also related: National Association of Realtors, showed that nearly one in four U.S. homes bought in 2004 was purchased for investment purposes
source: "Middle Class Drives Soaring Purchases of Second Homes" http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1354649/posts
who's about to become a two time loser. The final stage of a bubble is investor speculation. As the economy improves and the stock market starts back up, interest rates will go up and housing values will go down.
There are certain losers who get suckered into fads at the peak. You can get rich doing the exact opposite of what they do.
Thank you for that info. My personal impression has been that investors were buying up the houses and driving the boom in my area, but I hadn't seen hard data to back that up.