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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (26104)	3/21/2005 5:42:34 PM
From: Crimson Ghost	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 116555

Bill Fleckenstein real estate bubble anecdotes: The Housing Hot (Idaho) Potato "Just another data point for the real-estate bubble. I bought a small lakefront condo a little over four years ago as a second-home/weekend retreat. It's been nice, but I'm coming up on retirement and thought I'd see what the market was like now. I contacted a realtor who gave me a sell number that I absolutely couldn't believe, but if correct would allow me to be totally debt-free and way in the green. "I thought, oh well, let's list it and see what happens. It sold in three weeks for within $9,000 of the realtor's number, 214% of what I paid for it four years ago. The interesting thing is that this story didn't happen in California or even Seattle. It happened in North Idaho! The buyers were folks who cashed out of their home in San Diego last year and have already bought another home in the area. So, the bubble definitely isn't confined to the geographic areas you'd normally think it is." Condo-Flipping Crooner "I run a small private-equity boutique and went to Vegas this week for a trade show. I was having a drink one night with a friend when a lounge singer (this is not a joke) walked up next to us, ordered a drink, and introduced himself. I inquired about the strength of the real-estate market and he informed me of two things: (1) His home has been appraised twice in 10 months and he realized a 50% appreciation, (2) He's started to speculate in 'condo-flipping.' When Vegas lounge singers start flipping condos, we've definitely peaked. Run for cover while you can!"