[patriot_wes]

Since December I've had a three-fold increase in the number of people who want to know about investing in real estate, which in many areas is appreciating at 10-30% a year. Everyone figures the stock market is in idle for a long time to come.

[FITZ]

I would invest in real estate but taxes here make that impossible.

[sarcasm]

Is real estate the next bubble to burst?

[Stallone]

Is it any wonder that most investors end up losing?

Real estate is up, but it wasn't 3-5 years ago when we started buying.

Funny, it was around the same time that we were selling stocks at all time highs.

So guess what we're buying now?

Bingo! Stocks, the new winners (in 3-5 years).

Novice investors will always follow the past instead of anticipating the future - a costly mistake.

Emotions have no place in Affairs of the Chart.

[Jhensy]

But real estate HAS to be topped out right now. My wife and I are looking to buy our starter home here in Westchester County, NY, our lifetime home. We know it's an expensive area, but we make pretty good money, and are perfect candidates for a starter. But $350,000 to $400,000 in the lesser areas? And don't even ask about the ones in good school districts.

We're worried that we'll buy in at the very peak of a seller's market, the worst possible time. Should we wait a bit? The NY economic outlook is not very rosy, people really ARE losing jobs here.

[bimbo]

... investing in real estate, which in many areas is appreciating at 10-30% a year...

Real Estate is still in a bubble-expansion phase. There is a deep and healthy recession out there, somewhere, for real estate. Those getting in now are probably certain that they are not the greatest of the "greater fools."