>> 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. >> Long-term, real estate investment (like investment in the stock >> market) seems to increase in value.
> The question is not whether real estate increases in nominal value, but > whether it increases in real value. I am currently looking for a home and have been doing some reading. With respect to the US, till around 2001, the value of a home bought a century ago remained even when adjusted for inflation. I have a reference somewhere for it. Since 2001 there has been a real estate bubble which has started correcting about a year ago. It is expected to take 6-8 years to correct completely. Whether the correction will lead to the much ballyhooed US economy meltdown remains to be seen. Shyam __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
