Posted on 10/14/2006 9:48:44 AM PDT by GodGunsGuts
'The US housing bubble will disappear'
By Laurie Osborne, Editor
Published 11th Sep 2006
That the US housing bubble will disappear someday is a certainty. That it will blow up catastrophically is a fair bet, warns The Daily Reckoning's Bill Bonner.
Observing recent statistics, Bonner calls the evidence "formidable".
The total value of residential property in developed countries rose by more than $30 trillion, to $70 trillion, over the past five years – eclipsing the combined GDPs of those nations.
Consumer spending and residential construction have accounted for 90 percent of the total growth in the American GDP over the last four years, and more than 40 percent of all private-sector jobs created since 2001 have been in housing-related sectors, including construction and mortgage brokering.
America made some of its biggest gains this past year, with average prices of homes rising 12.5% in the year and prices in Florida, California, Nevada, Hawaii, Maryland and Washington, DC, rising more than 20 percent, while in Palm Beach County, Florida, it rose over 35%. Sales of existing homes in the US set a new high at 7.18 million in April.
Some foreign countries showed bigger gains than the US in the last year, with prices up by 23.6 percent in South Africa, 19 percent in Hong Kong and over 15 percent in Spain and France. But average house prices have actually fallen by 7% in Australia since 2003; Sydney's bubblicious prices have plunged by 16%. In Britain, sales have contracted by a third from last year and have also slowed down in Ireland, the Netherlands and New Zealand. In Britain and Australia, these declines followed what were only very modest interest rate increases.
23 percent of all American houses bought last year were for investment and in Miami, one speculation hot spot, 70% of condo buyers are investors/speculators.
Last year, 42 percent of America's first-time buyers – and 25 percent of all buyers – put no money down.
In California, 60 percent of all new mortgages this year are interest-only or negative-amortization.
House prices in relation to rent have hit all-time highs in the US, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Belgium. In the US, the ratio is 35 percent above its 1975-2000 average. The price to rent ratio is a cardinal indicator of over valuation.
Your projection is profound.
Projection, or reality?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1619134/posts#21
Lighten up guys....
ALL HAIL THE SUGAR KING! FOR I HAVE HORDED GREAT STORES OF THE STUFF IN U-STORE-IT FACILITIES AROUND THE COUNTRY FOR THE DAY WHEN IT WILL BE WORTH MORE THAN GOLD OR REAL ESTATE.
STAND BEFORE ME AND TREMBLE WITH YOUR BITTER COFFEE AND UNSWEETENED BREAKFAST CEREALS!
Your link was reality. Your accusations are projection.
Try to keep up.
No that's ok. I will rest my case with the following. BTW, do you have multiple aliases too?
"In Internet terminology, a troll is usually someone who enters an established community such as an online discussion forum, and posts inflammatory, rude, repetitive, offensive, off-topic or otherwise disruptive messages designed intentionally to annoy or antagonize the existing members or alter the flow of discussion, including the personal attack of calling others trolls. Often, trolls assume multiple aliases, or sock puppets."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll
I do not have multiple aliases, troll. I do not even have a singular alias.
Your trollitude is showing, troll.
...including the personal attack of calling others trolls.
LOL
Your post is autobiograpical, (newbie) troll.
You're being repetitive again, Pedro. Go back and reread #246. If the shoe fits...
ROTFLOL! NOT a chance.
God willing!
LOL -- I have been waiting to post that since yesterday...lol.
He's a newbie liar troll. What's new?
I think his roll here is to make Free Republic look ridiculously stupid.
Try to keep up, troll. The shoe fits you perfectly.
His "role" here. Role!
(Not "roll.")
It should be a solstice gift to all my liberal friends.
I'm glad we got that cleared up. I was starting to wonder.
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