[RightWhale]

Can real estate prices decline nationwide for an extended period? Compare and contrast

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Yes, they can. Especially as incomes decrease and the inflated prices of new homes and office space become prohibitive for many families. Look for our bubble to deflate too, how much is the scary question.

[AdamSelene235]

Big Scary Monsters

'Fannie and Freddie Were Lenders': U.S. Real Estate Bubble Nears Its End

Fannie Mae Enron

[Looking for Diogenes]

From the article-

The country's most expensive real estate was in front of the Kyukyodo stationery store in Tokyo's bustling Ginza shopping district, where a square-yard plot was valued at $100,840, the agency said

For those of us accustomed to buying real estate by the acre, 4,840 x $100,840 = $488,065,600 per acre. for the most expensive land.

The average land costs $5,246,560 per acre.

By compariosn, here is a table showing recent US commercial land transactions in 2002.

Land	-
-	Count	Price	Acres	Price per Acre	Price per Transaction
-
New England	2	$9,600,000	0.2	$29,891,304	$4,800,000
MidAtlantic	10	$139,723,200	321	$417,352	$13,972,320
Great Lakes	10	$27,127,161	299	$88,137	$2,712,716
Plains	7	$9,185,041	26	$210,724	$1,312,149
Southeast	32	$166,546,633	5,962	$25,533	$5,204,582
Southwest	13	$20,163,000	28	$557,618	$1,551,000
Mountain	10	$70,108,224	450	$155,917	$7,010,822
Pacific	10	$37,245,069	192	$190,497	$3,724,507
Total	94	$479,698,328	7,279	$61,255	$5,103,174

[hinckley buzzard]

This has happened in HongKong also, as a matter of fact. First the stock bubble, then the real estate bubble...

nah, can't happen here...although figures from the State of Florida showed new housing starts totally flat in June. No growth. In Florida. Something to chew on.

[Mortimer Snavely]

Japanese real estate is screwed. If you buy a piece of land and build a house on it, you don't improve the value. If you buy an old house and renovate it, you don't improve the value. If you move Buckingham Palace over brick by brick and rebuild it on a piece of Japanese real estate, you don't improve the value; the piece of land will be worth the same as if a corrugated sheet metal shack was built on it.

In the free world, real estate is the poor man's way to wealth. Not so in Japan.

For an interesting look at what an American went through to get a house built in Japan, click here:

BUILDING A HOUSE IN JAPAN--CREDIT AND CHICANERY

[Red Jones]

bump