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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nextrade! who wrote (24333)	10/7/2004 1:06:23 AM
From: Mike Johnston	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 306849

Thanks nexttrade for a good article. I think Greenspan should read it. It is a shame that no US publication will write the following truths about the real estate bubble: 1. Inflation is not wealth. 2. Higher house prices entail a lower not higher standard of living ( if a house costs 5x salary instead of 2x salary) 3. Rising house prices are a sign of economic weakness not strength. 4. Real estate bubble does not create wealth but it transfers wealth from the middle class to real estate brokers and speculators (one needs at least 2 houses to benefit from the bubble ) 5. Productivity statistics are totally false. Assume a real estate agent in Las Vegas sells 20 houses a year at 200K a pop, working 40 h a week. So his production is 4 milion a year. Normally productivity of the agent would be higher if he sells more houses in the same amount of work. But what happens if he sells the same amount of houses ( 0% real productvity increase) but the prices go higher. Now if prices double and next year he sells again 20 houses but for 400K each now his production is 8 million for 40 h a week, 100 % increase. Now if official inflation is reported as being at 3 %, you have a 97 % increase in productivity. Then Greenspan can boast how great productivity is. Absurd. The agent did not sell 97% more houses. IF PRODUCTIVITY WAS TRULY GREAT IN THE ECONOMY , HOUSES WOULD GET CHEAPER IN RELATION TO INCOME.

To: nextrade! who wrote (24333)	10/7/2004 2:42:17 PM
From: Jill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Thanx--very interesting article

To: nextrade! who wrote (24333)	10/7/2004 7:39:09 PM
From: nextrade!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Bond Fall Ahead of Employment Report Traders are anxiously awaiting Friday's jobs report, which is expected to show a gain of 150,000 jobs in September. But the recent hurricanes have clouded the picture, prompting estimates in a wide range - from a gain of 75,000 to a gain of 250,000. The uncertainty has kept many traders from placings large bets until the numbers are released Friday. forbes.com