Quote of the Week

As I mentioned before, I've been really busy with the stuff that pays my bills. So the stuff that doesn't pay the bills (i.e., this blog) gets put on the back burner for a time.

But anyway, here's a quickie. The Quote of the Week has to be this one made by Leslie Appleton-Young (vice president and chief economist for the California Association of Realtors) which I found via the excellent Ben Jones blog:

"Many in California have reached the dream of living in a million-dollar home without moving."

This must be either the stupidest economist quote I've ever heard or else it is the most brilliant thing I have ever heard an economist say as it concisely sums up the utter insanity and unsustainability of this housing bubble. Tragically, I think it is the former.

Where do I begin? Someone should tell Miss Appleton-Young that it is the million dollar lifestyle that some people dream of, not a million dollar house per se. Besides, in California (the most bestest place ever as everyone knows) a million dollar house is now a run-down, stucco, 2 br 1 ba tract house on a postage stamp-sized lot. Marin is full of them; just go to Tam Valley, Novato, San Rafael, Mill Valley, Terra Linda, Corte Madera to name a few (or visit the Marin POS blog for proof; yeah, we Marinites are really livin' large). The only way for most Californians to realize that million dollar dream is either by selling their million dollar POS to a Greater Fool and moving some place where houses are still affordable or HELOC themselves up to their eyeballs and become eternally indentured debt-serfs. Great.

I think the truth of the matter, and what Miss Appleton-Young really means, is that the million dollar house is the realtors' dream, not the owner's.

So you buyers: Do you really want to finance someone else's dream lifestyle that they didn't earn? Do you really want to reward and bail out someone for their profligate ways and take on their debt burden? Do you really want to enter into this Ponzi scheme at this point in time? You are in the driver's seat now. Take control, show no mercy.