Thaths [30/04/07 13:17 -0700]:
Can someone point me to a couple of examples of instances where the
real estate market went belly up? I am more interested in examples
where investments lost value over a large period of time rather than
short-term losses. I ask because I keep hearing dire warnings of real
estate meltdown, but have personally only seen short-term losses.
Real estate has a stable, gradually rising value. But there's periods of
very high inflation followed by steep corrective drops once the bubble
bursts. So if you buy during a period of inflation and then sell in a panic
after the bubble bursts, more fool you. The bubble's getting fat, round
and eminently burstable now, where my apartment, that I bought for Rs.2
million back in 2002 is worth something like 2.5..3x that thanks to soaring
land prices (oh, and bank lending rates that have risen a full percentage
point, at least, in the last 4 years).
Still, its a very nice apartment in a nice neighborhood so I think I'm just
going to hang onto it and live in it rather than sell it. If the house is
not placed on the market it stays insulated from notional rises and falls
in it ..
srs
