March 24, 2008

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day


So how long have you been comin round here?

Do you consider yourself an HP'er?

We may not agree on everything, hell, it's my hope that we don't agree on everything, cause that would be boring, and that would mean you were nuts too.

86 comments:

Anonymous said...

How long I've been hanging around?
I'm not sure... shortly around 2005 or something... all I remember is that you'd first started the blog, and I wondered if you were currently living in Phoenix (my home town).

Two - three years? Dono.

Yossarian

Anonymous said...

Long enough to save my ass!

Anonymous said...

I can't remember when I first found this blog ,but I was attracted to the funny pictures at first . I got to say that Keith tickles my funny bone time and time again .

Behind the humor of Keith is a very serious man I think . Keith is always trying to stir the pot ,but for a good purpose I think .

Anonymous said...

Came home from Iraq in Aug 2007 and felt a completely different mood in Vegas (home for now). It was weird; the RE buzz and bragging was gone. Found HP and Doom thru a Yahoo Finance article. Have read both since. Both = prophetic, profound. Read "Crash Proof" & "Financial Armageddon". Wow! Since, I've picked up about 3K in gold, 2K in Silver eagles, currently own 50 contracts of April $10 puts on LEH. AND I love my wife more. Will soon be outta CC debt. This is tip of the iceberg,...thanks HP. Studs = Keith, Schiff, and Buzzsaw. May all of us HPers keep it real!

Anonymous said...

I've been here for a year. During this time, HP has saved my financial life. I sold my Southern California home 10 months ago, and I am sitting on the money waiting to pounce. I only wish I would have found this site sooner, but I'm thankfull that I got out when I did.

Rob in SoCal

Frank R said...

Hmm, been just over a year for me I think? Around the same time I started my blog.

And I'm glad we don't agree on everything. That means we both think for ourselves.

Besides, there's a word for people who agree with everything another says: SHEEPLE.

That's why I hate party-line Republicans even though I tend to be a conservative myself. It gets old being around people who don't think for themselves and all have the SAME EXACT views on everything like a bunch of sheeple.

Anonymous said...

When the housing market went completely nuts in 2005 and that stupid condominium tower opened under the flight glide slope path on final approach to Sky Harbor International Airport selling units for $500K ,I needed a place to restore my sanity . I googled and found my mental rescue. I have received a lot of diligent information here and plenty of laughs , too. I love HP !

Anonymous said...

Since 2005 when I was just starting to get interested in how was it that my broke neighbors were buying marble counter tops, new suv's, and adding massive new rooms to their houses. When two other broke neighbors were fighting over themselves for our house which we were about to move from. When I started reading about how in San Diego and Vegas more than a 1/3 of all new home loans were adjustable rate. And I have been reading your blog like crack ever since :)

Anonymous said...

I got upset with you for backing BO, attempted not to come back, but HP makes me laugh too much to stop reading.

I picture you as a retired, single man in his 60s. A fellow HP reader thinks 30s or 40s. Maybe. Unsolved mystery.

Anonymous said...

Since 2005, which was just the right time as this blog was one of the reasons that I sold my home and am now renting. Thanks Keith and everyone else.

What ever happened to that Realtor named Osman that use to post in 2005 and 2006. He was somewhat truthful but still in denial. I guess the truth might have finally sunk in.

Anonymous said...

Long enough for people to tell me i was completly out of my mind for thinking that housing prices would fall in LA and Orange County. Now those same people ask me for advice and listen to every word I say, as if I were a fortune teller. Keith I am a wiser man and know who Ron Paul is thanks to you.

Love you bro.

RayNLA

Anonymous said...

Keith, it must have been around 2005, when the whole world except for sheeps and 'experts' knew this subprime, alt-a etc thing would kill the US Banking System.

I wanted to weigh in on history to show not all people were fools. Just 99% of them (and I still ain't getting rich).

Printing the front page each day before going back home from work. Hilarious laughter in public transport by some bloke reading financial stuff.

Anonymous said...

since 2005. did an internship in NYC and could only laugh at those RE prices. HP is funny and smart and i am addicted to it. some of these forum posts are simply hilarious...

Anonymous said...

Two years. Comment every once in a while. Don't really think of myself as an HPer, but there would be worse things.

Anonymous said...

SINCE I GOT WOKE UP SCORCHED IN A TANNING BOOTH BY A LITTLE ORANGE MAN TELLING ME TO GET OUT BECAUSE IT WAS HIS TURN TO BAKE...

DOPES!!!

Anonymous said...

1 year. I fully intended to pay cash for a house last year. Funny thing, though. The local housing market just didn't make sense. No sense at all.

Thank you for saving me, everyone.

I could have made a BAD mistake.

Paul E. Math said...

I think it's fair for me to call myself an HPer. I've been coming to this site since, I believe, the fall of 2006.

Back then, I had already had a bearish outlook on housing and was frustrated by the accusations of insanity my analysis provoked in others. The disagreement of others made me need to do more research, verify my facts, double-check my sanity. That's when I found HP.

Despite some disagreements, in general, this blog told me I was right at a time when nobody else would.

Roccman said...

Too long Keith...and have been in the 5 ring the whole way:

1) gold $1000
2) oil $100
3) food rationing - check
4) gas rationing - on the way

and the grand pappy of them all...

5) The Great Die Off - in under five years

Ed said...

found you in late 2006

I agree with you that housing is gonna be hurting for a while. I sold my house right at the time I found this place. You didn't cause me to wake up one day and think holy shit I better get out. It did reinforce my decision though.

Disagree with you on pretty much everything else.

Anonymous said...

Hell I don't remember, two or three years maybe.

Anonymous said...

Two years.

Metroplexual said...

Since you started it.

Anonymous said...

Late 2006, right after I sold my house to rent and everybody said I was crazy bc real estate only goes up. Even an idiot knows that!

Sheeple...

And you know what happens to sheep!

Anonymous said...

I think it's been about 1.5 years. As I said before, I had resigned myself to the notion I was 'out of touch' not willing to pay $500k for an absolute shithole in Sedona...smelly rentals, horrific mobile homes, et al. Finding this blog helped me realize I hadn't lost my mind...that, perhaps, I was right after all.
Keith was my shrink!

Anonymous said...

About two years now, I think.

I have a confession as well. I stopped reading for a few weeks after you endorsed Obama. I think that I "get it" now even though I think Obama would be bad in a lot of different ways.

But the intellect and intuition of this blog has been second to none and I think that a lot of people, and bloggers, have been inspired by Keith in more ways than one. And I think that's a good thing.

The thing that kept me coming back in the early days was the same thing that keeps me coming back now ... the unbridled drive for the truth along with the Oracle-like intuition. I mean, you predict things and they come true. Are you really just a human Keith?

Anonymous said...

Came here in late 2006 or early 2007. Thanks to you keith I shorted CFC and FED in July 2007 and made a nice profit...didn't hold all the way down for either but still came out with something nice. Still renting and waiting for prices to go down further. Read Manias, Panics because of HP and have been preaching the gospel to all that will listen. Was telling friends that big banks were likely to fail and of course they did not believe me at all. Finally, a skeptical friend blasted out an email to our mutual friends the other day after Bear collapsed and said that I was right all along...I don't think any of them now believe I was, or am, off my rocker re: the housing market and its implications for the economy. Unfortunately, those bastards Paulson and Bernanke just bailed out the entire banking industry with taxpayer money last week...so I'm not sure we'll see any more bank failures going forward.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Long enough to save my ass!
============================

That sums it all up for me. Good reply!

edd browne said...

[Keith: stay away from Vukovar.
Things are going to get ugly soon.]

Been around HP maybe 18 months.
I keep reading some since most
alternatives are either to geeky
or not updated daily.

Many wasted words here.
Could use more constructive,
shorter threads/comments.

Fun, but real doom approaches.
And sorry, but I'm concerned
for the "innocents"; even those
who signed papers with 30 pages
of fine print they were not
equipped to understand, even with
a so-called HS diploma.

Survival of fittest is cool,
unless you trusted a banker.
Many lawyers are crooks, but one
you pick should be brought in for all closings.
Just knowing that tends to clean
up things before the papers are prepared.

Maybe we fiddle too much.
Gut check time; hard not to
run the local bank.
Hard to be first to reach for
a "floating" knife.
But secure life is no life.

Anonymous said...

I sold my home in fl in 2005 for a nice profit I could not understand where people we getting all the money to buy 500,000 $ HOMES LOL OH then the light bulb hit no money down people thought I was crazy to thing prices would come down back then . Now WELL WHAT ELSE NEEDS TO BE SAID. I LOVE THIS SITE .LOTS OF GOOD INFO .TKS

Anonymous said...

2005

Anonymous said...

Since about 05 I think, maybe even 04 - my initial googling of "housing bubble" back then took me to patrick.net, from there I found HP, Ben's blog, Mish, and Piggington's. All good reads. Mostly look at HP and Ben's now. Back in 04 and 05, these blogs were such a refreshing fountain of truth, because no major media sources were reporting anything of importance in this story - just "hey, prices are up double digits here again, and local realtor _____ says, all blue skies ahead! Alright! You should buy!" This was, of course, repeated by every bleating sheep on the planet, so these blogs were a source of sanity for me.

As it turns out, the mainstream wouldn't even begin to report on the reality of this story until the damage was in full swing, despite the large number of leading indicators and the lessons of history. Even though the story of the housing market is being blasted out of every media outlet every day now, I still gotta come to these blogs for critical analysis and history lessons - the mainstream media is simply incompetent for these tasks, which is kind of astounding. Newspapers and news stations need to just fire everyone and start over. CNN can keep Lou Dobbs, but that's about it. Fox should absorb everyone currently employed at all media sources, since it's at least widely acknowledged that Fox is filled with biased, incompetent idiots.

Anonymous said...

Ive been here since 2005 because I realized there was something insane with housing in 2004.

Anonymous said...

Annon said "...I picture you as a retired, single man in his 60s. . Unsolved mystery. March 23, 2008 9:07 AM "

ROTFLMFAO! You are 66% right. Old and single divorced angry guy loosing his hair. Looks around each morning and thinks "How did this happen to me" and then ranting online about it.

Puts the "ooz" in Loozer!

Anonymous said...

I've been reading HP since June of 2005. I had first tried to find information at cnn.com, cbs.com, the Wall Street Journal, many other MSM sites and found almost no information addressing my burning question. Why is it I am making way more than the median income and can't find a place to buy except in slum areas? Could everyone in California suddenly be making $300,000/year?

Thank you Keith for your insight and humor. Your links directed me to many other useful sites and I wound up learning so much more about finance and housing than I ever would have on my own. You showed me the way, Keith, to get off the hamster wheel. I didn't expect to discover economics to the depth that I do now and might not have been prepared for the economic disaster that is upon us now. I am ready to survive this turmoil and I credit you with putting me on the correct path. Keep up the great work and maybe we all can collectively change the world for the better.

Anonymous said...

Since late 2004 I believed...Helped me make my mind of selling back then when people were still hypnotized and everyone was a real estate guru.

Am a total tinfoil kind of guy...No not the martians and evil satanic cabals type of guy...More the Evil financial cabals who do control economies for profits and rig the money system.

As we move foward I see one day my country being ran like the movie V for Vendetta where everything is seen and the freedom is just a guise for a form of dictatorship.

Blogs like this are made fun of but in the end we seem to have answers or events prove us right.

Sadly enough we aren't that beacon light or free we are just a country of simpleminded sheep. Who can be mesmerized with circuses and bread.

Anonymous said...

I've been coming here since sometime in 2006. I was fortunate enough to avoid having any RE investments after July, 2004--which means I didn't make "top dollar" in the house flipping frenzy that followed. That's more than OK with me. At least we got out in time.

Once the serious flipping began around me, I started wondering how people who make $40,000 a year were buying $250,000 homes. Under old "house math", they can actually only afford about $100,000 of house.

Well, now we know.

The housing frenzy seems to be part of a general "flight from reality" in American life that's neither conservative or liberal, just crazy. As in delusional.

We're not in 1955 anymore, and we need to get over it.

If this is how you think, there aren't going to be a lot of Americans to talk to in your everyday life. Thus, blogs.

Anonymous said...

I've been HP'er for at least a year. Stop by every day. Thanks Keith, your have saved me a lot of money! We are going into the same scenario here, where I live, Reykjavik, Iceland.

Anonymous said...

Since late 2006 when what I was reading/watching in the MSM wasn't making any sense (probably because they are a bunch of liars).
I was so happy to find this group of truth seekers. I also really like Keith's sense of humor.

Anonymous said...

Hahahah. Air, water, food, HP. Yeah, I'm addicted.

Anonymous said...

Since 2005 have been reading your blog almost daily. I panicked for a good year almost jumping into buying a condo here in Miami and thanks to you, did not. So literally you saved me over $150K.

What can I say, thanks Keith sincerely!!

Out at the peak said...

I found this blog shortly after selling my home in late 2005. I generally agree with you, but I'm not as passionate about some topics.

I didn't short CFC all the way. Only to $20. I didn't hold GLD/IAU all the way to $100. At least I still have all my silver from base price of $9-$11.

Overall, my portfolio is not too impressive. I really missed some great opportunities.

Refuse to buy overpriced said...

Before 2008, I was content to work save and wait for prices to come down.

The Federal Reserve's drastic rate cuts, which were obviously not in my best interests, drove me online to figure out what was going on.

I expected a Democratic bailout of borrowers, and a watered down version of the same thing from Bush, but I had assumed the Federal Reserve was a nuetral technocratic institution whose function was to provide the country with a stable currency.

The books "Greenspan's Bubbles" and "Irrational Exuberance", as well as this and other housing blogs, enlightened me.

Patrick.net has the best advice for potential buyers, House Bubble has the best news links, but this site is the most entertaining, and I need entertainment these days.

Anonymous said...

Because of HP, I found Peter Schiff and his book, "Crash Proof."I also discovered and read "Manias, Panics and Crashes."

I am a lot smarter than I was a year ago because of HP. Also, I think this blog has the smartest posters on the internet. I don't always agree, but almost every post is worthy of reading and considering.

I get disgusted when I listen to commentary by media pundits. But when I read HP, I always think, "there are still a lot of reasonable intelligent people in this country."

So, even though I am a pessimist about the economy, I am an optimist about Americans.

Anonymous said...

Hanging around since early Fall of 2005.

I am a OG HP'er.

*Its saved me from buying a house.
*Inspired me to divorce my wife.
*Made me a killing on shorting CFC.

FC John

Anonymous said...

Excellent website. Plenty of wonderful references and links. It was through postings on HP that I learned of the BBC's documentaries that are featured on YOUTUBE:"The Power of Nightmares" and "The Century of the Self".

"Century of the Self" really zapped the light on me as far as how we are always constantly being manipulated,lied to,and controlled.
Sigmund Freud's thesis has proven very helpful in observing the behavior of the masses during the housing bubble in particular and the economic crises in general:

MOST PEOPLE ARE IRRATIONAL...

MOST PEOPLE HAVE ANIMALISTIC EMOTIONS...

Bottom line..most people are just plain stupid and ignorant and have to be carefully monitored and controlled through 'creative means'.

David said...

I was one of your ealy readers. Thi is one of the best housing bubble blog. It is indeed more intersting then my own bubble blog. I am you ally Kieth in the fight against the REIC!

David
Bubble Meter Blog

Anonymous said...

I have been hanging around on housing bubble blogs since Nov 2005 when we considered buying a house (we didn't). In the beginning, I hang out mostly at patrick.net and Ben Jones' blog to convince myself of my mental sanity to think of the market then as a bubble. Now, I just speak out against government bail-outs, try to learn something from the bust, and enjoy the entertainment provided by your blog, Keith.

Anonymous said...

Since mid 2006. Since then I have saved about 40K in cash and put it in a bunch of different banks (still need to diversify to other forms of cash though), saved the corpus of my 401 and IRA and have paid off about 15K in debt (but still have about 4K to go). Yeah, I could pay it off, but the interest is low and I would rather have the cash on hand.

Formosan said...

I came on in the summer of 2006. I had just returned to the US and everyone was trying talk me into buying a house. I felt that prices were way too high and that people with moderate incomes could in no way afford to buy a home (without a good deal of saving). I had just returned from living in an Asian country were everything was still a done with CASH! Homes and cars were bought with cash and most people saved at least 1/3 of their income (mainly by living with multiple generations under one roof). This is probably a future trend for some Americans.

Anonymous said...

Since late 2006. This is a great site.

Anonymous said...

I've been reading your blog for about a year now. I think I found you from a link over at dollarcollapse.com I love your blog and have sent the link to many others. Thanks for all you do.

Anonymous said...

A little over a year. Knew something was wrong when I moved to Vegas 2 yrs ago. Sought out this bubble news & been a regular since.

Quit the advertising job. Now have 2 businesses...one is foreclosure property maintenance!!!

Talk about being on the ground floor. I see some real wreckage.

BTW...foreclosures in many Vegas areas selling through banks for about 1/2 price of 2006 prices.

Anonymous said...

I've been here since late 2005. Helped to reinforce feeling that this was a bubble and that I had to take a stand. Now sitting on a ginormous pile of silver and other tangible assets.

Anonymous said...

Can't remember how long I've been coming around.

All I know is I gotta get my daily fix of Andrew Hac's "snapper turtle" rants. ;)

Anonymous said...

I started August 2005. My family sold the family farm in Fresno CA. for $60K/acre to a developer in Dec 2005. Normally land like that is $8-12/acre.

Laughing all the way to the bank.
We sold at the PEAK in Kalifornia.

(We all live in Wash. State)

Anonymous said...

Fall of 2006, when I first thought about "buying" a house, and realized that I'd been disenfranchised. Thanks for saving my biscuits.

I am an HPer. HPers dont't agree on everything, but our essence is in our name: we all believe in the inevitable (now ongoing)residential real estate crash and (some day soon) panic.

By the way, whatever happened to Mort, and the pompous ass known as "The Thinker?"

Anonymous said...

Tangelo Mozilo said...



By the way, whatever happened to Mort, and the pompous ass known as "The Thinker?"

Or Princess Mononoke, or Borkafatty or West888? You think they bought houses?

Anonymous said...

It would have to be 2006 or maybe even 2005

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Keyser Soze said...

I think it's been about 1.5 years. As I said before, I had resigned myself to the notion I was 'out of touch' not willing to pay $500k for an absolute shithole in Sedona...smelly rentals, horrific mobile homes, et al.


We looked at Sedona for small retirement condo and almost had a stroke. Jerome is pleasant though and so is Cottonwood. We have a Piper Pacer so we need a little airport nearby. We are hoping the real estate crash makes northern AZ a little more affordable in 5 years.

Anonymous said...

Anaonypus 6:04 said . . .

" . . .loosing his hair. Looks around each morning and thinks "How did this happen to me" and then ranting online about it.

Puts the "ooz" in Loozer!"

---------------------------------

Oh, the irony of someone who could't pass a sixth grade spelling test calling someone else a loser.

Anonymous said...

I've been on the site at least 2.5 years or so. Don't even remember how I found the site, but will say...I've got a CPA, and MBA from UCLA and still have probably learned more about how the macroeconomy works than from anything I've learned in my previous schooling or work in finance. I regularly find myself schooling people on what's really going on...and these are smart, highly educated people, but this kind of info. just isn't out there for the general public.

So, while I am an HP'er and am highly thankful for the information its given me, I find that I don't like a lot of the venom that seems to be on this site. I feel the site should start to move away from the "told you so" (because really, it did) mentality and the "everyone is so f'ed" mindset towards "ok, what do we do now to survive, prosper in this environment.

I think HP has been proven forever right in its predictions and no longer needs to make that case, but should move towards the next step of "what's next" and how do we prepare.

Anonymous said...

Earlier posting: "ROTFLMFAO! You are 66% right. Old and single divorced angry guy loosing his hair. Looks around each morning and thinks "How did this happen to me" and then ranting online about it.

Puts the "ooz" in Loozer!"

Earlier posting from someone speculating on who Keith is... hmmmm.

I suspect that Keith is doing just fine and will continue to do just fine in the years to come. heheheh, - whatever the motive, love the blog, Keith (don't ever change).

I've been coming around for ... ? Don't really remember now but it has been long enough. 2005 or so -I remember there being a fellow who went by "The Thinker" that I used to enjoy reading even though I didn't agree with all of his postings. I like the Paul E. Math no b.s. picture and postings too, keyser soze too. Bork a fatty was pretty fun to read. Some of these names are a riot by themselves. I have come around here to have saved myself a good deal of money. More importantly than just money, HP gave me some much needed reassurance that I wasn't going bonkers in a sane world. It turned out to be that I was remaining sane in a bonkers world.

Smug Bastard

Anonymous said...

I've got a CPA, and MBA from UCLA and still have probably learned more about how the macroeconomy works than from anything I've learned in my previous schooling or work in finance.

I would demand my tuition back if I were you. What I've learned here is that renters are big cry babies and that they are jealous of people who make a lot of money.

Anonymous said...

right after i missed out on a very cheap well done mobile in a somewhat retirement community and watched the price double, while i was calculating my using the savings on address and postbox to enable my not being there as i flit about the world free, missing out on well done, low ante, low keep, non associative that seemed a long time keeper can be realy disconcerning..........cost being less than one years average income as calculated by BLS

Anonymous said...

when i refused to resell myself into slavery

Anonymous said...

i miss westchester chick or WC as i still get NYC hot flashes and its almost tulip time...............................

Anonymous said...

two to three years.

Anonymous said...

since i could not get a building permit cause i could not answer the question "what are you gonna build" without knowing what quality materials would be on sale cheap on the day i started building in comparison to standard materials,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Anonymous said...

It was early 2005, my wife and I had just paid off all our student loans, car loans, and were debt free except for our small mortgage (bought in 2000). We were expecting our child and were looking at buying a larger house.

At first I could not understand why couldn't comfortably afford a nicer house? I came across the term housing bubble, found this blog, patrick.net, paranoid Ben's blog, etc.

So for the past three years, I've received a wonderful education on housing and economics. Sitting on the sidelines saving up cash for the 1/2 off everything sale.

Frank R said...

I think this blog has subliminally destroyed my taste for ramen. I used to love ramen, spiced up with veggies, hot sauce etc., and I ate it all the time, but the past few months I can't even look at the stuff.

I guess it's the subconscious realtor connection.

Anonymous said...

By the way, whatever happened to Mort...

He went undercover. ;)

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

I would demand my tuition back if I were you. What I've learned here is that renters are big cry babies and that they are jealous of people who make a lot of money.

You haven't learned anything here. I bet you can't carry a conversation for 5 minutes without slipping in how much money you make and its always embellished just a bit isn't it?

You live for the jealousy of others. snort snort

michael said...

i've been hanging around since 2006...when I decided to sell my house and rent. Best financial decision i've made in my life, and it was based on the advice I received from blogs like this, books like SELL NOW, and economists like roubini & schiff.
Thanks Keith, it's been a hell of a ride. I think my next move is to short the Euro....anyone else thinking of this? Any strategies....I was just going to short the FXE, but maybe futures contracts would be the way to go? Any advice would be appreciated!

Anonymous said...

"I would demand my tuition back if I were you. What I've learned here is that renters are big cry babies and that they are jealous of people who make a lot of money."


u must be one of dem dar dandies from the big bright city - tanned and well ed-u-ma-kated... and believe there is nothing wrong with paying a million dollars for a trailer because it is situated on a rented lot in Malibu with an ocean view.

Good luck in the coming decade Junior. You're going to need a lot of it.

Anonymous said...

Summer 07. My fiance and I were moving to Phoenix from Houston and I asked him why the house prices were so high and the median income wasn't. He said things are just more expensive there. I didn't buy that answer. I started researching on the "Internets" and found your site and I knew I wasn't crazy or cheap. Since I've been in Phoenix, I've been able to rent a luxury condo for half the cost to buy, while I had a friend who walked away from her home and another friend that is holding on, but realizes her home is not worth what she paid. You saved me alot of $$$

Thanks Keith!

GT said...

my brother became a realtor in LA. i remember seeing written on a chalkboard in his office, patrick.net. that led me to bubblemeter as i live in DC and that led me here somehow.

i gotta say i imagined keith as a smarter clone of myself, late twenties but it's always bugged me how much he travels, so maybe he is older 40s and retired. who knows, we'll find out in vegas i guess

Anonymous said...

I already posted but wanted to add that this blog has been truly uncanny in foresight and has been an incredibly accurate investment guide for so many people.

Count me in as being addicted.

Anonymous said...

I have been a loyal reader since your inception. Those were trying times in 05. A lot of pressure to cave and buy a house(I sold summer 02 in Oakland and watched another two years of insanity from the sidelines)coming from friends and broker inlaws. HP helped me keep the faith and believe in myself. Now, I am referred to as a "genius," which of course I don't pretend to be. For fun, I like to Zillow my old house. Still the highwater mark in my old townhouse development. The Zillow price is almost back to where I sold it. Meanwhile, my money continues to grow in gold,commodities and CDs.I am not willing to declare victory until home prices in the core East Bay drop another 20%.

Anonymous said...

Since March 2006 when I had a waking intuitive impression of my wife and I in despair over losing our house and our down payment.

It was a warning, and we avoided that happening.

I also had an impression that this housing thing would bring down the entire economy and would devolve into upheaval and violence.

The first part was correct and I expect the other part to be coming soon.

Anonymous said...

14 months? Just in time to stop me from buying a condo.

Anonymous said...

I've been checking in nearly everyday since Since Feb '06 and this is my first post.

You are right, Ben's is very boring. I stopped reading his site a year ago.

Your commentary is sometimes a bit over the top, but that is what is needed right now. Love your steady reference to "Manias, Panics, and Crashes."

Funnily, within a year after I started talking with coworkers about the bubble, several proceeded to buy. They all thought housing never goes down and refused to entertain my housingpanic infused exhortations. One is now saying the market has bottomed. LOL.

In a weird way, this bubble is just a very entertaining side show. Yes I did read Only Yesterday and Since Yesterday. But, I know that this blow off, as Kunstler would say, is just the first groanings of a much more over riding force waiting to make itself inexorably known to the masses. The inevitable decline in energy supplies will catch growth dependent capitalism, by inconsolable surprise. See peakoil.com, peakoil.net, hubbertpeak.com, theoildrum.com, lifeaftertheoilcrash.net, energybulletin.net (I could go on), for some truly scary shit. This housing/finance bubble stuff is a cake walk by comparison. And no, I don't think the great depression was a cake walk. I wouldn't have wanted to go through that, and I know I don't want to go through what's coming. But this "energy thing" is much much...much...worse.

Keep up the good work Keith.

--To tired to get a blogger account

P.S. I promise I'm not the excessively repetitive Richard or the anonymous that posted the lifeaftertheoilcrash.net link on 04/06.

P.P.S. While I'm not against protecting the environment, I'm not a tree hugger, not too worried that the seas will swallow my island, and, as of yet, am still undecided on anthropogenic global warming.

Anonymous said...

Spring 2006, almost daily.

Proud HP'er.

I'd buy the T-shirt.

Anonymous said...

I've got a CPA, and MBA from UCLA and still have probably learned more about how the macroeconomy works than from anything I've learned in my previous schooling or work in finance.

I would demand my tuition back if I were you. What I've learned here is that renters are big cry babies and that they are jealous of people who make a lot of money.

March 24, 2008 5:41 PM

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I do make a lot of money ($160k and I'm only 32...at least I hope that's good). But this site has taught me how to wisely use that money. For instance, renting for a year vs. buying has saved me at least $100k. Also I would never ask for the tuition money back, because just having the MBA makes you the money regardless of what you learn, which is not saying that I didn't learn a ton during the MBA, just no one was speaking of the information you could find here at HP.

Anonymous said...

Keith,

I've been coming here since 2006 when I did a search about bubbles on google. Also became very aware of peak oil a few years before that. Pretty soon, HP will be the new mainstream.

There are a lot of great threads here and some great opportunities to learn more.

Also you introduced me to the Casey Serin saga which I followed closely, thanks for that and thank god it's over.

I believe empoyers should be mad at you for all the hours of lost employee productivity!

By the way, what's your age?

-BC

Anonymous said...

been reading only for about 3 months now but everything you post is totally on point. just started a job in the real estate market (not a realtor) but we'll see how long it lasts.

thanks for all the right on, insightful, truthful, commentary on the current real estate/economic situation!

c.

Anonymous said...

Started reading about a year ago, cause the posts were so funny yet educational at the same time. Found the site by linking with Patrick.net, which convinced me NOT to buy back in 2005, despite pressure from parents and friends. Am to this day extremely grateful to everybody for putting alternate views out there for consideration even if I don't always agree with all particulars. Saved me and the Mr. from wasting a tiny yet hard-earned down payment on one of those worthless McMansions.