[Wolfstar]

Thank you for posting this very informative article. I've been thinking of buying a home. Now in the process of researching what's available in my area (Los Angeles county). Prices are extremely high even for the most modest crackerbox houses on modest lots in so-so neighborhoods. Something in my gut has been telling me the bubble is going to burst sometime soon. There has to be a point when common sense prevails, doesn't there? I mean it just doesn't seem possible that people will continue to pay exhorbitant prices (thereby moving the prices up still further) for 50+-year-old, stucco-over-frame, 1000 sq. ft., 2 or 3 bedroom, 1 bath, boxes sitting on 5000 sq. ft. (or smaller) lots, many in neighborhoods that have seen better days.

[jocon307]

I agree with you. I'm hoping to finally buy a house myself one day in the not to distant future, but the prices around here (Northern NJ) are ridiculous. You too can live in a ghetto, or near ghetto for only 1/4 million dollars. I don't get it. Of course, around here, they say it is illegal/legal immigrants living with an overabundance of folks in a one or two family house. I guess that might be true in LA too. If we don't end immigration, at least have a moratorium we are really doomed in this country.

[LS]

Don't count on the "bubble bursting." Housing prices in southern Ohio were flat for a few years, but they are rising again.

[Middle Man]

Back in '91 a fellow in a startup business was trying to convince my wife and I to move from our roots on the East Coast to Sacramento. After a week of house-hunting in California, we declined his generous offer because we saw how much living space we would be losing by moving to California. The housing we could realistically afford wouldn't even qualify as a rabbit hutch.

[Dick Bachert]

The "Greater Fool Theory" was INVENTED in Southern California. Not to worry. The supply of them out there is such that you ought to be able to buy the shack you describe and roll out of it in a few years with about a $million in clear profit.