Interesting story about Florida real estate crash

[Gutenberg]

Over and out.

Mike, I hope you enjoy the article.

[$tevie]

The current issue has certain content flagged as Subscriber Only, but I think what happens is that at some point (maybe even next week) the entire issue becomes available to all. Unless they have changed things within the last couple of weeks -- because I've never had any problem reading previous issues online.

[Seacrest]

Gutenberg wrote:
It's in the New Yorker, called "The Ponzi State." It offers quite a few examples of just plain crooked dealings in the mortgage-funded securities crash, and introduces us to a few of the winners and losers in the mortgage game. Spoiler: the State of Florida is not one of them.

Yeah, read that yesterday in the Dead Tree version.
Have relatives who were caught up in that "game."
Five "rental properties" and no rental market.

[Seacrest]

$tevie wrote:
The current issue has certain content flagged as Subscriber Only, but I think what happens is that at some point (maybe even next week) the entire issue becomes available to all. Unless they have changed things within the last couple of weeks -- because I've never had any problem reading previous issues online.

I think they have changed things.
They have a new "archive.newyorker.com" sub-domain.

[$tevie]

:villagers:

[swampy]

Florida went through much the same thing back in the late 70's when the real estate bubble burst. Left to its own devices, the market corrected itself and was level for 10-15 years then started another run up to the current bust. The private sector absorbed the losses over time. It didn't take any government "bailout" to bring about the corrections.

Boom and bust has been the economic history of Florida since the 1800's. Florida has an advantage in that it is a desirable place to live (weather, low cost of living etc.) especially for the retirees. Coastal areas tend to be the last to turn around, but inland areas are now starting to re-coop. New housing starts are still down around here, but re-sales were up 6.6% last month in my area. Again, there's been no influx of government bailout money, just the free market doing its thing.

[kj]

What can you say? People played the game, and a lot of them lost. Some of the people now affected are innocent. That's why greed is NOT good. Every person who made out like a bandit, essentially stole their money from the person who is now left holding the bag of dung. The person holding the bag of dung was thinking someone else would get stuck holding it. Who are the bad guys? The ones who won, AND the ones who lost. Anyone who played the game. kj.

[Black]

swampy wrote:
Florida went through much the same thing back in the late 70's when the real estate bubble burst. Left to its own devices, the market corrected itself and was level for 10-15 years then started another run up to the current bust. The private sector absorbed the losses over time. It didn't take any government "bailout" to bring about the corrections.

Boom and bust has been the economic history of Florida since the 1800's. Florida has an advantage in that it is a desirable place to live (weather, low cost of living etc.) especially for the retirees. Coastal areas tend to be the last to turn around, but inland areas are now starting to re-coop. New housing starts are still down around here, but re-sales were up 6.6% last month in my area. Again, there's been no influx of government bailout money, just the free market doing its thing.

By my assessment busts between housing booms tend to last 20-30 years-- 10-15 would be great news (might not have to completely write off the concept of retirement).

[Mac1337]

Were it not for busts, how would real estate supply be regulated? This goes for other commodities too. When gas was running at $4 a gallon, there were cries for intervention too. I hate to see where we would be if those voices were listened to. You can't prop up a market that wants, needs to go down.

[Black Landlord]

Dakota wrote:
When gas was running at $4 a gallon, there were cries for intervention too. I hate to see where we would be if those voices were listened to..

Excuse me? The gas run-up, as good as it could have been for the environment had it held, played no small roll in scaring consumers into clamping down on their expenditures and missing mortgage and credit card payments, pushing the credit crunch into critical.
Or are you being ironic?