REAL ESTATE

With Lust In Our Hearths

The housing boom was driven by more than economics. Our exuberance for lavish renovations, custom mansions and vacation getaways was fueled partly by the media. In a new book, NEWSWEEK's Daniel McGinn explains why.

By Daniel McGinn | NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Jan 14, 2008

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  • Posted By: jackcrab @ 01/09/2008 6:14:07 PM

    The housing boom would not have been possible without Greenspan's easy money (which he wanted to offset the bust he created when he killed the high tech boom with high interest rates.) Solution: replace the Federal Reserve with a computer to control interest rates, as Milton Friedman recommended.

  • Posted By: jackabbs @ 01/09/2008 6:11:27 PM

    The housing boom would not have been possible without Greenspan's easy money (which he wanted to offset the bust he created when he killed the high tech boom with high interest rates.) Solution: replace the Federal Reserve with a computer to control interest rates, as Milton Friedman recommended.

  • Posted By: mcdoualwang @ 01/07/2008 3:01:50 AM

    People around the world think alike about so many things. Real estate is an obvious one.

  • Posted By: nawawimohamad @ 01/07/2008 2:34:12 AM

    Those who have the money can spend and this will create demand and ultimately create jobs and people can earn a living, the government can collect taxes and us the money for the rest of the population. Isn't that good? But unfortunatelty this government will spend the money on WAR!

  • Posted By: twmutm @ 01/06/2008 10:25:01 PM

    Doesn't anyone remember what happened in 1985 and 86. excess reale estae and the bust after the depreriation allowance was repealed. Then it fixed the give aways of 15 years depresiation tax status back to 33 1/3 years as the acelerated deprication gave away the farm. Remember the 500 point drop in the Stock prices and the forecloser and empy industrial buildings and warehouses from coast to coast.

  • Posted By: Overcoming Real Estate Losses @ 01/06/2008 6:05:11 PM

    My husband and I lost over $700,000 in real estate. As tragic as this was, I still believe that it may be a good time to buy investment properties.

    To get the full scoop go to "Overcoming Real Estate Losses" at http://WhineCountryRealEstate.blogspot.com/

  • Posted By: Overcoming Real Estate Losses @ 01/06/2008 5:58:47 PM

    My husband and I lost over $700,000 in real estate last year. As tragic as that was for us, I still believe that, as prices decline, it may be the best time to buy more investments.

    To get the entire scoop, go to "Overcoming Real Estate Losses" at http://WhineCountryRealEstate.blogspot.com/

  • Posted By: jryan @ 01/06/2008 11:07:24 AM

    There are a lot of sites popping up, like Zillow and ChoiceA that allow for new tools and new ways to looking at real estate, it's changing for sure.

  • Posted By: jryan @ 01/06/2008 11:05:33 AM

    There are some other new sites popping up too, some with cool tools like Zillow, others that are well designed and free like www.ChoiceA.com Real estate is certainly changing.

  • Posted By: redhedsmom @ 01/06/2008 10:29:12 AM

    And this further illustrates how truly empty our lives are, that we are frothing at the mouth over what "stars" do, where they live, how they live. Most of us will never make $65,000 a month to pay in rent, which is just absurd, shoot most of us won't even make that working all year, yet we've been trained to think that we have to compete with such insanity. And so the cycle continues of competing with the invisible Joneses and our further decline into oblivion.

  • Posted By: Michelles @ 01/06/2008 10:13:23 AM

    But if you want to save the real estate market, you need to understand the entire market and how it has been distorted by special interests and big business money in politics. Only Ron Paul has a firm grasp on the economic policy AND is immune to big money. Everyone else has been bought and paid for. Real change and real liberty requires us to elect Ron Paul as president. And he is the only candidate really supported by the military. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uk-T46soz8

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