We'll never learn

Okay. Why is an 8.125% jump causing home prices to almost double?

 

If you think that 64% to 69.2% is a five percent jump, then you aren't going to understand things like leverage and other big-boy math. The percentage of home ownership doesn't have a linear correlation with housing prices. Start at wiki. You are completely correct in that people trying to "own" up was a problem. But adding 5.7 million people who were not able to handle the finances of first time ownership is at the heart of this financial disaster.

 

I know the difference. This isn't a formal environment, I didn't feel the need to be precise. I'm guessing you are going to try to be condescending because you know that your assertion is based on pretty flimsy evidence and you want to bluster through it.

There isn't any proof of what you are saying. At worst, the jump in home ownership was a symptom of the deeper problem.

 

Really? I'd love read where

is a distortion. Lay it on me.

 

The distortion is simple: You are trying to blame the larger housing bubble on a relatively much smaller phenomenon: Home ownership among those who couldn't afford to own a home.

Those cases are dwarfed by people who tried to own homes bigger than they could afford, but could have afforded some sort of home.

 

Take a look a the United States history books of say, 2002-2007. Have you looked around and seen the foreclosures in this country? Our country is littered with properties that were formerly "owned" by people who did not have wherewithal to own a house. Each of these people were told they can be homeowners by people blowing smoke up their ass.

I don't get how that is a distortion in any way. I am not even saying that this was "all" of the problem.

 

You very clearly implied that it was at least a primary reason, and you later stated it was the "top of the list."

 

45K for a starter home?
A two-room tent costs more than that.

 

I honestly have a hard time believing this. Am I the only one? 45 grand is less than a lot of down payments and RV's

 

Good Tebow, you couldn't buy a parking space for $45K here.

Sometimes I think I just want to move to the Midwest and be rich. My best friend from high school has a 4,500 sf house with six bathrooms near KC and paid less than $400K. The house I rent in Seattle -- and many of you have been here -- is pretty much a fixer upper and is worth half a million.

 

Babar, I live 2 hours to the north of you, an hour outside of Vancouver and a 900 square foot, old and I mean old townhouse is 250 to 260. The same townhouse in the city is double.

Rick, are you looking at buying in Baghdad?

 

Probably West Virginia or Mississippi.