucky, imagine finding a buyer with 1.2M cash. Hope is wasn't inheritance) Unfortunately with this ammount of risk and the sums involved, maybe alot of people should be reconsidering their investment strategy. Some people however, don't mind this level of risk and can afford to play with this level of commitment.

I believe one should invest with their head, not their hearts, as hearts can be sadly broken.

I believe one should invest with their head, not their hearts, as hearts can be sadly broken.

I think gut feel is probably more important. It is too easy to be fooled by over-rationalization too many times. I agree that hearts are completely useless in investments.

Anyway, saw a comment by somebody that likened the risk of RE price falling or rising as being 50%. These chances are becoming similar to a game of luck

It is a lot more than just probability... if I say that you have a 50% change of winning $5 and 50% change of losing $20, will you play the game?

Usually when an investor feels that have been very successful they become very bullish and cannot see changes coming. Likewise bears wait for the sky to fall and sometimes miss oppurtunities.

I totally agree. This gives a lot of insight into the psychology of bulls and bears.

It is a lot more than just probability… if I say that you have a 50% change of winning $5 and 50% change of losing $20, will you play the game?

Only if I can be the House....

Only if I can be the House….

Exactly. ;)

It will be interesting to see if Offshoring will drive inflation in other countries.

Saw a documentary of an Indian call centre where operators were saving to buy cars. I guess consumption may increase and the desire to own more toys will drive wages.

What to you think.