RIIIIIIP---slaaaaash, ugggggh-
the sound of ripping american focus away from terri schaivo and changing the subject. for some time now i have been observing, suspecting, hallucinating about a/ the real estate bubble syndrome-
signs: ordinary people from the mid-west flying to Miami for the one day sale on not yet built condominiums which supppsedly rise in price by the hour.

"In Naples, Fla., some houses have been bought twice in a single day, an early-21st-century version of day trading. Buying stocks on margin has morphed into buying homes with no money down. The over-the-top parties of Internet start-ups have been replaced by flashy gatherings where developers pitch condos to eager buyers."

Remember, it was when we started to get stock tips from the janitors and read about those day-trader home -rooms that we all should have suspected something was about to blow in the stock market. Now, just as then, there are all sorts of counter stories about why the rise in hose prices actually represents real value this time. Believe it if you want to.

a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/25/business/25boom.html?hp&ex=1111813200&en=a7317cf9a6c619c6&ei=5094&partner=homepage">The New York Times > Business > Trading Places: Real Estate Instead of Dot-Coms: "eal estate-crazed Americans have started behaving in ways that eerily recall the stock market obsession of the late 1990's."