tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post112739693262958317..comments2024-02-28T14:41:47.313-07:00Comments on Flares into Darkness: What a difference a day (or 20) makes!ambisinistralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03836786826294202405noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1127406503818380552005-09-22T10:28:00.000-06:002005-09-22T10:28:00.000-06:00You raise a lot of good issues here. One of them i...You raise a lot of good issues here. One of them is: what is the housing bubble doing to real people who fall below the ability to buy outrageously priced housing? Is it destroying the American dream? Our cities are going to start filling with more and more empty houses and more and more families who can't afford to buy them.<BR/><BR/>Most of the houses in Boulder were built under the assumption that the town would never have anything but poor students and poor professors living here. They are small and cheaply constructed. Somewhere along the way Boulder became a magnet for trustifarians from New York and California who can and will pay any price. Little houses that aren't worth a tinker's damn are selling for 800k. As long as most of the people living here bought long ago it doesn't really matter much because they already have their houses. But it has reached a point where most of the people living here couldn't actually afford their own houses. In the course of time it will destroy the community.MeaninglessHotAirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11767916621253839341noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1127406246412079222005-09-22T10:24:00.000-06:002005-09-22T10:24:00.000-06:00You know how to strike fear accross a continent. L...You know how to strike fear accross a continent. Last weekend, while walking past a real estate office here (I am as far from the Pacific as you are from the Atlantic) I noticed that there were more 'For Lease' ads in the window than I had ever seen before. Where once two ads would have been the usual, there were now eight. All for houses at what is considered the 'starter' end of the market - $350K-$450K - and all leasing for rents that will barely cover payments on no interest loans, property taxes and insurance. It appears that we may be entering the 'greater fool' period of the market with the wind beginning to pluck the froth from the top of the wave.<BR/><BR/>I had hoped to spend the holidays here but plans must accomodate circumstances. They really don't ring a bell.Rick Ballardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11082425215912372067noreply@blogger.com