I subscribe to a lot of feeds from blogs that carry mortgage news.  It helps me stay on top of things for the blog without having to scrounge around the internet looking for noteworthy pieces to comment on.  One of the blogs I subscribe to is DrHosuingBubble.com.  I enjoy getting information from bloggers because I find they don’t have the typical media slant so common with the networks.  I gave up listening to Fox a long time ago, thanks!

Today Dr. Bubble talked about median prices in SoCal, and the fact that a lot of homes in California lost $3,000 per week and home prices are being slashed at record rates.  From my POV, homes in SoCal have always been overvalued, and now they are appearing to level out.  Put the same house in downtown Cleveland and then see what its worth.  I guess living by the seashore has its amenities.  I quote Dr. Bubble - “The reluctance for many to accept that real estate values were hyper inflated is still an issue that they wrestle with since it contradicts years of ingrained housing belief.”  To me, this is just the bottom line speaking.  Somehow, it seems that overpriced homes are more to blame than the whole idea of credit being the big bad wolf.  If people are trying to buy homes that are way over priced, and the market corrects itself, as it inevitably does, then we get what we have here today.

I read a lot of sentiment that says the government has no right to bail out home owners that have made poor decisions.  And I also think that it has no right of bailing out banks that have made poor decisions, either.  It should be tit for tat, not just who is holding the biggest stack of bills.  But, I am jaded enough to know that there is nothing that will ever change this, so we move on.  As far as a home’s value goes, I think about what my favorite comedian George Carlin said - “a house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out to get more stuff.”  If we are driven to make a statement, and compete with the neighbor down the block that tells them our home is bigger and better than theirs, I suppose we will see this kind of over valuation.  That is how I see it.  Comments welcome…