BiggerPockets

When do you think the bottom will happen? While nobody can accurately predict either top or bottom (it took the Govt a year to declare a recession), everyone still has to plan for the future and you know what they say about opinions.

Third quarter, 2010. We won't know until Q2 2011.

One party rule, and the Dems approach of tax & spend, we haven't even begun to see the the consequences of the devaluation of the dollar and high unemployment and inflation that took place during the 70's. Uncontrolled pork barrel spending on top of massive bailouts and a socialist move to entitlements. We're robbing Peter to pay Paul, and before we bottom out, we'll be suffering the consequences of robbing Paul.

So, your opinion? Everybody's got one.

I feel that the real estate investment market has already hit bottom, and will stay there for the next 12 months or so. Just as houses can only go so high, they can also only go so low too!

For owner/occupant buyers who are not versed in the real estate business, they will see home prices still drop a little bit, but I honestly feel that the flood of REO properties that are coming our way will actually spur a buying spree, and increase values.

We are already seeing multiple bids on REO properties, and higher offering prices being accepted.

The only real wrench in the system will be the mortgage markets, but they MUST start lending more, and in my opinion, they will. This is how they make money!

We also need to worry about inflation, as I can see a rise in interest rates on the way. That said, we still have that 12-18 month window of opportunity here. So do not wait for the bottom, as it will not wait for you!

Have a Profitable Day Everyone!

Harrison

I say it will eek down just a little bit more for about four to six months then stay pretty consistent for two years before prices start to climb back up again.

I think that we're VERY EARLY in the economic depression to come. The people of this country have been living a lifestyle far in excess of their earnings for decades. Our economy is almost entirely based on consumer spending - consumer spending that has been financed with debt and fake appreciation (first on stocks, then on real estate). The American public certainly isn't anywhere close to paying down that debt. We've had an UNPRECEDENTED runup in housing prices and we haven't even gotten back to the historical prices in many areas, let alone the inevitable overshoot to the low side.

As if the dot-com and housing bubbles weren't bad enough, the government has now created a money bubble by pumping literally TRILLIONS of dollars into the economy for ridiculous government initiatives (having very little to do with stimulus). This will be the biggest and worst bubble of them all.

I don't think that we will hit bottom until at least 2012 and then will remain in a horrendous depression until at least 2018. Very likely, this will end with a major war which will kill a high percentage of the people on the planet.

That's my best guess.

How you doing with your stockpile of food, water, gold, and ammo?

Mike

I agree with Mike's post. I am stockpiling. Then practicing gratitude for having been around this long without having to experience what's coming. That keeps me sane. I am after all an optimist. I will make it though as well. I hope we all do and prosper, and can help those along the way living in tent cities. I believe what Mike is saying is not only very possible but more likely to happen than not. I need to learn how to hunt!

Gold was a little crazy after the fed announcement wed. The higher it goes the more scared a feel.

Does housing go to the moon in hyperinflation? If that's the case we may see a real big rebound by the end of the year...

Ditto what MikeOh said, except I hope he is wrong about the war killing a high percentage of the population... Though I have no delusion that TPTB won't resort to such drastic action to preserve their status.

I'm suprised, too, Harrison. I thought I'd be opening a pandora's box.

I must say, though, a recent news story on NBC about a garden at the white house, and the boom on growing your own;

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#29803183

and noting that there hasn't been a garden at the white house since the "victory garden" of WWII, does make one stop and wonder.

Ralph