Quote from domestic:
as someone who has witnessed 35 plus years(23 yrs as an adult) of the construction industry ups and downs i can agree and disagree. this downturn will "over sell" to the down side; but i see 3 years max until people forget and start speculating again. the drive to buy a home and maintain it is something that people of all socioeconomic levels will persue harder than you may think. i remember the s &l crisis was huge (100 billion plus in 1990 $$) and everyone thought it would last for a decade. by 93 we were emerging and forgeting all ill's. hell, in 90 i bought a condo at auction for 166k that a year earlier went for 300k.
i will go on record as saying this downturn will reverse starting in 2010. watching history (i don't believe the last boom/bust was any smaller than this one), and my obvious bias is where i am coming from. again, i agree with all you say, except your assessment of the length of the downturn.
Will demographics(baby-boomers), higher debt levels, plus a globally connected financial system cause this time to be different?
