My personal experiences affirm the general tenor of the piece. As I walked down the streets of New York city this past weekend, I saw a lot of “for sale” and “for rent” signs in NYC. I’ve honestly never seen that before. Quite the contrary — I’d only heard about how impossible it is to find an apartment in NY. My experience is anecdotal for sure, but it seems clear to me that the market for condos (especially luxury condos) around the country has taken a significant hit and is still sliding. Everyday, I see more and more signs in windowsills of Del Mar, La Jolla, and downtown San Diego. LA and Seattle have plenty of vacancies too. The signs all point downhill: “Bank Owned”, “For Sale by Owner”, “For Sale” and “For Rent.”
But I disagree with the “happy ending” that was tacked onto the piece. One guy posits that the stock market has figured out how bad it all is & that we’re in a buying opportunity period. For the average investor (like me) who is uninterested in the very real possibility of short-term losses, I couldn’t disagree more. I’m still holding steady (in a cash position) while the knife continues to fall. I think that there is a significant amount of fraud yet to be uncovered. The recent events with Bernie Madoff seem to confirm my thesis.
Labels: money