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Well its a bummer that my opinions aren't controversial enough to call me out by name. I think I'd rather leave a big wake behind than no wake at all. :) My feeling is that there is more to learn by arguing than if we were all in agreement. I've learned a lot here. For example, I had...

Steve, I hope you know that my statement about a gold bubble was facetious. I don't believe the "real" price of homes have changed much in the flyover states, and was making the point that it isn't a bubble....or making the point facetiously that the real estate was in a bubble as much as...

Old Trader, Love your posts. I have a quick question for you thats a little off-topic. I don't know any REIs who were investing back when rates were high and climbing (or they don't remember) and I've been trying to figure this out: If one were to buy a property today as an investment...

FWIW, if you compare the dollar to gold, and the Euro to gold, you'll see some interesting stuff. During the benchmark date for the Euro, our dollar was at the top of a cycle in terms of strength (i.e., gold was cheap when purchased with U.S. dollars). Basically, I think they set the benchmark...

OK, I have the answer to my own question. I went to this wonderful site for my data: http://www.usagold.com/gold-price.html Anyway, give or take, on January 2003, one of my townhouses had a market price of $105,000. Back then, gold was at $355 an ounce (and it was spiking then). If I...

Hey I have a question that I do not know the answer to, so I'll throw it out there. And this question is not about California. Those guys won't move out of an area that is rife with earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides, etc. Nature is trying to kill them and it doesn't phase them. God bless...

Not exactly. I am saying that for those who did buy houses (and there are a lot of them) who locked in on rates, they will have many, many years where they don't have to worry about paying ever increasing rents. My father in law, for example, has a mortgage payment dating back 25 years ago...

You make some excellent and compelling points. A few points to ponder is that effectively, the low interest rates substituted one hot sector for another. The people who were crestfallen from their dotcom stocks biting the dust initially curtailed spending (a negative wealth effect), but as the...

The thing is, controlling the economy through the manipulation of the federal funds rate wasn't done properly until they cranked it way up to choke inflation in the early 1980's. As an analogy, up until then, people could only guess at what would make the cars engine slow down, by doing things...

I did overreact a little. I apologize also.

That is a hoot. Take my wife, pleeez! ba dum da! Is this on? Whats really funny to me is when a guy takes the time to share his perspective on an investment topic along with some of the techniques that have make him good money only to have some sad little boys resort to flaming. These...

It was a trick question. I asked how much they lost if they didn't sell their house since buying in it in 1990. The answer is that they didn't lose anything. You only lose if you sell. I don't live there, but I know that if my house was suddenly worth half of its value, it wouldn't make me...

I'm not good at reading graphs. I'm trying to figure out how much has the guy that is still living in his house which he purchased in 1990 at the peak of the market lost?

Well, tell me how you really feel... I do listen to Old Trader and I have learned some things from reading his posts. You're rude, but there are others here to may want to know the answers to your questions. So, I'll give them. First of all, home ownership is at an all time high on a...

Hmmmm. I wonder what my mortgage broker would say if I asked him about a loan to buy some virtual land! :)

I believe there is another way to play the bubble. It has worked for me so far, and if it continues, I'll be a happy, happy, guy. Basically, if you buy rental property, and lock into a rate, the cash flow over the years will increase, even if the bubble pops. If you agree with that, then one...

One of the great things about Real Estate is the fact that you can use leverage. I don't think any landlord here would advocate paying all cash. Rather, some mixture of cash and a loan is a nice way to ramp up the returns while taking on the risk that you find tolerable. For me, If I had the...

All good points. But the payment numbers I was providing include the escrow of insurance, and tax, and were a little high because they also included PMI, which doesn't happen when you put more than 20% down. Yes, there is wear and tear. I've found with the newer places, the tax break from...

Assume you didn't have enough money to buy a car outright and you wanted to buy one. If you were offered a car now, with the total cost of $25,000 and payments of $500 a month financed at x% interest (fixed), or you could buy it tomorrow, at a higher interest rate (x+y%) (again fixed), for a...

>Hello, So, I am not looking to park this money in the financial markets. I would like to move to a townhouse or condo and pay for nearly all of it in cash. The problem - I perceive this market to be overpriced (yes, even here). Perhaps 2005 or early 2006 would be better? Is this strategy...