I'm back

Lots of articles now in Europe about the housing crash underway, I'll post some coming up. Brits losing money in Florida. Brits losing money in Spain. And now Brits predicted to start losing money in ... you guessed it... Britain!

I also saw too many hilarious reports from the US press with analysts and headlines trumpeting the "surge in new home sales" showing how the US market is bottoming. Damn, are they that stupid? Prices collapse, sales tank versus last year, and the media and analysts report increasing sales. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Finally, in Old Europe villages and cities, I don't get the sense of a housing ponzi scheme, except in the new-build or "off-plan" developments. Passing by country estates, little villas and farming towns on the train, I get the sense of families who own their homes outright, have owned them for generations, and where houses are just that - a home. A place to live. A place to settle down.

Not lottery tickets and get-rich-quick schemes.

After the crash, after realtors go away, after Congress regulates the REIC and after this crazy lending orgy, that's where we'll be again I hope.

Houses as homes.