Hey Cracked, I lived in the Lakewood neighborhood of East Dallas. Technically I still live in Texas as far as the taxing authorities know (why pay state taxes when you don't have to). I've thought about moving back because most of my California friends have moved, but I love California so much, it's a tough call.
As for the 6 A.M. thing, I here ya. Fortunately for my trading system, I do most of my trades in the last hour of the day (I'm more of a swing/position trader) so its not imperative that I'm up that early, but I certainly like to know what the markets's are doing, so usually I'm up with the roosters.
-"Surprising how appraisals almost always are sufficient to support the sales price"
I know, it sounds kind of like all those Wall Street analyst that told people to buy stock in dotcoms, while they were dumping it out of their private accounts.
-"greater fool theory"
Yea, that's what I think. But you probably shouldn't listen only to me, because I'm a contrarian investor at the highest order.
My girlfriend is a consultant who is consulted out to the Coldwell Bankers here in the Bay Area, and she tells me that all the realtors think it's business as usual (I don't understand it). When I go to get my morning coffee at the coffee shop I see more unemployed people than I've seen since college.
Oh well, I don't own a house so I guess the worst thing that will happen to me is that I'll pay a little more for one should I be wrong (and of course I miss out on the tax deduction in the mean time).