Boom, Bust, and Aftermath - What Happened to the Biggest Housing Boom Since the 1950’s
June 17th, 2008 Categories: Real Estate News
Over the past three days, the Washington Post has run an excellent investigative series - “The Bubble” - about what happened to the biggest housing boom in this country since the 1950’s.
As much as I have railed about the seemingly endless BAD news about the real estate market in both national and local newspapers, this series is worth your time.
A cautionary tale, it is also a classic tale of - is there any nice way to say it - greed. Like David Zimmer, former CEO of now defunct People’s Choice says, “Everbody’s culpable in this - everybody - Wall Street, investors, originators, brokers. At every point in the process, something broke down.”
The good news? Home ownership is still a good investment; buyers have time and inventory on their side; and the mortgage business has returned to the basics.
Sunday: The Boom - How homeowners, speculators and Wall Street dealmakers rode a wave of easy money with crippling consequences.
Monday: The Bust - How homeowners’ missed mortgage payments set off widespread problems and woke up the Fed.
Tuesday: The Aftermath - How the housing bust started a panic in Florida, felled a storied bank and raised the specter of recession.
Your thoughts?
Michael
Hey, Nice blog!
I’m a fellow Tomato Blogger.
Read about your blog on Cronin’s blog.
Looks great.
I really like the images at the very bottom of the sidebars.
That’s a nice idea