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Some notorious quotes --like events-- represent pivotal moments that should never be forgotten. They should be preserved for posterity and passed along to future generations to serve as a warning. Some of the crap the REIC (Real Estate Industrial Complex) has been spewing for the last 5 years meets this lowly standard of putrescence.

Whenever these shills try to reverse course, change their tunes or revise history in the face of (now undeniable) evidence that their empire is crumbling, these quotes should be trotted out and rubbed in their lying, ugly faces at every opportunity.

Here are some of my infamous favorites:

Source: L.A. Times (August 28, 2005)
“Equity Is Altering Spending Habits and View of Debt”

“If you paid your mortgage off, it means you probably did not manage your funds efficiently over the years,” said David Lereah, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors and author of “Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?” “It’s as if you had 500,000 dollar bills stuffed in your mattress.”

He called it “very unsophisticated.”

Anthony Hsieh, chief executive of LendingTree Loans, an Internet-based mortgage company, used a more disparaging term. “If you own your own home free and clear, people will often refer to you as a fool. All that money sitting there, doing nothing.”

Source: Federal Reserve Board (February 23, 2004)
Remarks by Chairman Alan Greenspan: Understanding household debt obligations
(just as Greenspan was preparing to start RAISING rates from 1%)

"... many homeowners might have saved tens of thousands of dollars had they held adjustable-rate mortgages rather than fixed-rate mortgages during the past decade.

...American consumers might benefit if lenders provided greater mortgage product alternatives to the traditional fixed-rate mortgage. To the degree that households are driven by fears of payment shocks but are willing to manage their own interest rate risks, the traditional fixed-rate mortgage may be an expensive method of financing a home."

Source: N.Y. Times (March 25, 2005)
Trading Places: Real Estate Instead of Dot-Coms

Ron Shuffield, president of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors says that "South Florida is working off of a totally new economic model than any of us have ever experienced in the past." He predicts that a limited supply of land coupled with demand from baby boomers and foreigners will prolong the boom indefinitely.

Source: CNN Money/Fortune (February 13, 2006)
A tale of two markets

If you want to know where real estate prices are headed in California's Orange County, the man to talk to is Gary Watts. The Mission Viejo broker has 35 years of experience and doubles as a spokesman for the O.C.'s Association of Realtors.

... Since 1997, Orange County home prices have seen a 195 percent rise. Will the good times last another year? Gary doesn't hesitate. "Fifteen percent is pretty much in the bag for Orange County in 2006," he says. "It's impossible for prices to go down this year."

Source: N.Y. Times (October 16, 2005)
Chasing Ground
Bob Toll (President of Toll Brothers):

"In Britain you pay seven times your annual income for a home; in the U.S. you pay three and a half." The British get 330 square feet, per person, in their homes; in the U.S., we get 750 square feet. Not only does Toll say he believes the next generation of buyers will be paying twice as much of their annual incomes; in terms of space, he also seems to think they're going to get only half as much. "And that average, million-dollar insane home in the burbs? It's going to be $4 million."

Source: N.Y. Times (March 25, 2005)
Trading Places: Real Estate Instead of Dot-Coms:

"I just don't think we have what it takes to prick the bubble," said Diane C. Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago, who was an optimist during the 90's. "I don't think prices are going to fall, and I don't think they're even going to be flat."

Source: Planet Jackson Hole (September 6, 2006)
Un-Real Estate

“‘In Jackson, the market doesn’t really go down,’ said (realtor) Linda Walker. Broker Ryan Olsen agrees. ‘We are immune to the up and down treads that plague many real estate markets,’ he says. ‘Our real estate market is essentially quite ‘bullet proof!’”

Source: Contra Costa Times (September 13, 2006)
Housing bubble may spare East Bay

One analyst agreed real estate will not implode in a bubble scenario. Sean Snaith, an economist who tracks regional economies in California, has opined that the Bay Area at worst would endure a housing soufflé that weakened slowly, not a bubble that evaporated.

"The run-up in housing prices was really driven by fundamentals, not speculation," Snaith said. "Growth in the Bay Area economy and the state overall was not confined to housing-related sectors."

Source: WILX.com (January 10, 2007)
Housing Market Recovery?

‘I think the decline that we’ve seen is not going to occur,’ said Tomie Raines Realty President Debbie D’Valentine.”

Source: newspress.com (January 24, 2007)
Low bids take glow off property auction

“At both days of the auction everyone spoken to said the bids came in too low and no one expected them to be accepted. Leibert was upset with the auction, calling it a ‘farce.’ She believes the bids were too low and the auction didn’t deliver serious bidders.”

“‘I think a lot of buyers thought they were going to bottom-feed. These are eager but not desperate sellers.’ Jeff Miloff said. ‘The auction tells me we are in a market correction.’ The bids were so unrealistic the auction showed people didn’t do their homework, Miloff said.”

Source: Monterey County Herald (June 29, 2006)
Reaching The Dream Without Moving In California

"Many in California have reached the dream of living in a million-dollar home without moving."
--Leslie Appleton-Young (vice president and chief economist for the California Association of Realtors)

Source: brisbanetimes.com (September 3, 2008)
Sky's no limit for property prices

"Brisbane’s median house price - currently about $450,000 - will hit $1 million in only seven years time and continue to climb, reaching $20 million by 2044, according to an in-depth research report by property firm Johnston Dixon.”"

CEO John Johnston said as ’staggering’ as the predictions sounded, they were based on growth values of the past 37 years. ‘Brisbane’s median house price has grown by 10.8 per cent annually for almost four decades,’ he said. ‘If values continue to grow for the next 37 years the way they have for the past 37 years, Brisbane will move into the sphere of generational home ownership.’

Please post some of your own favorite "pearls of wisdom" you feel are especially worthy of remembrance.

HARM

#housing