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

To: Bonefish who wrote (81682)	7/23/2007 6:52:46 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Should that kind of speculation in a necessity like housing be stopped or at least not be encouraged? As in "there ought to be a law"? As I said, they were all cash buyers so how could the government do anything? I have a feeling that South Florida was seeing a lot of money coming from criminal activity but clearly ordinary people were being drawn into it. I got some crap from my family members for not jumping into the game (by doing a fix up and flipping the house myself- but of course none of them were willing to do any of the work) and trying to speculate on a higher price. Every time I ran the numbers it didn't work out unless I did a band aid fix up which is not my style, doing it right it was a break even bet at best. I'd still be trying to sell it! Speculation always runs it's course because it's a zero sum game although obviously even a zero sum game can have some big winners, most end up losers especially with some asset where millions are siphoned off in transaction fees constantly. By the time you pass legislation to curtail it, it is all over but the shouting so the new regs simply discourage a recovery. When the correction runs it's course maybe house prices will over correct so ordinary people who were shut out of buying a house find they can afford a much nicer one than they could have even before the boom. Thing is, it takes guts to step up then and buy when prices have been free falling for a few years. It is my opinion that government interference in the housing market (trying to make homes more affordable) has almost always ended up producing the exact opposite of their intentions. I want them out of it, not in it further.