Comments courtesy of Ruined Invegas .
I couldn't figure out what these guys were selling. They seemed like realtors. They also seemed to be saying that real estate was overvalued, by pointing out that house prices are high, and incomes too low. At one point, they seemed to suggest that renting seems like a good option.
So where are these guys going to make a living. I can't see too many 6 percent sales commissions coming out of this ad.
Another wierd realtor ad - here some guy yacking on about working with first time buyers. However, his sales pitch is drowned out by some really irritating muzak.
Anyway this realtor is going to "work your transaction" - what exactly does that mean?
Things are so bad with the US housing market that sellers have taken to wishing on falling stars.
Here is one of those foul 30 second condo ads, full of 19 year old gym bunnies and buffed up six-packs. At la Jolla condos, everyone works out and no one touches the burgers.
No one in the UK now remembers that between 1989 and 1996, house prices fell by 35 percent in real terms. Here is a reminder courtesy of Spitting image.
Given the mountain of data out there showing that delinquencies are up, prices and down and inventory piling up like snow in winter, I thought that answer would be obvious.
However, I am wrong. The guy in this clip tells me that while prices might fluctuate a little, the market won't crash.
I am going to say something really hurtful about this guy; he looks like a realtor.
Just for laughs, I thought it might be interesting to check out some of those clips from real estate investing courses. This one is from flippinghomes.com.
This guy might be talking english, but I don't understand what he is saying. He spouts one useless aphorism after another. One line stands out "making money is about focus". This is about as useful as telling someone, buy high and sell low (or is it the other way round?).
The housing market is now into its second year of collapse. These guys are dinosaurs, stuck in another long gone time.
Here is a very clever visualization of the recent US housing bubble. Using Atari's RollerCoaster Tycoon, it plots US home prices, adjusted for inflation (via Shiller's Irrational Exuberance), as a rollercoaster.
The last part of the journey seems to go on forever. And then, you are left hanging in mid-air. The only way is down.....
Here is a first rate clip about what it is like to rent in America today. Now that house prices are crashing, renting is now starting to look like the smart move.
There are some people who think that people who end up in foreclosue have only themselves to blame. However, the reality is that losing your home is a personal catastrophe. I don't blame the poor, sometimes misguided homeowners who took on more debt than they should have. I blame the mortgage lenders, the realtors and above all the Fed, who should have been regulating these jokers.
This video is hard to watch. However, it does reflect the reality of the sub prime crisis. Ordinary folks are being hurt.
It is bit of a mystery why this guy chose to darken the video clip. It all looks a bit creepy. However, the analysis of the housing market is first rate. Starts off slow, but gets better as it goes along.
Here is a realtor ad from Japan. It seems that realtors across the world speak a universial language. The message is always, "you need to move".
The sub prime crisis - can it really be that bad? "Clean up your credit ratings", that is the advice from this CNBC clip.