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

To: Tradelite who wrote (32908)	6/8/2005 5:16:46 AM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 306849

You seriously believe that the free-market is incapable of providing housing for the population of this nation -- without priority interference from the parasites in your home town of Washington D.C.? You claim we would all be living in apartments in the absence of heavy Federal subsidies? Amazing! I've always thought you were a cross between a self-promotional loon and a bureaucratic toad, but you've really hit a home-run this time. Seriously, if the federal government hadn't made homeownership a priority and matter of public policy for the U.S. many years ago, we'd probably just have more and more people trying to cram into a diminishing supply of apartment buildings. - Tradelite And this statement is the absolute epitome of economic ignorance . . . "Equilibrium" in a real estate market does not refer to price. It refers to a balance between supply and demand. - Tradelite .

To: Tradelite who wrote (32908)	6/8/2005 7:13:37 AM
From: Mike Johnston	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Equilibrium" in a real estate market does not refer to price. It refers to a balance between supply and demand. In a free market economy supply and demand are always balanced, at a certain price. Seriously, if the federal government hadn't made homeownership a priority and matter of public policy for the U.S. many years ago, we'd probably just have more and more people trying to cram into a diminishing supply of apartment buildings. Are you saying that without Fannie Mae and tax breaks people would be living in apartments ? I say, just the opposite. Many more people would have been able to afford a home, without being crowded out by speculators and housing inflation. Government intervention into an economy always creates distortions and artificial shortages which in the end increases the price and lowers affordability. That is why socialism was rejected in many countries recently after a failed economic experiment. If not for a failed government policy many of today's apartment dwellers would be able to move into a home at an affordable price.

To: Tradelite who wrote (32908)	6/8/2005 8:23:59 AM
From: Mike Johnston	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

Short-term monetary and fiscal policy have little to do with long-term population and wealth gains which have caused a diminishing amount of land to be sought after by an increasing number of people. Population of this country has been increasing for decades, many times at higher rates, without creating 100% increases in housing prices. A lot of current demand is artificial. Multiple housing units are bought for speculation with money provided by past inflation. How many homes does a person need to live in? Two, five, seven ? Do not confuse wealth with inflation. Rising house prices do not create wealth. Period.

To: Tradelite who wrote (32908)	6/8/2005 1:56:17 PM
From: kikogrey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

If the government had not interfered perhaps my daughter and her husband could at least afford a condo (this is Los Angeles). The fed's reckless policies and "innovative" financing have pushed absolute dumps up into the $400-$500,000 range. As I pointed out to my daughter yesterday, my parents owned their own home and my dad was a welder and my mom an unemployed housewife. My daughter works and her husband is an attorney. Downward mobility (at least in this part of the country) brought to you courtesy of Greenspan and company.