Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (25720)	12/8/2004 6:45:57 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

You can point to the advent of VA loans handed out to returning vets of WWII. In a bout of patriotism the government decided that those who saved Western civilization were entitled to own a small, mass produced house, in the suburbs, with a mortgage subsidized by the American taxpayer.

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (25720)	12/9/2004 1:16:26 AM
From: John Vosilla	Respond to of 306849

<That's a quite a revisionist statement, "Real estate markets are built on debt". Believe it or not, Americans used to save up and buy their home for cash when they could afford it. Both of my Grandparents paid cash for their homes in Los Angeles. People often bought the lot first and expanded their home as their economic situation improved. I think you meant to say, "Since 1945 real estate markets have been built on debt, just like other previous speculative bubbles> Elroy my parents bought there first house in NYC and needed to save and live with their parents for several years to put 50% down that was required by the banks in 1960. And the mortgage amount those days would usually be between one and two times annual income in an era of 5% mortgages. It just has gotten progressively worse since the end of WWII to where we are today with lots of people basically have a lease option on the home with these no down 1% option ARMS and negative amortization.

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (25720)	12/9/2004 6:41:24 AM
From: Micawber	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

I think you meant to say, "Since 1945 real estate markets have been built on debt, just like other previous speculative bubbles". No I think I meant to say that as someone with an annoying and persistent axe to grind, you strike me as someone who took Patron's warning at the beginning of this thread to heart, cashed in your chips in June of 2001, and now you watch in horror cloaked with cynicism that you have missed out on one of the most spectacular real estate booms in US history. You apparently feel that this gives you license to disparage and belittle anyone with an opinion that differs from yours. Grow up. There is nothing "revisionist" about my statement. Real estate markets in Europe and the US have been built on debt for hundreds and hundreds of years, albeit not to the extent that they are today. I'm sure you know that origin of the term mortgage (literally "dead promise") goes back to the Saxon and early Norman periods. Pulte Homes wasn't around then, but the practice of purchasing land thru the use of debt was. So both of your Grandparents paid cash for their homes in LA? Whose cash? Perhaps a loan from their parents? My grandparents had mortgage loans to purchase their homes in the northeast. Does that make them profligate? I'm not arguing with anyone that we are not in a speculative bubble. I am cautiously trying to make a living in it every day. That living involves debt, done prudently at rates that are at historic lows. Suma pontificates that he sleeps well because he's never borrowed a dime. Good for him. In my business it would be nearly impossible.