August 27, 2006

HP dedicates this to the Phoenicians who bought homes last year at the peak

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could you just imagine sitting in your 1yr old Mcmansion in PHX. Mortgaged to the hilt! Declining in value! No equity! No one to buy it, even if you wanted to get the Hell out! A wife who wants a new car (to go with the one you bought) to go with said house.

I can't even imagine

Anonymous said...

....."now it's looks as if there here to stay"........"oh i got screwed yesterday!"

Anonymous said...

All my troubles seemed so far away!

Your troubles have only just begun!

Anonymous said...

Wierd - I wind up reminiscing about the sixties on a blog that chronicles the collapse of the housing market.

Anonymous said...

Far Out man!

Anonymous said...

oh I believe in yesterday (buy boy I sure don't want to think about tomorrow!)

Anonymous said...

Our house is a very, very,very fine house, with two cats in the yard....this mortgage is gonna be so hard! Now everything is easy cause of.....negative amortization!

Anonymous said...

There was an old lady who lived in a shoe, with prices so high it's all she could do!

Anonymous said...

that old lady became a realtor, now she's flat-backin it to make ends meet!

Anonymous said...

Our civilization will be humming that once they realize Peak Oil has passed.

(Read www.theoildrum.com)

BTW, Paul sang that better, with more heartfelt feeling, and musical quality of voice than on the canonical recording. How many pop "artists" today have that ability in performance and songwriting?

Anonymous said...

@anon who was reminiscing about the sixties on a related blog- this is even weirder:

3 hours ago I was driving through the Sierra's on I-80 with no radio stations and thought back to this very performance, and was mimicing George Harrison's Liverpudlian accented "Opportunity knocks!" introduction to McCartney aloud as I drove to amuse myself. I just got home, and this clip is one of the first things I see!

:-\

Anonymous said...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Don't look at me. That is essentially the message of a new Federal Reserve study arguing that productivity -- not the central bank's own policy of rock-bottom interest rates -- was behind a five-year housing boom that now seems to be ending rather abruptly.

"The housing boom has not been driven by unusually loose monetary policy," wrote John Fisher and Saad Quayyum, economists at the Chicago Fed and authors of the report.

The study also argues the surge in home purchases between 2000-2005 did not constitute a bubble, since it was not due to excessive speculation.

Instead, the authors say: "Current levels of spending on new housing are largely explained by technology-driven wealth creation over the previous decade."



Bubble or not, the housing market looks to be deflating rather rapidly. Sales of new and existing homes both plunged beyond Wall Street's already pessimistic forecasts according to data released this week, raising fears that consumer spending will falter.

Analysts say much of the consumer boom that characterized the most recent period of economic expansion was driven by a draw on equity from rising home values. Many fear that as this sort of cash dwindles, consumers could falter and economic growth would suffer in the process.

"The wealth effect is fading and the economy is slowing," said Elisabeth Denison, economist at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

But the Chicago Fed's findings indicate that growth will not soften too far beneath its long-term trend.

"We view our findings as supporting the view that the current housing boom may be a temporary transition toward an era with higher home ownership rates in which spending is temporarily higher than historical norms but will eventually return to such norms," the Chicago Fed study said.

Anonymous said...

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Don't look at me. That is essentially the message of a new Federal Reserve study arguing that productivity -- not the central bank's own policy of rock-bottom interest rates -- was behind a five-year housing boom that now seems to be ending rather abruptly."

I worked in a Fed research dept (NY) about 10 yrs ago, and can I just say that, regardless of whether this study is BS or not, it is a mistake to interpret it as official "Fed policy". All the research depts publish papers by their economists that do not have the stamp of approval of the Fed guvs. These depts are akin to academic depts at a university. The economists publish whatever work they are doing. So I would not interpret that study, as this and other bloggers have, as a case of "the Fed defending itself on housing bubble." That's a misunderstanding of how the Fed Reserve system works. It is a very far-flung, decentralized set of regional banks. If BB or the Fed Open Markets committee put out a statement saying the same thing, then you would really have something interesting.

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:43:00,

If I got your point right, I agree with you whole heartedly. It is the irresponsible behavior of the many who caused this bubble. It is the lack of understanding the basics of economics and greed that precipitated this. I sincerely believe that there are many Americans who smart enough not to fall in this free market trap. Conversely, there is an equal number that are also stupid thinking that money is free and they can simply spend all they want without any regard for its consequences.

I therefore submit that education is the essential ingredient to the economic future of our country. It is the culture, no offense to those who are not guilty, of arrogrance, pride and stupidity that led us to where we are.

I hope we can all learn from this.

Anonymous said...

One of the best songs evarr spreads its cheeks for the demise of the REIC(tm!) -- very sad, but that's what the best songs are there for...

Anonymous said...

Hilarious.