It's high house prices, stupid!

[rubber_factory]

Originally Posted by GregW

I figure I will be able to buy a much better home in five years than I could ever afford during the bubble.

I think the average prospective buyer feels the same way. I know I do.

[rubber_factory]

Originally Posted by trishguard

I was ridiculed for saying the same thing in the Real Estate forum.

The Real Estate forum is driven by bias. Arguments are colored by people's role in the market - buyer, seller, or agent.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by rubber_factory

The Real Estate forum is driven by bias. Arguments are colored by people's role in the market - buyer, seller, or agent.

Several posters in the RE forum also do not look beyond RE.

[John23]

What I don't get...why aren't renters ever mentioned in the mainstream media or in real estate stories? It's like they don't exist. Maybe they don't exist!

Home buyers always make up 99% of these stories. But surely there are renters that love that prices come down. They get to buy a home.

I guess its a combination of...

-The media is obsessed with negative doom and gloom stories. Gotta scare the populace a little more. About Joe and Jane that lost their house. You could be next! Scares you into submission. Makes you more afraid, subservient to lenders, banks, the man that runs it.

-NAR, etc that are obsessed with home ownership.

-Govt/politicans are obsessed with home ownership, giving people (voters) the "American Dream" (who cares if they can afford it!). But give them that american dream of home ownership.

-Lack of any common sense or intelligence from the media. If 40 or 50% of people in cities rent, who cares. And you wonder why no one reads newspapers or cares about the media.

[John23]

Look at this "story" (Orwellian propaganda??) more in depth....

The "experts" lead your thinking. Thinking for yourself is very dangerous. We can't have that. So from the first paragraph, the "experts" lead your thinking. Forget about home prices to income or anything like that.

We want future home buyers to only think about mortgage rates. And all the parties involved pile on....treasury, govt, "vocal industry groups", the national association of realtors.

Quoting a lowly renter in the story that wants lower home prices would gum it up.

Buried towards the bottom....

"What's keeping many homebuyers out of the market are stringent lending standards, not interest rates, experts said."

More subtle brainwashing. The experts are telling *you* that stringent lending standards are keeping homebuyers out of the market. The experts are telling you, what you already know. The "experts" are ready to convince *you*, that you can afford a house with a 4.5% mortgage. And that's good for the housing market.

And why wonder why people got tricked buying houses they couldn't afford...

Besides being a propraganda piece by NAR and the govt to sell homes, it reports on things in isolation. And you wonder why people are confused about the economy and economics...duh.

"A $7,500 credit approved by Congress this summer -- which is really a loan since it must be paid back -- isn't working.

"It hasn't done any good," Gaines said. "Make it a real credit for home purchases."

Of course it hasn't worked if unemployment is going up, or the dollar is being devalued. Or home prices are still out of whack to incomes?

After reading this piece....the government is good, it's going to save you. Treasury and the Federal Reserve are good institutions, they're working on it. The experts are rushing in to provide answers.

We're all going to save you.