Seeing as how just 4% of the market being foreclosures dramatically impacted the market, imagine what 8% will do? It’ll continue to eat away at values. The foreclosures will have to be flushed from the system before any bottom can be reached, and as it looks from this report and the fact that there’ still tons of foreclosures out there along with non-foreclosures, it’ll be at least another 2 years before that occurs, and even then, it’ll just be the bottom and not necessarily appreciation.

Most people seem to be incapable of recognizing that the most recent housing bubble was probably a once in a lifetime freak occurrence. There will be some bitter tears shed by many an investor once that’s more universally accepted.

Hmmmm, fundamental? Fundamental or false optimism?

Of course our Roger The Brickster does not provide the link to original article whenever it is inconvenient. Here it goes:

The Future for Home Prices

There it says -

Over the past few years, Americans have had a brutal lesson in the risks of real estate. House prices have crashed more than 35% in some parts of the country, millions of people are losing their homes to foreclosure, and banks are failing.
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Those hoping for a quick rebound are likely to be disappointed. Economists and other pros generally say home prices won’t bottom out before the second half of 2009, and some don’t see a bottom until 2011 or 2012. Even when they stop falling, prices may scrape along the bottom of the rut for years.

“ Comedy is when someone else falls off a ladder and breaks their neck. Tragedy is when I get a paper cut“

Because of course the hamster’s is better! (Whatever it may be.)

Nomadic,
How article-title about the people with herd mentality? Homeowners cling to false optimism about own home

The housing market may have bust, but many homeowners are still living in a bubble.

Despite dismal housing headlines and reports showing falling prices nationwide, owners in some once-hot areas still believe their home is gaining value or at least holding its own. And by hanging onto too-high expectations, sellers are unwittingly keeping the market from finding a bottom.
…..
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Likewise, an unscientific study released last week by real-estate Web site Zillow.com found that half of homeowners polled think their home’s price has increased or stayed the same in the past year.
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“It’s the mine is better than yours mentality,” Herndon said.

So it is not just herd mentality. It is mine-is-better-than-yours mentality too.

But people who’ve already bought want reassurance that they’ve made the right decision. Nobody wants to admit that they might have either screwed up, mis-timed the market, overpaid, or are losing equity. Its sort of a self-comfort device to deny reality. The reality is that if you bought from 2004-2007, then you’ve probably lost value. Its a hard pill to swallow. I would put money on it that you would never admit that your home has possibly lost value or has even flat lined.

LOL! New definition of herd mentality!
And don’t forget the original context where our Roger The Realtor said:

Bob thinks he’s doing something smart and unique, when in fact he’s just following herd mentality.

I guess Bob was rushing to do something. What? Nature’s call?

There’s a major distinction. Herd mentality points to a group of people rushing to do something. The polls above are talking about something more fundamental –
what people think about investing in real estate, at a time when most are not rushing in.

And before the mid-16th century, everyone in the world, with the exception of one or two crazy Greek astronomers, believed that the Sun revolved around the Earth.

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Moral of the story? Reality doesn’t obey public opinion polls.

And about eh Challenger… its a $20,000 car. What do you expect? If I were paying 60k for a bimmer, it better damned well be better than a 20k car.

Consider three surveys, all from October.

In a poll of 2,000 adults, real-estate-data provider Zillow.com found that 61% believed the value of their home would either remain level or rise over the next six months. Another survey of more than 1,000 homeowners, sponsored by real-estate-services firm Realogy Corp., found that 91% thought that owning a home was the best long-term investment they could make. And an online survey of 5,000 people commissioned by Citigroup found that just 32% believed it was a good time to invest in stocks — but 51% said it was a good time to buy a home.

“I just believe in real estate,” says Jason Schram, a lawyer in Chicago who has bought two rental properties this year at what he considers fire-sale prices. “I’ve seen over and over people I know build wealth through rental real estate, and that’s the path I intend taking, even though it’s a bit bumpy at the moment.”

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Moral of the story? The people in this forum are mostly in the minority.

They did a good job copying the old one. Chrysler has been pretty good at retro designs, but the mechanicals still lack the sophistication of the foreign brands. If you look carefully, it’s not hard to find cheap trims either.

My favorite car there wasn’t actually available to the public. Its the first purpose-built police car built by a Atlanta company called Carbon Motor Corp.

http://www.carbonmotors.com/

It runs on diesel or biodiesel, can actually accelerate faster than most high performance sports cars, and is estimated to save each city millions of dollars in fuel and maintenance costs. Kind of wish they’d make them for the general public.

If money were absolutely no concern and I could buy any stupidly insane car, I’d probably get this one:

http://www.supercars.net/cars/3621.html

World’s fastest production car at 255.83 MPH. Believe it or not, its an American company called Shelby SSC and the car is generically called the Ultimate Aero Twin Turbo.

Realistically, If I wanted a new sports car, I’d get one of these because you don’t see many of them and the styling is fantastic:
http://www.dodge.com/en/2009/challenger/

I love inadequacy.

A car only needs a twin turbo if the engine is inadequate without it. In other words, a car with a twin turbo is like a woman with a push-up bra.