bostonbubble.com

[Booba]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ms/070316/188575.html?.v=1&.pf=real-estate

"We at Morningstar had long believed that the runup in real estate prices from 2001 to the end of 2005 was unsustainable and had to end at some point. We've also been bearish on property REITs during that time, as most of their returns came from price appreciation--driven by ever-higher estimates of underlying property valuations--rather than dividends and dividend growth. My colleague Craig Woker went as far as comparing the real estate bubble to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s and 2000. He detected the same emotional approach toward purchasing real estate that people adopted toward purchasing stock in Webvan.com and Pets.com--the "so many people can't be wrong" rationalization."

"we think the decline is far more severe than headline numbers would sWggest. Sale prices can be propped up by having a buyer purchase at the list price, while the seller throws in incentives such as free upgrades, parking spots, and help with closing costs, assessments, and even mortgages. A more telling metric is the drop in sales volume and the buildup of inventory. It stands to reason that if sales volume remained at normal levels, price declines would be more severe. But perhaps the canary in the coal mine was the retirement of www.condoflip.com--a Web site catering to speculators who flipped condos sight unseen."