A couple of years ago, just before I left NoCal, I spoke with a realtor who had clients flipping a home a month and making money at it, even after his commission. It got to the point out there where almost half the loans were subprime and something well over 4/5 were some combination of subprime, interest only, or variable rate.
The pattern was pretty clear: legitimately densly populated areas were seeing significant but sustainable increases in home prices; the speculators noticed this and jumped into those markets which, as speculators always do, greatly accelerated the market's motion; and the poor dumb idiots came along right at the top, just in time to lose their life's savings. Happens on Wall St., happens in real estate, happens in the commodities markets, etc. Pretty much anywhere goods or equities change hands you'll see this cycle at work and it always ends the same way. Painful though the correction is for many it's absolutely necessary for the long term health of the market. Here's hoping the government stays far away from this mess.
The pattern was pretty clear: legitimately densly populated areas were seeing significant but sustainable increases in home prices; the speculators noticed this and jumped into those markets which, as speculators always do, greatly accelerated the market's motion; and the poor dumb idiots came along right at the top, just in time to lose their life's savings. Happens on Wall St., happens in real estate, happens in the commodities markets, etc. Pretty much anywhere goods or equities change hands you'll see this cycle at work and it always ends the same way. Painful though the correction is for many it's absolutely necessary for the long term health of the market. Here's hoping the government stays far away from this mess.
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