Posted on 05/05/2005 7:40:07 PM PDT by ex-Texan
Wall Street's blue chips end the day on a down note, as Standard & Poor's cuts its debt rating on both General Motors and Ford Motor to junk status saying their outlook is negative. GM and Ford both released statements saying they were disappointed in the S&P action and that they were committed to improving performance quickly. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged on the news around midday, but fought its way back to a closing loss of 44 points at 10,340. The Nasdaq closed off a fraction at 1,961.
Red Hot Real Estate Market is a "Bubble." Novices may get burned.
Hit primary link to read these reports and others that are even more depressing.
Well since my condo goes on the market in 3 weeks, do you think I will escape the "bubble burst"?
Yes.
The "bubble burst" is a bad description. It implies that it happens instantly. It doesn't. It's a stepped process. It happens something like this: the market cools, prices stagnate, then prices slowly begin to drop and level off. Then they drop some more and level off. Then they continue to drop before reaching bottom. The last time it happened in the early 1990s, it took years to reach bottom -- from 1988 to 1992.
What scares me isn't Mew York real estate, everyone playing that game is either an adult or a corporation. What scares me is the potential for harm among people who bought houses in the burbs with wacky financial deals or are counting on their houses to fund their retirement. That's truly scary.
The stock market on average has always gone up as well, but that was cold comfort to everyone caught in the dot.com bust. Real estate may be tangible, but that does not mean that the price you may pay for it is supported by current market forces. If no one can afford or wants to buy your 2 BR, 2.5 BA home in San Diego for the $500K you paid for it, you are in the bucket, as they say.
Ford and GM are in trouble because they gave too many rebates and offered too low interest rates, but there too, people need automobiles and they will continue to buy them.
People may need automobiles, but they may not need or want Ford or GM automobiles. Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are absolutely handing the "Big Three" their heads. Again!
"...and there are some places in the midwest, I've heard, that will give you a home if you agree to live in it for a specified amount of time."
Where do you get your information? It was true in the late 1880's, but it's not true now 125 years later.
Your comment reminds me of when I first moved to the Northeast and people would ask me if we had indoor plumbing at home, whether cowboys and Indians were riding the range.
I just had to laugh, like I do now.
In fact, there seems to be a lot of people from "your neck of the woods," as well as investors from the left coast who are investing in real estate here. Our real estate seems cheap to you, no doubt. You smart and sophisticated "folks" are driving up the prices and perhaps feeding the bubble. But we still smile and sell it to you, because we're friendly that way... We still own the mineral rights after all. :)
Freegards,
Jane
http://www.kansasfreeland.com/
There are other communities, but this is the most widely known.
I just sold a house here in Orange County for 875k. I boughtit 7 years ago for 300k. I still have two homes here, I hope it doesn't burst quite yet.
I cringe whenever someone from the heartland uses the phrase "smart sophisticated" in reference to business. It always means they're about to be taken again by middlemen snake oil salesmen. Smart and sophisticated is what you are at a cocktail party after a couple of drinks and chit chat with women in serious black dresses. When it comes to real estate, those involved are ruthless beyond all imagining.
What can I say? Gordon Gecko was one of my heroes.
Either just after you buy or two years after you sell with the price having jumped 30% over your selling price.
In common parlance, a bell curve refers to a symmetrical distribution...
OTOH, there are a few with IQ's > 100, but no one with an IQ less than 0--certain Democrats excepted :-)
Full Disclosure: e.g. look up Gaussian, Poisson, Boltzmann distributions.
Cheers!
Gecko was based on Ivan Boesky -- right down to the greed is good speech. And we all know what happened to the Bo man.
If you watch the movie again, you'll see an actual stock broker in the board room scene, it's Mad Dog Beck, one of the crazed takeover artists of the 80s. He's dead.
You should pick better heroes.
I don't know much about this land in Kansas, except that it might be good farmland if it has good soil and is irrigated. Irrigation is very important in this part of the world. You need to check it out, water tables and such.
It might also be good ranch land for cattle. There is a large market for free range home grown protein. There is also a large market for feedlot cattle, but I won't push that.
I will also tell you this: we don't need more pig farms.
On the same note, the land might make good hunting grounds, depending on the game. People, namely men, like to hunt for quail, turkey, wild boar, etc.
It might also be well-situated for windmills (and thus windmill-generated electricity which can be sold.)
It might also be well-situated for cell phone towers.
It might be well-suited for some combination of all of the above.
However, it is probably not near a major city and it is probably not targeted for suburban growth. It may or may not have easy access to a major highway.
This is free advice for you. Check it out.
Personally, I think that people are looking for clean alternatives, whether it is food or energy. A large majority of people are willing to pay extra for it.
And middle America can provide both the natural resources and space for exploration of both.
Go for it. If you decide to do business here, you will find many helpful resources. Our local governments and universities are very helpful and will welcome you whole-heartedly.
Freegards,
Jane
Whatever. Good luck on your ventures into middle America.
Typically, if I'm traveling West I don't like to go much beyond Seventh Avenue. However, sometimes the pioneering spirit strikes me and I'll take the West Side Highway.
I merely listed the site to show that some parts of the country are hurting for people and industry, and that real estate prices are down.
"talk down"... yes, exactly. And, isn't that what the dhimmicrats cautioned the Bush administration against doing back in 2001??? - yet they easily shed such concerns when it is "they" - in their self-anointed superiority over us untermenschen von rotstaaten - who sagely proclaim what's really happening to the economy.
That is interesting, but ranking at 15th highest tax burden in the nation, it would take a lot more than free land to tempt me to move my business and home to Kansas. I'd move to New Hampshire to join the Free State Project before I would ever move to Kansas with those kinds of tax rates. For a high-tech software business, what other kinds of comparative advantages are there to relocating to Kansas besides free land?
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