JDN,
I invite you to take a new look at the SF bay area housing. Perhaps a million houses in that region, and **ALL** went up during the boom. It didn't matter if the house belonged to a carpenter, a plumber, a computer guru, an accountant, a financier, or whoever. Even something like a total-tear-down shack in Rancho Cordoba (Cupertino) could be worth a million bucks. And they are still hanging close to those level, give or take a hundred thousand dollars.
Some owners cashed in by selling. Some cashed in via equity takeouts. There were bids, multiple bids, forced re-bids on top of winning in multiple bids, and retractions because a house down the street went for a $100K above a revised asking price. I went to see a house in Menlo Park once, and the agent merrily informed us that the asking price had gone up (since brochure was printed) by $4m. Naturally, that took it out of my budget :-|
Similar stories in a zillion other neighborhoods all across America. Even Cleveland neighborhoods saw unusually large price appreciation.
So, tell me again if you still believe that just a handful of people benefited from this real estate boom, and rest of the country got merely a bucketful of wampums. That those computer wizards in Silicon Valley who could navigate complex technical literature and deal with photon jumps could not parse their loan documents.
Again, I am not saying there is no blame to dole out. Perhaps there is. And, we may even be fortunate enough and find out whom to blame.
Regards |
