when it comes to real

[ceagle]

THIS is more 'real' in real estate than the charade of what's been happening around some listings the last few years. Snap it up! Probably could go for 65k (from comps in the area). This might be good too, but heh... "1 car garage in basement"? lol ^v^

The point is, you don't have to believe the smoke screens of real estate right now... that's a large portion of the reason we got into this housing mess! One agent actually told me, when I looked at a hovel she was selling for $600k, and I had remarked that "don't ya think it's a bit high?", she said "the market is adjusting down, and no, because it's hit bottom"). The place couldn't have been worth more than 150k or so. They'll stare you in the face and lie, causing their clients to wait and wait forever until their house sells (or go into default first), IF it sells.. all the while financially raping buyers left and right. >:|

So just look around a bit, and remember to use REAL scales and historical graphs. One wise ole fart tole me that over all his years, he's observed that housing goes up about 5 or 6 % a year, and that is the fair projection. If it's more, you're getting fleeced... if it's less, you're getting a deal. Don't get stuck in a property where you've artificially set the tax rate too high with an inflated purchase price.

Here are some examples showing a few charts of insanity..

One can clearly see that something WACKY has been going on since around 2001, and REALLY NUTS from 2003 to 2006. The trend on these graphs during those periods should be disregarded. It's practically the entire reason we're in a housing mess.
When a person (for instance) pays Highway Robbery Prices for something, it sets up a house of cards which will eventually fall somehow. If enough people fall for it, the collapse extends much further (as it has) into the overall market/economy. I took both macro and micro economics, so I can tell ya, this is REAL. Any amount of Economics is a blend of speculation and fact though, so opinions may differ from circle to circle, but the real effects do not vary far from where the furthest deductions meet in the middle ground.

This is a graph of how things worked out for my neighbor...

As ya can see, they did rather well :} They are good folks, and I'm glad for them, ...they sold about halfway up the insanity chart. At that point, noone was really sure what was going on, and as you can also see on the chart, we all actually lost value in the 1990s, more than shown because the chart doesn't go back that far.
They had a good profit, and the buyers did not get fleeced as badly as if they had bought at the top of the line graph. They probably paid a bit more than they should have, but in a few years, it will be worth what they paid, so it's not too bad of damage, and in this case, at least a small bit of luck prevailed... the buyers are happy and not in dire straits, and the sellers did alright without having to bear a huge burden of guilt.

BUT... I put this example here to show that a house worth 112k in 1990, is NOT worth 423k just 15 years later. Nor (as in the top example) is a house valued at $122 in 1995 worth $681k just a dozen years later. And it's Phony if you are told it is.

So my friends, just do a bit of research, and like they say in Missouri, be skeptical when spending THAT much money, and have them "show you" if ever claims are made of exorbitant exponential worth.
We can fix this market :> It's a bit like the 1960s and 1970s though... we have to fuse and be a movement of the People, not a passive population that flows willingly with the schemes of overscaling profiteers.