What If?

[boont]

Can you describe what you think would be happening in America right now if the real estate and stock markets had not dropped? In other words, if things simply continued on as if the world today was like the spring that led up to the summer of 2005.

I sold some real estate in summer 2005, and bought some more. Selling was easy and prices were high. Buying was very difficult and prices were very high.

My guess is that Obama would still have won but that Congress would have a lot more Republicans. We would be heading into the spring buying frenzy in real estate with Boomers increasing their ownership of second homes and or retirement properties.

I think gas prices would have leveled off despite strong world economies. Western Europe, Russia, and China would be more dominate on the world stage and then I thought... wait a minute. It could not have continued. The leveraged financial instruments, the housing prices, the credit markets, the stock markets on steroid-like liquidity pills, and all the rest. It could not continue and it didn't.

What's your take?

 

[Steve O]

Id still be working making big $$$ slowly killing myself at a job I hated

As miserable as this is I like not working better

Like you said it was unsustainable... I think we all saw it coming, some chose to ignore it...

Things will get better someday, It could all start tomorrow or it could be years away...

The sun will come out tomorrow here I hope because it's been raining all weekend

 

[dex]

Good mind exercise - I think you hit it on the head.
The only thing I could add is - Would we climb a wall of worry as we did in the late '90s?
Would more people have gotten out of the market due to that worry? I think so.
I guess the longer it would have gone on the worse the decline.
I don't think I would have sold my home.

Good question though.

 

[sindy9001]

I think this is a good time to buy a house, because the price is lower than last year. In the 2009, economic will return to normal. Like someone said,things will get better someday.

 

[Midpack]

Can you describe what you think would be happening in America right now if the real estate and stock markets had not dropped? In other words, if things simply continued on as if the world today was like the spring that led up to the summer of 2005.

I sold some real estate in summer 2005, and bought some more. Selling was easy and prices were high. Buying was very difficult and prices were very high.

My guess is that Obama would still have won but that Congress would have a lot more Republicans. We would be heading into the spring buying frenzy in real estate with Boomers increasing their ownership of second homes and or retirement properties.

I think gas prices would have leveled off despite strong world economies. Western Europe, Russia, and China would be more dominate on the world stage and then I thought... wait a minute. It could not have continued. The leveraged financial instruments, the housing prices, the credit markets, the stock markets on steroid-like liquidity pills, and all the rest. It could not continue and it didn't.

What's your take?

My take? It was a bubble, unsustainable, so it was going to happen sooner or later. Obviously it's awful, but if we'd added a few more years of bad government policy (that is where it started), bad mortgages and other over-leveraging, bad securities/structured investments, with BS ratings, insured where they shouldn't have been and regulators asleep at the wheel - it's even more likely it would have resulted in a more severe financial collapse and worldwide depression. At this point, the jury is out on the depression - that's the good news. But Obama's life sure would have been easier...and we would have all still been fat, dumb and happy.

 

[Rambler]

One thing that would have happened in America is that I would be FIREing in 3-6 months...possibly prematurely given that what we are going thru now was bound to happen sooner or later.

R

 

[Meadbh]

I think this is a good time to buy a house, because the price is lower than last year. In the 2009, economic will return to normal. Like someone said,things will get better someday.

Sindy, welcome to the board and would you care to introduce yourself?