What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

  1. Screw time. The implosion is on nobody’s schedule. It’s a process, not an event. The NY Case-Killa index does not lie. When its month to month YOY approaches zero, you will see your top or bottom in the rearview mirror no later than a year (see my analysis on the index from the thread on the topic a few days ago). Damn good for slow ass RE.

    Buy historically performing but currently battered stocks cheap, like no more than $5 to $10 per share. You risk being wiped out but that’s the price for reward if it comes. Scared money don’t make none (if you pass on buying cheap).

    Only a greentech bubble (sucker the winners of the zero sum MARB game into redistributing their newfound wealth back to the losers – unlikely) and/or War will bring us out of this depression.

    ***Bid half off peak comps***

  2. denton – my predictions are on a two year clock.

    Historically, equity markets have rebounded well in advance of recovery in the broader economy.

    There are lots of 3-bed condos and coops that I have seen in the past few years in the $1.2 – $1.4 asking range. I think I will be able to pick one of them up for about $800k to $900k in the next couple of years.

  3. I’m w DIBS and lechecal on the markets… 20% bounce this year.

    Unemployment peaks around 10%, probably under.

    Houses in prime nabes max 20% hit, 20-30% elsewhere, crap condos 30-40%, the few interesting ones, 20%.

    Oil $60 bbl by the end of the year, maybe more. I’m playing that with my own money.

    Gold could go either way but I’m keeping a bit in as a hedge. With the rush to devalue currencies, gold could soar, also if inflation unexpectedly picks up.

    Better grade high yield and corporate bonds will do very well in 2009.

  4. tinarina – 1st disabuse yourself of this notion that new condos are crap due to poor construction. They very well might be – but ‘crap construction’ can just as easily be remedied (maybe even easier) then repairing and maintaining 75-150yr old houses and buildings. Therefore other than personal taste – there is no functional difference between the two.

    Now in terms of the market – yes you have alot of inventory of new condos coming on-line – so that may depress that housing type for a year or two – until it is sold or rented BUT remember a few things

    – there are still FAR FAR more brownstones in neighborhoods like Park Slope/Ft Greene/Brooklyn Heights then condo units even including what is still on the drawing board.

    -Most people care about things like neighborhood, schools, commute, etc… at least as much as the housing “type” – otherwise Brownstones in the Bronx would cost similar to Brownstones in Park Slope. Therefore alot of people who may “want” a pre-war housing unit would choose a post-war condo if the discount was 25-40% less.

    -As financing gets harder and more expensive – the higher your mortgage the more expensive and more difficult to secure. Therefore buying a 3M brownstone gets much more difficult. and yes of course in poorly sold new condos you will also have trouble getting financing.

    -If all these new condos result in more rentals – the value of the Brownstone rental falls (competition) and therefore the affordability/value of the house falls commensurate.

    Look there are ten thousand ways to look at it – and I know many people here are such lovers of Brownstones that they do not want to recongnize it – but housing (of similar size) is more or less substitutable and any look at history will show that housing within neighborhoods falls more or less in tandem – albeit with brief periods (as in all markets) where pricing gaps develop and are quickly plugged by people who take ‘arbitrage’ these gaps.

1 2 3 4 5