patrick.net

bmwman91 says

While as a prospective house buyer this irritates me greatly, it is at least interesting to watch people that I thought of as rational, intelligent folks go willy-nilly and do silly things to get into houses.

It is indeed ridiculous. We bought last year but I'm pretty sure now we wouldn't be able to. It really did change that fast and for no good reason. To me this massive spike and creation of yet another bubble is a threat to the economy. It doesn't matter whether you own or rent. This is bad for everybody. All bubbles end badly. That this one seems to already be out of control is fairly serious.

edvard2 says

It is indeed ridiculous. We bought last year but I'm pretty sure now we wouldn't be able to. It really did change that fast and for no good reason. To me this massive spike and creation of yet another bubble is a threat to the economy. It doesn't matter whether you own or rent. This is bad for everybody. All bubbles end badly. That this one seems to already be out of control is fairly serious.

Yup. At the end, the only winners are the 0.1% that are driving all of this through our bought congress and Federal Reserve. This is yet another shake-down of the productive classes, and likely the biggest one yet for Americans. The oligarchy is going to push us straight back into Feudalism if nothing gets done about it.

bmwman91 says

Yup. At the end, the only winners are the 0.1% that are driving all of this
through our bought congress and Federal Reserve.

Right on ! I wanted to quote this statement of fact because I believe it is not 'Dr. Obvious' to everyone.

For me, it hit home that there is "officially" a bubble during a cab ride to the San Jose airport last month. The driver started talking to me about RE investment and how it was so easy to make money. All you had to do was get approved for the biggest loan you possibly can and then sell in a year or two to capture the profits. The key is to buy the priciest house that you can since percentage increases on an expensive value mean more money for me, he explained. All of his family members were doing it, or working on doing it, he explained.

So, when cabbies start talking to me about how easy it is to speculate on $700k+ houses in the cities of Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, I know that it is in full swing. I have overheard similar conversations in airport lounges and on airplanes between SJC and Sea-Tac. This is reminiscent of the Joe Kennedy anecdote about how he knew to sell in 1929 because his shoe shine boy started giving him "hot stock tips." The shoe shine boy probably got his own hot tips from Joe, what with him being Catholic and all.....da-dun-CHING! Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all day!

bmwman91 says

The oligarchy is going to push us straight back into Feudalism if nothing gets
done about it.

Which might not be a bad thing-feudalistic socieities were not very kind to the ogliarchs, when they overstayed their welcomes. AF's cannibal anarchy will be real!

lostand confused says

You can still get a home in Phoenix for 160k. Good luck in CA-unless you want to move next door to the crips or the latest greatest gangsta paradise.

Don't be silly. You just need wealthy parents, or to marry someone with wealthy parents, or start a company that sells ad space on web pages.

The bubble became clear to me only a few months after we bought. When we were looking there had been a large number of obviously undesirable homes that just simply stayed on the lists. We looked at a few and simply walked out. I mean- these were houses that I would no way in hell even consider. There was usually something fairly seriously wrong with them, like major foundation problems, permit issues, rot issues, weird layouts, or bad locations, like one we saw that was in the middle of a major intersection where 2 roads criss-crossed right in front of the house and there was a road behind it. Within a few months, these houses began to sell.

A house recently came up for sale 6 blocks from us. It was in fairly bad condition. It sold in 3 days. The situation sucks now. After having gone through that situation for years I still find it extremely irritating.

Bubbles been around forever. Jesus was born in a barn because of housing bubble.

PockyClipsNow says

Bubbles been around forever. Jesus was born in a barn because of housing bubble.

Quote of the day!

PockyClipsNow says

Bubbles been around forever. Jesus was born in a barn because of housing bubble.

I thought the whole Jesus thing was a massive money making bubble scheme that never popped?

It's a great time for Bernake to raise interest rates.

lostand confused says

PockyClipsNow says

Bubbles been around forever. Jesus was born in a barn because of housing bubble.

I thought the whole Jesus thing was a massive money making bubble scheme that never popped?

Of course. Who gets laid more: an unemployed carpenter or the son of god? Religion is really that simple.