Posted on 09/12/2008 11:02:09 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
They ain’t making any more land! Real estate is the best investment you can make. The price of real estate has never gone down!
They ain’t making any more land! Real estate is the best investment you can make. The price of real estate has never gone down!
They ain’t making any more land! Real estate is the best investment you can make. The price of real estate has never gone down!
Given everything that has transpired since then, to call the debt-mongers on FR ignorant would be a compliment.
It's hard to pin down the prices on the components that total out house prices. Building materials and methods the last 20 years have become very productive by twice, at least.
On the other hand, modest and useful size houses and lots have been made illegal due to snob, environmental and self dealing zoning. Featherbedding on electrical, plumbing, septic, storm windows, architects and lawyers have all, IMHO, doubled the cost of housing.
Half of the mortgage problem was from outside the US. That is where can you, if you are a foreigner, park tens of billions, instantly, with a good chance of getting repaid and at a good rate. In a way, we were dumbed imported cash. Maybe nanny Congress should of made investing in the US illegal and saved ourselves from ourselves.
No, the mortgage problem was a direct result of liar or Option ARM loans made to people who have no chance of paying them back, good OR bad credit score notwithstanding.
This began with unsustainable housing prices due to easy credit, and it will end with housing bottoming, my guess being that will be in 3-4 years when the majority of mortgage underwriting will return to the historically feasible norm of 20% down, 36% DTI backend ratio, no down payment assistance.
If credit card companies make money sending high school kids cards, backed up only by their signature, I see know reason that home mortgages backed up by only signature can not work at the proper rate.
Anyways, just as there are new car sign and drive deals, so too will there be homes. Only the government needs to get out of the way. If one adult wants to give money to another adult with a signature, fine by me. We wouldn't have any of this if it wasn't for government tying us all together.
PS.
If we had a good free market in housing, housing would lose value every year, just like all cars. How do you think conservatives would like that? They wouldn't. They would run to the government to intervene to prop up house prices.
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