Florida - the historic epicenter of real estate booms and busts

What is it about Florida that lends itself to real estate booms, scams and crashes?

Florida 1925:

The Great Florida Land Bush

There was plenty of evidence that the Florida Land Boom was on swampy ground. Forbes magazine warned that Florida land prices were based solely upon the expectation of finding a customer, not upon any reality of land value. New York bankers, losing money over Florida investment, attacked the entire operation as one great sham. By 1925, there were other signs. Companies were laying off construction and other blue collar workers while the number of realtors and auto mechanics was still increasing.

Florida 2007:

Boom of condo crash loudest in Miami

Orlando and other Florida cities -- Naples, Fort Myers, Tampa and Sarasota among them -- also have huge condo gluts. With 4,440 condos listed for sale, Orlando has an unprecedented 29-month supply, and last month sales plummeted 64 percent lower than a year ago.

But Miami, with its unmatched volume and untold number of speculative buyers, is ripe for the hardest fall in the U.S.

One day soon all the get rich quick housing fools will understand

We've run this classic cartoon a few times over the past year and a half. Figured it was time again, after David at BubbleMeter reminded me the other day.

So many have made fun of HP'ers (and continue to do so), saying "it's different this time" and "the fundamentals don't matter". The trolls go on and on about how prices haven't crashed yet (per the NAR and US Government), how renters and frugal people are stupid, how even though supply is sky high it's just a return to normal, and how they ain't makin' more land.

I hope they stop for a moment, take a look at this, and maybe, just maybe, in their tiny little brains, simply understand. Oh, the folly of human nature. We've been here before, and we'll be here again.

We've just never been here before at this level. It truly is different this time, I'll give the trolls that one. This was the biggest bubble in the history of humanity. Now that's impressive.

And now, the biggest crash awaits.