Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Hudson on Housing and Our Neo-Feudal Society


Click here to listen to a podcast of Michael Hudson speaking on real estate and the housing bubble. Very good stuff, lots of myth debunking, a needed reality check...but lengthy.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe post a summary????

For so long I wanted the housing boom to bust, and now I am horrified at how quick and ugly it has become.

Anonymous said...

Here is a summary...OMG!!!!

One of my favorite quotes is:

"New York real estate has a value higher than all the equipment in all of the plants across the country"

Anonymous said...

Perehaps I'll do a summary tonight.

But his main point is that unlike as early as 20-30 years ago, people are being set up as debt-serfs and they don't even know it.

Anonymous said...

He makes an interesting observation on Japan's RE crash:

"...The more expensive the property, the larger the downturn was"

That can't happen here, can it?

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you did not close the site Marinite! Kudos to you. I gotta tell you I have been so willing to change my housing situation for the last 5 years but.... because of information and strength from guys like you I have held out and was not drawn into the RE black hole speak of "If you don't buy now you will NEVER be able to afford a place". Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

He makes an interesting observation on Japan's RE crash

And I liked his explanation of the so-called "paradox" in pricier markets of how it is that prices can be coming down yet indices (e.g., county medians/averages) can go up a little.

eternitus said...

That's a great picture...

Please check out my blog... I post a lot on housing, (I just started it a few weeks ago)...

I'd like to see what you all think. I've gotten good feedback so far.

eternitus said...

Sorry,
You can either click on my name, ore follow this link.

http://financeguru-eternitus.blogspot.com/

sf jack said...

Where Subprime Delinquencies Are Getting Worse

"SUBPRIME MORTGAGES have been cropping up in surprising spots. Typically, these loans to home buyers with the weakest credit were concentrated in lower-income or economically depressed areas. But over the past few years, a large chunk of the subprime-loan market has shifted to higher-income metropolitan areas. In many of those wealthier areas, the delinquency rate has increased quickly."

See the map and table

The Wall Street Journal Online - 3/29/07

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-subprimemap07-sort2.html

Or:

http://tinyurl.com/2xwrat

Anonymous said...

That's a great picture...

For the record (and newies I guess), that pic in the post is from the Harpers magazine where Hudson made a big splash with an article.

Anonymous said...

You can find the Hudson article here:

http://tinyurl.com/2glaup

Anonymous said...

I've been trying to save money and not buy in to this stuff.

The Hudson article is great info.

Where do I put my savings now?

I will not buy a house until it makes economic sense.

Marinite said...

In my opinion, putting your money "in your house" is almost never a very good idea if the house is your personal residence and your intention is to become wealthier on an inflation adjusted basis.

See http://tinyurl.com/2f69ae

It's a good place to put your money if your goal is to preserve its purchasing power and if at some later time in the future you are prepared to move out of the area or buy down or both. Otherwise, the money is locked, no longer liquid. Given that, it is best if the total amount of money you put into your house (both down payment [if any these days] and mortgage payments) represents a smallish proportion of your total net worth. E.g., it makes no sense to put like 80% of your total worth into your primary residence unless you are sure you can live on the remaining 20% for as long as you can foresee or you have good reason to believe your income will be increasing by a significant amount.

If you want to increase wealth on an inflation adjusted basis and have that wealth remain relatively liquid, then there are far better choices.

Disclaimer: not investment advice as I am not a paid investment professional. The above is just my opinion and is worth only what you pay for it...$0.