Comments on: Housing Sector Update

By: MoneyEnergy

MoneyEnergy — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:31:35 +0000

Interesting – I have a lot to learn about real estate. Can you point to a good book or something on buying land during a recession? It’s a no-brainer, it seems, if it’s that cheap…
(this also explains why my global RE ETF is down so much).

Anyone else here bought land lately at these prices? Please contact me! I want to learn about it.

By: Living Off Dividends

Living Off Dividends — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:39:22 +0000

I had the pleasure of speaking to an incredibly wealthy real estate asset manager last month. He said and I quote “In a recession, the value of land is less than zero”.

If land has no economic value, its intrinsic value is zero. If land has no water, electricity or drainage going to it, it’s hard to get any kind of value for it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the seller bought it for $525/acre!

By: MoneyEnergy

MoneyEnergy — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:13:48 +0000

0.25 acres in Colorado for $525? How do we know this isn’t a scam? That sounds ridiculous, especially since there isn’t even a house involved. Why would even pure land prices be falling that much?

By: Stock Pursuit

Stock Pursuit — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:56:29 +0000

Everyone seems to think the economy will stop on a dime when it finally finds the “right” level. ”

yeah, It’s kind of scary that all this debt the gov is taking on to prop up the bubble is based on the economy returning to secular bull mode next year.

By: Chad @ Sentient Money

Chad @ Sentient Money — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:06:08 +0000

Not surprising. Everyone seems to think the economy will stop on a dime when it finally finds the “right” level. It don’t know if that has ever happened. It usually over corrects, just as it over values everything for a bubble.