The Psychology of Home Pricing or Behavioral Econ and WTF Pricing

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
fairEconomist- Sex is good! Good for you, you're not one of these guys who stay married because of their children blah, blah,blah. What about their wife they are cheating on? Oh right she doesn't care anyway. If you stay because of the sex- you still love your wife. That's good! Sex is good. Your wife deserves good sex daily! :) Accept nothing less.
 
PS. Graphcakes- Would you call me instead? I would love to meet you in person. I bet you're a work of art. Come on Graph- let's meet. A little lunch perhaps? :) Zovall knows how and where to reach me. Best to you always.
 
Eva --- Sorry I am so late to this party, but here is that knife you were looking for earlier. It looks like it could have come in very handy over the last couple of hours.
 
Graphcakes is back...





Oh... it looks like while I was gone, attending to my hot love life on the couch, someone has finally shut up. BTW, she thought the graphcakes name was pretty funny.





Sorry, nuttercakes but I have standards, and I won't be calling you...





1. They have to be sane. Which clearly this person isn't.





2. Not have a mountain of debt.





3. They have to be hot. Judging by the nuttiness, you are not.





4. I am too hot for you, and too young. Cougars are hawt, but I do have a limit.





5. They can't be banned from IHB, and only post under one name.





I would go on, but since you are banned, there is no need.
 
<p>Graph - Not to sidetrack but just wanted to point out that having the same IP address doesn't mean they are the same person. With so many many people sharing apts and houses these days, it truly can be roommates. Also, depending on the ISP, the IP address can get rotated regularly. I have had Cox for 4 years now and in my last apt complex, I could maintain the same IP address for 2-3 weeks but in this new complex, it seems to rotate every 2 days. Another possibility is that they are VPNing or tunneling into their work in which case everyone at their company would show up as the same IP.</p>

<p>In any case, bluemoon was super annoying so its good to ban the IP address and hopefully the person too. </p>
 
rkp,





zovall and us mods are aware of how an ip address can be shared and can be rotated. You should see my list of ip addresses, and even better would be who I have shared them with. Luckily for us, we can figure out if it is, and ban accordingly. Especially when they post asinine things under multiple names. Plus, it takes a lot to get banned around here. The people with the ability to ban are very tolerant, open minded, and encourage opposing opinion. In fact, this is the first person we have ever banned on the forums, aside from some spammers.





Hopefully, we do not have to do it again, but as the market gets worse, I am sure we will have to deal with a few more drunk nutters like bluemoon.
 
<p><em>"EvalSeraphim........I would hope that you would be hugging your wife"</em></p>

<p>Uh, something you want to share with me Eva ? </p>

<p> </p>

<p> </p>
 
I'm sorry this thread went haywire because I'm fascinated by the psychology of homedebtors. I rent in a small, planned community similar to Irvine (only MUCH smaller) just outside of Sacramento. Avg price/sqft for the 1st quarter of 2002 was $152. The prices peaked 3rd qtr 2005 at $253/sqft. Most listings are coming onto the market at between $225-$250 and the few that are selling are selling at around $200/sqft.



When we moved here a year ago (from Buffalo where a house we lived in for 10 years couldn't be given away for $40K) everyone INSISTED the market had bottomed out. Now no one even speaks about the market. The local newspaper will run a few stories a week about housing prices but they always include the obligatory "it's the bottom and it's getting better" quote.



I have yet to meet anyone who can have a conversation on the housing situation. Everyone is so invested in this illusion of their home being worth a certain amount that they are completely oblivious to what the market is really doing. I have a friend who works for a realtor who handles foreclosures and who therefore has seen first hand the breathtaking increase in foreclosures. Even she keeps insisting that this is a temporary blip and that prices won't continue to fall. "Prices will never go lower than they are now." She's been telling me that for 9 months now.
 
Sac didn't you find the fact that it went haywire illustrative in itself? I sure did.





I agree with you, it's tough to have this conversation with people, and by the looks of this thread, it's not going to get any easier. I recently ran into a friend who bought a foreclosure as an investment, and is a couple of hundred bucks away from making the 160GRM. Luckily, this person was pretty open, but I found myself having to tread lightly and tactfully. I feel like I'm going to have to bite my tongue a lot in the coming years.





Graphcake's point about the bitter homeowner is well-taken. It probably sucks a lot more trying to unload a depreciating asset than "throwing money away" on rent.





Just for fun, read Bluemoon's initial rant to yourself out loud with a cockney accent: <em>"profette- the sellers are trying to move on. I suppose that's why they're selling. Oh lower their price right. Good point. Actually, a little hard to do when you owe more than your house is worth. Oh right mythical buyers. LOL! Case in point there is no money being tied up in their house. Inflation? LOL. Deflation. Keep on throwing stones. Every Dog has their day. Be it Ever so logical; Homeowners Who Can't Cut The Price"</em>
 
"I have yet to meet anyone who can have a conversation on the housing situation. Everyone is so invested in this illusion of their home being worth a certain amount that they are completely oblivious to what the market is really doing."



My thoughts are that people are no longer under any illusion, nor are they oblivious. It's become a taboo subject because people are embarrassed to say that they are underwater. While they may be able to afford the payments, they've handcuffed themselves to their home for five years and won't be able to move up like they desperately planned to. No one wants to admit that they are in debt, specifically the unsecuritized bad type of debt.



I heard a stat that 1 in 10 homeowners in the US are underwater, anyone know the stat here in OC or in Irvine, i think it's gotta be a least twice that.
 
I don't bring up the topic of housing any more with any of my friends since I don't know their particular situation. I'm sure it can be a difficult topic for some people.
 
Cal, i completely agree, especially with the young couples who got married and just bought a home within the past two years. I remember when we used to talk about home prices and monthly payments without any reservation, now I cringe when i hear a pair of recently married folks who just had to buy a home.
 
SoulBro - you're right...the activity in this thread is indicative of the thread topic!



My husband works at a large church so everyone in our social network knows we are new to the area and renting. What perplexes me is that people continue to initiate conversations with the "when are you planning to buy because now is the time" line. I will confess that early on my responses were a bit too zealous and insensitive. However, I have yet to find a response that results in genuine conversation. I can almost predict the number of seconds it takes before that familiar glaze falls over their eyes and their face freezes in a half smile and they appear less human than zombie.



The most merciful response seems to be one that includes an acknowledgement of money - as in, "we don't have enough." That seems to make everyone feel good about themselves. "Of course you don't have enough! How could you? You just moved here." This is invariably followed by advice to buy whatever dumpy 3 bdrm, 1 bath foreclosure has been languishing on their block for the past 16 months because "it's the best way into the market and prices will only go up."
 
<i>"What perplexes me is that people continue to initiate conversations with the "when are you planning to buy because now is the time" line."</i><p>

So true. I usually just nod my head and smile.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top