I Want My Bubble Back!

http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2006/commentary06060918.htm ^ | 6-9-06 | Seth Jayson

[Lazamataz]

I hate bubbles.

Little packing-container bubbles, soap-bubbles, bubbles on the Lawrence Welk show, price bubbles, Don Ho singing 'Tiny Bubbles', the stripper chick down at the Pink Pony called Bubbles....

I hate bubbles.

[Hydroshock]

Everyone will hate this bubble before it is all over.

[dirtboy]

Remember that troll we had that kept posting "bubblin, bubblin?"

Second-greatest FR troll after Toiletman. They just don't make 'em like that any more.

[OB1kNOb]

[Lazamataz]

Remember that troll we had that kept posting "bubblin, bubblin?"

Your problem be, you ain't been bubblin' and glistenin' on em. YOU GOT TO BE BOVINE BUBBLIN'! You got to be bovine bubbling and glistening on em till you be doublin' platinum. Platinum be doubling on cadmium. Platinum be bubblin' and glistenin' on em. Youe problem be, you ain't been pushin' no Bently's like Steve Forbes be pushin. You pushing Mercedes. Pat Buchanan be pushin' Mercedes, and he bubblin' and glistenin' on em. He doublin' platinum by bubblin' and glistenin' on em. He doublin' platinum by pushin' Mercedes. Steve Forbes ain't doubling platinum, he pushing Bently's on em.

[The Old Hoosier]

Housing is not at all inflated in South Bend, IN, nor in most parts of the country. People who talk about a "national housing bubble" of some kind don't understand the issue.

The bubble only exists in certain markets, and in many places the current slowdown will only moderate buying conditions.

And in others, it will actually ruin people who bought at the top of the market.

[VictoryGal]

This guy likes 'em...

[Sensei Ern]

I love bubble gum. Especially Bubble Yum and Double Bubble.

[Mase]

Interest-sensitive housing markets = "Bubbles" Vulnerable = "Ready to pop"

The U.S. real estate experience over the last thirty years offers plenty of evidence that the interest-rate/property-price correlations are overrated. For one, each of the three property bear markets during that time (1974-75, 1980-82, 1990-92) occurred amidst falling rates, while the last great U.S. real estate market (1976-1980) occurred as the prime rate raced into the double digits. As a matter of fact, the prime-lending rate rose from the single digits in 1976 all the way to 19 percent in 1979 while real estate values took off. By 1979, the value of individually owned dwellings reached $1.3 trillion dollars, twice the worth of individually owned corporate stock. Half of all the new multimillionaires in 1978 earned their fortunes in real estate.

[Larry Lucido]

[doc30]

It should have been completely obvious to anyone with a loan calculator and a glance at wage increases that those months of industry bubble denials were just wishful thinking.

I remember when a house price should be equivalent to a years salary. Then, when I wnr house shopping, I was told that a house price should be about 2 years salary. And lately, I've hear that a home price should be 5 times yearlt salary. The plain and simple truth is that house prices have gone up much, much faster than wages and I blame the exotic loan industry. By offering "cheap" money, it increased demand which pushed housing prices into the stratosphere. I'm in the tampa Bay area and it is ridiculus to think that median housing prices have 'risen' to the level of median household income. Median prices are in the mid $200K range, but household income is in the $35-40K range. And rents are going up just as fast so I don't see this as a big bubble in this area.

[Larry Lucido]

[lesser_satan]

Based on that pic, I think I want to be a bubble.

[Hydroshock]

ping

[silverleaf]

What about all those poor HGTV-addled suckers -- oops, I mean investors -- who've been buying property on interest-only ARMs with the hopes of flipping it for an easy profit?

I have a question for you and others who gloat over "the bubble".

Why do you have so much scorn for and glee at the prospect of financial ruin for enterprising Americans who plunge into real estate investment? (and who make up a rather small segment of real estate purchasers, BTW)

During the dot.com era I do not remember seeing this extent of high-fiving the end of irrational exuberance and gloating over losses of investors who were only trying to make a buck....some perhaps for your retirement funds that affect large numbers of us. Real estate has transformed many a landless and poor person into someone with wealth. Yet you smack your lips over the prospect of investors, ordinary people with big dreams, losing everything.

So what gives?
Envy? Feeling self-righteous over your own caution and more prudent investment efforts? Just a thought.

[G.Mason]

"Of course, housing, over the long run, is not a good investment, except for a very savvy few. It's a roof over your head that tends to keep pace with inflation, but not in a straight line."

Obvious, like the nose on your face, except to those folks buying those "get rich in real estate" plans, hawked to morons, by people who make a living (and not in real estate) shearing sheeple.

As long as there are bridges, there will be bridge buyers.

[Hydroshock]

Morbid curiousity.

[Hydroshock]

That ans trying to warn people to beware.

[Paperdoll]

PING myself to read later.