a) over-due market adjustment/correction/balance

b) an overall coming recession

c) an overall coming depression

d) a domino effect into b or c

e) collapse of the heavily debted/leveraged U.S. economic &/or
financial system, massive bankruptcies, mass unemployment, chaos,
horrors worse than one could envision

f) healthier, rational, lessening of previous go-go growth economy

g) the end of the affluent American way of life and return to
Depression mentality

h) very many mortgage company & multiple banking company failures from
excessive defaults/foreclosures

i) all the above

The article that provokes my off-the-wall paranoia

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-102506homes,0,2287716.story?track=mostviewed-...

Existing home sales drop 1/3 from '05
By Jesus Sanchez, Times Staff Writer
11:48 AM PDT, October 25, 2006

On 25 Oct 2006 18:36:13 -0700, "Robert Cohen" msn.com> wrote:

The fall of the US will be because people read "sales fell" and think
it means "prices fell".

Do you actually read the stuff you post?

-tg

Robert Cohen wrote:

I accept your point: sales are 30 percent down, but prices apparently
only slightly so far

But won't the prices subsequently become much lower when people
actually have to move, since the average move or turnover is every
5--7 years?

I was very recently in Florida, and the definite message I get is that
prices are indeed falling seemingly in more than one area of
Florida--though the "percent" of price decline is ambiguous since it's
such an inherently volatile market dynamic.

Of course the Florida property insurance situation has something to do
with it all too.

I apologize to all readers for the inadvertent distorting of
prices/sales volume.

I certainly hope my fears herein this thread sensationally expressed
are more fantasy/paranoia than the fact/reality

We know that markets fluctuate, and a collapse in housing prices is not
an implausibilty, and whatever I post/think/fear has little to no
impact, which I suppose isn't a bad thing afterall.

tg wrote:

Robert Cohen wrote:

I don't think prices fluctuate as much as you think, except where there
is extreme speculation---which might well be the case in Florida. If
you buy a house first to live in and them perhaps as a long-term
investment, what matters is L-L-L, as the real estate agents say. If
your neighborhood tanks, you're screwed, and if your neighborhood is
poor and it gets gentrified you get rich.

Here is sumthin very pertinent to our discussion via Drudge's
tabloidish page:

Note how the story/phenomena vary between the Calif story and this
story

Hey, folks, that's reality: demonstrative of the
perceptions/dynamics/disputations of reality.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/26/D8L0C4N00.html

Home Price Drop Is Largest in 35 Years
Oct 26 10:12 AM US/Eastern

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON

Recall that "end of history" overly-optimistic crape?

Well, this is the end of ....uh...."economic optimism," perhaps:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/27/business/27econ.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Robert Cohen wrote:

Robert Cohen wrote:

As your official proofreader....

Don't these last two give different figures for the same September
price drops?

And could you demonstrate your sincerity by giving an explanation of
'median' in your own words, and what such a number tells us?

-tg

I perceive the message is ambiguity & contradiction, because:

10. Hey, newspapers are obsolete/going outa bizness--they can't afford
adding machine monthly payments
9. Houses and homes: There are differences according to Funk &
Wagnalls.
8. Math as an abstraction: Archimedes & Pythagoras have images in their
minds, and thus Berkeley can't get rid of that hovel in California
7. Surreal estate prices
6. What about that outrageous commission & fees for dis portasan and
dat respinwahl
5--1.. If ya doesn't like it, then move to Cuba or North Korea

tg wrote:

...

Hey, the question is howw much the prices fall?

A really bad fall could wreak domino havoc.

Each of us has an individual self-interest concern of course.

Thus, I'm interested from both angles (personal & politica-economic).

An housing economic situation report by CS MONITOR

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1103/p01s01-usec.html

Robert Cohen wrote: