Brad Inman last weekwrote an excellent article about the mortgage and real estate crisis that has gripped so many markets in the United States–and elsewhere. In The Housing Market Blame Game, Inman reports that even formerly raging real estate markets that were once seen as unshakable, such as Manhattan, are now beginning to share the pain with regions that had collapsed earlier.
Many blame the real estate industry for hyping the real estate market; others the mortgage originators. But Inman makes an interesting observation:
“….hyperbole from every day Realtors is not the underlying problem causing the housing quake. I would assign more blame to industry experts who peddled their demographic-as destiny arguments and ignored other issues.
This is akin to the expert analyst problem in the equities industry, where favorable reviews were tied to conflicts of interest.”
My response:
The blame game and finger pointing has become a conversation staple from Wall Street to Main Street. Some blame greedy hedge funds, some the greedy mortgage industry, some the greedy real estate agents, and some the greedy mortgage fraudsters.
The conversations that interest me most are the ones that seek ways to sift through the rubble to find approximate market bottoms (especially in the San Diego real estate market:-). That is where the next real estate fortunes will be made.
Greed survives.
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