I have painstakingly brought back a 1953 raised ranch and in the meantime created a life for myself. I know and like my neighbors, I work and live in the same town…I enjoy seeing renewal and rebirth in my little sanctuary.

Sure, we are fortunate to have two decent incomes in a very bad economy, but we’ve seen worse times personally.

P.S. I just cleaned up my bunker….

I’ve recently commented on the “State of the Blog” and I fully agree with your observations. Grim provides great info and commentary; that’s why I keep reading. Unfortunately, the rest of the site has degenerated into an AOL Chatroom circa 1998. Lately, I give it a quick scan at the end of the evening but it’s pretty tedious to wade through the droning of the 8-10 “Dead Horse Beaters”… (Do I get a Cindy Smackdown now?)

There’s a section on valuation.

http://www.smeal.psu.edu/marketmadness/instruct.html

Off to bed.

Usually like your posts. You seem like a nice person, too.
But I have been paying attention, and I understand the connection. You missed my point, which was volumes of commentary on deriviatives and securities don’t help the not-as-financially-literate-as-you crowd get RE advice. Perhaps the advice is: “don’t buy here” or “don’t buy in the US” b/c of banking and securities fraud. But I think that’s why people come here… Maybe not. Let’s hear from some you lurkers!!

I almost bought a condo in San Diego in winter of ’03/’04 , but kept telling my wife that the fundamentals are all wrong. We were competing with drifters and temp workers for $250K condos, and I kept asking the realtor, how are they affording these? I wasn’t buying his answers about creative financing. I couldn’t see how they would get around the “if you borrow it, you have to pay it back” rule. Moved to NJ and watched the insanity build for 4 more years here. I’m STILL watching the insane asking prices > 5 yrs later. Needless to say my wife is tired of waiting, and I’m running out of excuses.
..So I come here for new ones :)

How’s the new home?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/business/economy/09greenspan.html?pagewanted=1

This old article pretty much takes me full circle. It is on Alan Greenspan – 10/08. I first to Grim’s site to read about Greenspan because you were all telling the truth about his activities after the release of his book.

Rubin, Summers, Greenspan were the guys who chastised Brooksley Born for trying to regulate derivatives back in 1997. And now – they are still in the picture today…

I just cringe when I read this…

“Ms. Born pushed ahead. On June 5, 1998, Mr. Greenspan, Mr. Rubin and Mr. Levitt called on Congress to prevent Ms. Born from acting until more senior regulators developed their own recommendations.”

“In November 1999, senior regulators – including Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Rubin – recommended that Congress permanently strip the C.F.T.C. of regulatory authority over derivatives.

Phil Gramm was the head of the banking com. – Clinton signed it into law -1999.

These are the names still in the news today. The honest, clear-thinking person – Brooksley Born – is lost in obscurity.

And Revelations – If you don’t realize that the derivative and banking issues ARE the housing issues – Well….you aren’t paying attention.