April 26, 2008

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day


When home prices have bottomed, the housing panic is over, and it's cheaper to 'own' than rent, how will you feel?

43 comments:

Andrew said...

i will feel good, but i will feel some annoyance at all the people i suspect will be talking about "simplifying" their lives.

in reality they will have been forced into simplification (no more 2 SUVs, 6000 sf home full of useless consumer items made in china) by economic forces, not their own choice.


perhaps some good will come out of it and people will learn to be happy with simple things; family, friends, being instead of having.

but i am not optimistic that will happen.

Anonymous said...

It will just be another day.

Anonymous said...

Happy & ready to buy

Anonymous said...

Relieved

In 2014

Anonymous said...

No longer bitter, now merely resentful.

If prices had been reasonable, we may well have bought years ago. So a lot of us put things on hold while the entire planet went off chasing chimera and "dreams". Only to realize all houses boil down to living, dining, kitchen, some bedrooms, bathrooms, and a yard.

Lucky for me, I have a healthy ambivalence about buying a house again. Fun to tinker with, but a ton of work. Yeah, it better be reasonably priced. And no more "starter homes" for me. "Investment property"? What are you part-time landlords, masochists?

Anonymous said...

I'll feel relief.

I think we'll have a more healthy nation then, when housing is just housing, not some gigantic financial investment/gamble or some moral statement. It'll be healthier when people choose to buy for the right reasons, and people choose to rent for the right reasons.

-Chad

Anonymous said...

GREAT because we have refused to jump off the cliff with all the other lemmings who paid WAYYYY inflated bubble prices.

We hope the $500K house we have our eye on will be going for $350,000, however the downside is the interest rates will probably have sky-rocketed by then, the dollar will be worthless, my wife will have probably lost her cushy job, gas will be $10 a gallon, and our $50 in savings for a down payment won't be worth shytt!

So there you have it-- We are in for a rough ride peeps. Buckle up and keep the barf bags close by.

Anonymous said...

We will never get to this point. Long before this will arise a devastating time of need and want. You are forgetting the global panic to come and the Food delivery problem we are going to see this Summer when those truckers all go on a long strike to protest the price of fuel.

Paul E. Math said...

Validated.

We all know how frustrating it was to give our opinion about the housing bubble to friends only to have them shout us down. None of them has yet acknowledged that I was right. But they don't really have to now because it is glaringly obvious and getting moreso everyday.

Anonymous said...

I just hope that I can time the next bubble, whatever that is! I want to make some real money this time! The slow, sticky way this is unfolding is starting to get boring.

Anonymous said...

I will be very happy if, at the end of this fiasco, state and local governments, having lost so much tax revenue, have to cut down their high living ways, and be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the real world.

I'm hoping, but I am not delusional.

Anonymous said...

FLASH, IMPORTANT INFORMATION! Mark Belling, Milwaukee talk radio host, Rush sub, self absorbed know it all has called the bottom of the housing slump.

I kid you not! This slug has called the bottom on Wed, 23 Apr 08. Now get this. His reasoning is that foreigners are now buying up real estate so therefore, it must be cheap enough. What logic!

Only in Milwaukee and only on talk radio would somthing this stupid be proclaimed. To think that some people actually listen to and believe this tripe meister is amazing.

I listen from time to time for a belly laugh. Believe me when I say I get it whenever I tune in.

Anonymous said...

I will feel rich.

Real rich, not paper rich.

Anonymous said...

Won't really care but will stop renting and buy. By the way that graphic looks really phallic. A bit of housing porn for the lumpen?

BC

Anonymous said...

Bottomless.Speaking of bottoms I was in LA yesterday.I think I saw the bottom.A nice heart shaped one.

Anonymous said...

Like a sypheltic prostitute with oozing chancre sores learning she has AIDS.

In other words, like eery other American sold down the river by Bush/Cheney gang.

PUNISH THE GUILTY NOW

Unknown said...

I will feel a lot better. The past 8 years have been completely phony. No real growth and people who did not earn it acting wealthy.

Americans will be forced to be less materialistic, quit the MTV cribs type shows, and enjoy simple pleasures.

Expensive housing does nothing positive for a country at all. Its a ponzi scheme that had to end.

Anonymous said...

Hungry?

Anonymous said...

First of all, the whole "it's cheaper to buy than to rent" will only be in high security facilities in the future where guards will be prevalent. In Rio, neighborhoods in top shelf areas like LeBlon, etc, have security everywhere and the people pay the premium for it.

In the next ten years, the same thing will happen here so the question is, would you buy, at a cheaper price, but then have to pay higher property taxes for a neighborhood watch or would you just rent at a slightly higher price for a watchtower/guard while maintaining that ability to move for a better job position, somewhere else in the country or world. I suspect that the latter scenario will still have a higher utility than the former since the US will be a second world nation.

Anonymous said...

I'll finally feel like buying

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it better be reasonably priced. And no more "starter homes" for me. "Investment property"? What are you part-time landlords, masochists?



When we get to the bottom of the curve I will have a big smile on my face, and will buy as many cash flow buildings as I can(with no cash deals I may add) I am that masochistic landlord(full time) that lives off the cash flow of my rentals. I sold off some dogs a few years back but kept the ones with good flows. I am looking foward to the days of seller financing, and other creative ways to control buildings(and their cash flows) for no cash in. When times are the worst for most I plan on a happy shopping spree.

TM said...

I will feel like buying a place.

Anonymous said...

Optimistic and ready to buy.

Frank R said...

"i will feel good, but i will feel some annoyance at all the people i suspect will be talking about "simplifying" their lives."

They'll tell you they're "going green" and they'll act superior to you because of it. The arrogant ones who today wave around their homedebtorship and SUVs as status will always be arrogant and will always find "status" somehow.

Anonymous said...

By the time buying is comparable to renting, we will have so many problems the event will go virtually unnoticed.

Let's summarize:
1)Rest of world getting wary of US dollar, realizing what our long term financial prospects are, leading to dumping of US treasuries. Interest rates skyrocket.

2)Baby boomers retiring, most likely causing US to hyperinflate dollar to weasel out of medicare responsibilities.

3) Global warming and food shortages, leading to myriad wars, or a new world war.

4) Peak oil, causing dislocations in functioning of oil addicted economies.

These add up to hyperinflation and war. I am starting to think walled compounds (with 5 to 20 families) might the smart thing to be organizing.

Anonymous said...

Bored?

Anonymous said...

Who are we kidding? It will never be cheaper to own than rent. Never has been. Let's just all admit it. We're renters for life. You can't put a price on the flexibility it offers.

Anonymous said...

Landlord dude, sounds like you are doing it right. I was thinking more about people who imagine effortless "streams of income". The Casey Serin type.

Frank R said...

Who are we kidding? It will never be cheaper to own than rent. Never has been.

Umm .... yes it has. As recently as the 90s in many markets.

Anonymous said...

I will be glad and then maybe go buy a house. But I will not buy anything that had anything to do with the bubble it will be a new area .The older ones here in Fl look a mess .imho

Anonymous said...

I will really, really miss HousingPANIC. But, I suppose we'll have:
FoodPANIC
FarmPANIC
JobPANIC
PensionPANIC
RetirementPANIC
CollegePANIC
TerroristPANIC
Ugly Theiving AmericanPANIC
AutomobilePANIC
ClimatePANIC
BankPANIC
DollarPANIC
EuroPANIC
AutomaticPANIC

Anyway, I just feel like a big, Big, BIG storm is coming...that it should be here already and I'm just walking around looking at the sky...oh sh*t skyPANIC.

Anonymous said...

Today on Bloomberg, an old sage was commenting on future of economy; he said it could be not too much worse or it could be worst case incredibly bad, and he had a faint expression resembling a smile. I think he thought the latter. At any rate, I think that; it's going to be unbelievably, tragically bad. Almost all of the outcomes people envision, downsizing, etc. will be moot points.
Finding food will be closer to the truth. In 1983-85, I grew a large garden in a yard where I rented. I had a dream that a bunch of people were clawing up food in my garden and I said to my family who were gathered with me in the house (extended family), we've got to get out of here. I have dreamed of great hunger since the age of 3, when I was a rather sturdy little girl. That was 1947. A fellow student in high school came to school one day in '69 and told of a dream of $5 gasoline, hunger everywhere, and no one with money.
She came from a family with money.
My uncle who died in 1996, told me right before he died that he dreamed of people being hungry and sick. I told him I'd dreamed the same. With my small inheritance,
and believe me I was broke, I took a two week intensive permaculture course taught by the founder Bill Mollison and bought all kinds on non electric food equipment. I suggest everyone read up on permaculture; great old ideas and many you've never heard of, all good for basic survival, and shelter.Mountain of info on web.

Something big is coming this way; an economic slag heap, an environmental failure on large scale, both...grandma pkk.

tater said...

Well, whenever that happens, then i'll just settle down to a strawberry milkshake and a few amateur games of computer chess. I'll be laughing too myself, knowing that the "tater" was one of the many HPers who had it figured.

Then, i'll watch as the house prices fall even further, and i'll be feeling even more vindicated. Real estate agencies will go out of business for lack of sales. Banks will be selling houses for 2 cents on the dollar. Pure havoc will rein the financial streets of America!! Blood is running in the streets!! Run for the hills, and protect your women!! I'm loving it! Tater to the rescue!!! Ahem... sorry about that; I got a little carried away, there. Okay, so maybe, i'm just a little egotistical. I may be just a tad of a permabear, too.

Anonymous said...

If I still have a job, I will feel good.

Anonymous said...

All of you end of the world types - if there is going to be mass starvation and death for billions of people, do you really want to live? All I need is a gun and one bullet. If you buy 3 years worth of food, will you be eating while your family starves to death? Are you going to let all of your nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters, children, grandchildren, and friends starve to death or will you share?

Anonymous said...

I do not allow my family members to have ice in their drinks, as when the helter skelter comes, there will be no electricity. No electricity, means no financial systems, which means of course no valluation of homes. it will be only shelter enough, until they lose eventually a gun battle for their squat, and new people move in. In several hundred years, private property may be again a concept pursued, but for now its only the search for gas.

Anonymous said...

A lot of people don't believe in such a scenario where it is cheaper to own than rent. They are under the impression that the buyer pays the premium because the value of the house continues to rise.

Such common thought is an indicator that we still have a long way to fall.

Anonymous said...

to sum it up.... chris korda '08

"Save the Planet, Kill yourself"

the 4 pillars:

Cannibalism (of the already dead)
Abortion
suicide
sodomy

The 4 Pillars of:
Church of Euthanasia

Anonymous said...

Stop using ice today! work for a sustainable world by consuming the flesh of your neighbors (after they are dead you criminal bush-hitler meat murderer) in lieu of murder meat.

This whole thing is getting negative. strikes by unions, stopping oil. Oil will hit 150 this week, 200 the week after.

if you are not massivly short the dow jones (made up of majority financial companies now btw), you are stoned.

Anonymous said...

Depressed because we will be in the middle of the Greatest Depression or World War3 or both.
Bottom not gonna be here until these upcomong events bottom.

Anonymous said...

without shill buyers houses at auction are averaging 124,000................

Anonymous said...

To mairca izda debol :

I agree suicide would be easier if you have no one you need to care for. We have two small kids and I would like to help see them through the hard times. As for family, I will let my brother, sisters-in-law and parents be soylent green if necessary. I will try to provide for my nephews and niece. (Two nieces or nephews are as good as one child of one's own, genetically speaking).

Practically speaking, I don't think the dieoff will hit as hard in the "rich" countries. I expect most of Africa's population to succumb, of course. A lot of the middle east will get nuked. The more populous areas will probably be ravaged by some pandemic.

Hopefully the purging will fall disproportionately on the people who cause the most overpopulation, bad government and war. Maybe we will be left with folk who have an average IQ of 100 or so and who know how to live in peace and have an average of two kids apiece, no more or less per region.

I will probably regret ever having had kids, but they are here, and I'll have to be brave for them.

Anonymous said...

The housing crisis is just the tip of the iceberg. I don't see it over anytime soon. I can't help being depressed and pessimistic about the future. I think it's foolish to get married and have children in the next 15 years (I'm 25). I don't think I'll be able to provide a better future for my children.

Therefore I'll remain a bitter unmarried renter. Sure I'd feel some gloating satisfaction that the greed of the sheeple was finally punished, but as I said housing prices are one of the many problems that will plague us in the next decades.