In the 60s, Sonny & Cher (before Sonny crashed into a tree while skiing) had a big hit with the song “And The Beat Goes On”–or something like that. Now, in real estate, 2008, a good song title might be “And The Debate Goes On!”

The “debate” is whether or not this is or isn’t a good time to invest in real estate. There are those who argue that real estate is always a good investment (see “Gone With The Wind” Chapter 6, page 147, paragraph 4, sentence 7, Scarlett’s dad to Scarlett : “There is always the land, Scarlett.”) And, as we know, in the end, it was the land that Scarlett returned to after the South got the s–t kicked out of it by the North (okay, I’m from New York, so I am partial to this version of reality..which happens also to be …well…reality!)

Now, the cool thing about fictional characters is–they are fictional. They don’t really have to feed their families or save for retirement or worry about paying for their kids’ education. Heck, all Scarlett had to do was hope that Rhett would come back one day and wisk her away to an even better chunk of real estate.

Time To Get Real. This Ain’t No Novel

That’s right. This is the real world. No authors to help us along our way by dreaming up another chapter or another character to save the day.

In the real world, a bad investment–and, yes, there is a Santa and, yes, there are real bad real estate deals–can actually hurt you. The point being, if you are going to invest in real estate in the current climate, you had better do your homework and know what you are up against.

The economic picture is bleak and seemingly getting bleaker each day.

Just this week, The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing single-family homes tumbled last month by 2 percent,while the median price of a home declined 7.7 percent from a year before.

Yes, there are pockets in the country where this is not the case. But, that is the exception and most certainly not the rule.

What began as a subprime mortgage crisis has ignited an economic fire burning around the world and devastating all sorts of different businesses…from banks, to brokers, to airlines (three of the biggest U.S. airlines this week reported large quarterly losses pegged to soaring fuel costs), to automakers, to newspapers, to broadcasting, to resorts, to …..well, you get the idea.

No one…no one…really knows where this recessionary train is taking us and how many stops there might be till we get to the terminal?

Conventional wisdom…not so wise

The “conventional wisdom” is to buy real estate when there are bargins to be had. And, under normal times, this makes total sense. But, the point is—these are far from “normal” times.

When times are not “normal”–so-called conventional wisdom gets tossed out the window.

This is not to say that no one should invest in real estate at this time. Someone has to. But, as I said before, this is NOT the time to learn on the job.

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Tags: and the beat goes on, gone with the wind, home prices, median home prices, national association of realtors, real estate investing, Real Estate Market, recession, sonny & cher, subprime mortgage crisis