"From 2005 through 2007 alone — that is, at the peak of the housing bubble — more than 22 million Americans bought either new or existing houses. Now that the bubble has burst, many of those homebuyers have lost heavily on their investment. At this point there are probably around 10 million households with negative home equity — that is, with mortgages that exceed the value of their houses."
Paul Krugman, New York Times Columnist
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Do you want a solution, or someone to blame?
ReplyDeleteBlame:
1. People in Washington who let oversight and regulation lapse (Bush Administration - "Let's deregulate to help our business friends!")
2. Greedy mortgage makers
3. Foolish borrowers
Solution:
Do almost nothing. The market will make a correction, and we'll all move on. Housing prices will drop to where they should be. There's no good reason to put this on the backs of the taxpayers.
Oh. And do put that regulation and oversight back into place (or do we need Obama for that?).
One part of the solution is to break the NAR real estate monopoly.
ReplyDeleteOne part of the solution is to break the NAR real estate monopoly.
ReplyDeletewhat differance does it make, most of the houses are built like shit. the average home-owner doesnt have a clue how fast they will fall apart on them. the maintanance on the new slapped toghter homes will crush you. its not like the old days when things lasted for decades. everything new is a disposable piece of shit. why,"nafta" couldnt care less about quality only quanity. were going to become a nation of renters i bet.
ReplyDelete"One part of the solution is to break the NAR real estate monopoly."
ReplyDeleteI cannot see how this would make any difference other than to lower real estate commissions. That would make it a little easier to buy and sell houses, but otherwise has no bearing on our current problem.
be nice to have a list/updated of illegal contractors in the area to help home-owners from getting ripped off.
ReplyDeleteI cannot see how this would make any difference other than to lower real estate commissions.
ReplyDeleteA person cannot get into the business of selling real estate for others without joining the National Association of Realtors (NAR)
It's a lot more than commissions.
Every real estate law has been written as approved by the NAR lobby.
My statement was "one part of the solution..."
It would be hijacking the thread but let me tell you this:
As a full time real estate auctioneer my experience has been:
100% OF THE (POTENTIAL) SELLERS I HAVE SPOKEN WITH WHO PURCHASED 2005 - 2006 - 2007 HAVE NEGATIVE EQUITY.
Real estate is a risk like most
ReplyDeleteinvestments. Sometimes you win , etc.Your property is worth only what someone is willing to pay for it.
YOU GET WHAT YOU GET BY DOING WHAT YOU DO. It's truly that simple..Real estate like any other item for sell is not bought or sold at gunpoint. There are scoundels in every business including, by the way, the auction business. I believe that the last property I bought at auction I paid a "buyers premium" and the seller paid 2% plus advertising costs. Profit is not a dirty word in a capitalist system. IGNORANCE, now there's a dirty word. There is enough information out there involving real estate, automobiles and most other consumer goods that we should have no one else to blame but ourselves for a bad deal. Most of the bad deals I have witnessed contain large doses of greed in there somewhere and it's often in the buyers back pocket.
ReplyDeletebosshogg said: "One part of the solution is to break the NAR real estate monopoly."
ReplyDeleteAmen.
They are a sales cartel, with no real productive value, other than to "make the sale."
No matter whether the "sale" is even an intelligent one, an informed one, or one with any real financial value to the mark.
While China is readily accepting our outsourced jobs and industry...