patrick.net

Now that's fucking funny.

Hee.

For good fengshui and cat health, consider catnip and wheat grass on a "balcony."

Maybe some hamsters on wheels too, to keep your girls company. :)

Peter P,

Time to moderate out the trash. She didn't even bother to read more than your title, so the joke's on her.

Can anything be done about the troll plague?

And just think these punks will be running the country someday. Frightful thought!

P,

I think if you wait about another six months you'll come out on top. The shakeout is just starting to pick up steam. Might be worth substancial saving too you. I think some interesting things are going to happen in the last quarter as we get closer the mid term elections.

Sylvie - re:Trolls

Just ignore 'em. They soon run out of steam if no one pays them attention. There's nothing a troll hates worse than being ignored. It takes all the fun out of it for them if no one responds.

Peter, You never mentioned where the condo is located. If it's in Crapatino - Monte Vista, you're golden! Good schools, everyone wants to live there! Any children you may or may not have can stay on the ground floor, while you live in the upper level "master suite."

I can tell from the picture it looks like good, solid KB Homes construction.

Trolless said:

And how did you know that I was a girl? I must’ve mentioned that at some point without my knowledge.

Just my incredible powers of perception. That and you're liberal usage of :) 's.

And btw, the home I sold in 4/05 in Belmont has lost ~ 10% by comparables, more by Zillow to-date. Meanwhile, I have earned about +10% net of taxes & inflation with my equity whilst renting an even bigger home in Marin.

June Phillips,

Whether an economist's predictions are wrong or right is largely a blood sport. In fact, economists who make concrete specific predictions are usually more fool than not.

I'd go about answering your hypotheticals by taking whatever goal you're intending to analyze -- say the "median family". Then I'd compute the present value of their outcomes based upon your various scenarios. You have 3 dimensions: purchase cost, value in year T, and t years until year T.

I'd say if the PV is hugely positive then either there was no bubble or the bubble is so enormous everyone here misjudged it. If the PV is hugely negative then a crash/correction has occurred. If the PV is within a reasonable range of error +/- inflation then nothing much has changed and either the bubble never existed or it is just outlasting our expectations.

-you’re
+your

*self smack*

Ask for the smartest Econ major on campus! Better yet, ask for Bridget.

Bridget the "smartest Econ major on campus",

Congratulations on completing your 100 series econ courses. I'm sorry that you had some trouble with that basic finance course, but I'm sure you can get someone from the Business College to tutor you when you take the next in the series. I anxiously await your views on this subject after this year's upcoming courses teach you that all microeconomics is not embodied in a simply supply & demand "X" graph. I sure hope you can save up enough extra cash to buy a new copy of Mankiw for your macro course too. You may find it comes in handy when needing some help thinking through these very tough problems relating to the housing market that seem to currently confound you.

Hmm? Let's see;

1. Buy ridiculously overpriced sh@tbox?

2. Slide down bannister full of razor blades?

3. Knock own teeth out one at a time with a tack hammer?

4. Give me a cigarette and hit me over the back of the head with a shovel?

So many choices! What's an FB to do!

At least when I was in school, econ majors didn't get many dates.

Randy H,

True, true. At least they could calculate their odds of *not* getting a date though?

Ray W,

I can't say that I've ever "worried" over trolls or any of their incoherent ramblings or "one string melodies". Each one seems to think he/she holds the "golden bb" tha5t

Any children you may or may not have can stay on the ground floor, while you live in the upper level “master suite.”

The "rooms" are quite small though. :(

(my bad)

"golden bb" that will scuttle, discredit and disband this blog. They keep checking back and we're still here. Documenting the debacle in real time. Gone is the bravado now replaced by confusion, frustration, denial and outright FB anger. Could I live without it? Sure. Will I wake up tomorrow to find that every driver uses their turn signals? Let's just say I'm not holding my breath.

Ray, you're right. It is a campaign of "disinformation". Misguided, sick, boring and utterly useless, but a campaign nontheless.

Again I ask you, why is it that trolls have such a difficult time with the idea of a CASH POSITION? And what does that tell us?

Well it tells ME (anyway) that they've never had two nickels to rub together that didn't come from housing bubble bucks. There seems to be a sense of disbelief that anyone might actually have some wealth not attached via a mortgage. The whole notion of "M1" plum evades them.

spike66,

Thanks for the east coast update. We've been hearing more and more about the "softening" in MH. I suppose a soft landing is when your neighbor is under water on his house, a hard landing is when YOU'RE under water!

jeffolie,

Haven't seen you around in a while Jeff! Great having you back. Judging from the market I'd say the PPT is working OT!

I like your condo, but don't you think it will drop in value by at least 50% as soon as you buy it, even with the builder's warranty?

Oh, how I wish I was savvy enough to post a page out of my old economics book. It would explain to the "economics" troll exactly what is happening with House Prices, basically it boils down to Shifting Demand Curves - ever heard of that troll? That's the simplified version, but of course there are other factors too. It was refered to then as a housing boom (as opposed to bubble), but you all know what comes after a boom, right?

Peter P. put down the sushi and kindly delete the troll.

The above comment is not mine.

Did you see the Barron's article posted on the last thread at the end? Holy crap! How do you think that's going to affect the market tomorrow? Next week? Next few months?

does that dwelling qualify for flood insurance?

“At least when I was in school, econ majors didn’t get many dates.”

That is probably a typical condition for econ, math and engineering. However, I did fine even though I was an econ major. But I was also a surfer – so the tan and fitness must have been a sufficient offset.

"An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today."

-- Dr. Laurence J. Peter, Author of The Peter Principle

Spike66,

Manhattan - Capital of the World! A RE market with great potential for playing the market cycle (high beta). However, the "political risk" is too great for my taste. As you point out, coop boards are a big problem. And rent control (price fixing) is death to a landlord. Recently there has been talk of strengthening the impact of rent control. Spitzer says as as Gov. he would consider this.

We bought this invesment for our little ones

http://www.cozycatfurniture.com/cat_trees/sculpturedkittytree.html

Randy,

In a previous thread (now closed) you stated that (being neoclassical) you only care about real GDP per capita. You were hoping to find a link to such data. Here is a link for this and other economic data history:

http://eh.net/hmit/gdp/

It shows that Real GDP Per Capita has doubled since 1970 - and is eight times as much in nominal terms. Population is up almost 50%.

Of course, this tells us nothing about the distribution of this tremendous growth. But it does help explain why prices for homes and other assets have increased so much in over the period.

Thanks for your inputs. I will rethink the whole idea then. I did not know it is possible for one to lose money on a cat condo. :)

Also, it will keep your girls from ruining your sofa!

Damage has been done already anyway. :)

New thread: What would a psychic say about the housing market?