The system created runaway housing prices thus making many families have to "overspend" to buy adequate housing in many areas. Do you think rents were immune to this run up? Rents were often worse and when you factor in write off and teaser rates, it was a no brainer to buy for many of these people.

I agree with the personal responsibility aspect. I agree that no one "forced" these people to sign and I think the media wants to play up the victim aspect as if all of the people that signed on were pollyanna. At the same time, lets not go the other way and completely disregard the many that were indeed victims of a system corrupt from tip to tail (had to throw in a little racing).

a little off topic..


Do you think that housing prices are too low right now, or that they are where they should have always been?

You realize that banks aren't supposed to be able to take on that many terrible mortgages, right? That credit checks and income statements are supposed to be required before a mortgage can be given? And that lenders falsified borrowers' credit scores and signed people's names on other people's income statements specifically so that they could give out massive amounts of terrible loans and eventually pawn them off to bigger banks disguised as AAA securities? The notion that the symptom, people getting houses they couldn't afford, is not only comparable to, but worse than the disease, massive deregulation and intentional subversion of basic lending practices, is absolutely insane.

The idea that lenders can just give mortgages to anybody and they were simply taken advantage of by a bunch of lazy delinquents is hilariously naive.

You still didn't answer my question about why you think gas prices are high. EDIT: Nevermind, I just saw that it has to do with "the **** going on in the Middle East". The defense rests.

you're still a fucl<ing idiot. I'm pretty sure I said a bunch of times that gas prices are not high in America.

Oh God. So why were they high in 2008? "S h i t going on in the Middle East"? Or was it SUVs then?

I try to idle my Hummer for a few hours a day in the driveway in order to help the economy and warm the globe.

GAS IS NOT EXPENSIVE IN AMERICA IN MY OPINION.

where the fucl< are you pulling this SUV shi.t from?

You're hopeless.

great typical response

Too high still. Everything is going up but wages. Until we return to an arc where home prices are 3-4 times wages, home prices are too high.

keep in mind, this is a national average and real estate is local. In many areas, especially areas like yours where there is so much vacation and rental property, I think prices are extremely LOW. I think many people are going to look back ten years from now and wished they had bought RIGHT NOW in some of these areas.

You can't answer the question. I'm asking you why gas prices go up. They've skyrocketed since 2006. I want your explanation for it, to see if it's equally as clueless and naive as your views on the collapse of the housing bubble.

i agree with all of this, and yes, Florida is the place to buy right now. you can get a real nice 3 bedroom/ 2 bath place with a half acre of land for like 85 grand around here.

Do Not Hijack about housing prices!

This thread is about our growing prosperity and this awesome recovery we are having. My fresh food stamp card will be swiped for a Slurpee and a Slushee this afternoon.

All you have to do is drive 50 miles of the gulf coast to realize this country is going into a great depression.

I can hunt, handicap, and fish. Nothing to be depressed about. Go Barack Go!

mainly supply and demand (it always jumps during travel seasons), OPEC, natural disasters affect prices (they jumped up a large amount after Katrina), and yes, middle eastern conflicts affect supply. a massive increase in demand from other countries (China in particular) affect price increases.

gas prices bairly flinched in the 20 years prior to the mid 2000's. I personally believe gas prices are where they should be for 2011.

I've got a garden too. I also dabble in canning.

I have 1 year of food in storage.

The next step is getting off the grid. Hoping the collapse doesn't happen until 2013 but probably won't be that lucky.

I love the word dabble. Most days I feel like I live on Easter Island. I will teach my boy how to gut banker.

Hopefully the wannabe MMA douchebags will be culled first. Any fool enters my property with an affliction shirt is fair game.

And everyone knows there was no conflict in the Middle East, no increase in demand, no natural disasters, no travel seasons and no OPEC in that time period.

It's your poor persecuted Wall Street saints. Commodities speculation increased more than 1,000% from its historically minor level in the 90s to over $200 billion in the mid 2000s. It's price fixing, nothing more, nothing less.