The Last, Best Hope For Prosperity, Part II

I’m not going to leave the Time Magazine “Home Sweet Home” story just yet: the feedback is still coming in, and it is interesting.

We have this from the California Association of Realtors: the percentage of San Diego County households able to afford a median-priced home was 10% in April. Statewide, just 17% of California households are able to afford a median-priced house.

And there is this from a downsizing family having trouble selling their house in an enclave of Connecticut: the house is, they are finding, too nicely maintained to be a tear-down, but not up-to-date enough with all the modern conveniences (granite counter-tops, cathedral ceilings, Sub-Zero freezers) that the McMansion Crowd has come to expect.

They’ve had more than twenty lookers and no bids, while, just down the street, poorly built McMansions are going like, well, eToys in 1999.

Finally, a glance at the NASDAQ chart in the months following Time Magazine’s other hair-raising mania-marking cover story (on the dot-com frenzy in September 1999) reminds us that the NASDAQ stood at roughly 2,700 the week Time published “Get Rich.Com” on the front cover…and proceeded to nearly double before peaking out at 5,000 the following spring.

We may yet have a long way to go before the greater fools in the real estate frenzy have gone “all in,” so keep those cards and letters coming!

Jeff Matthews I Am Not Making This Up

The content contained in this blog represents the opinions of Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor and clients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions in securities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews’ recommendations.