Re: funny! - Posted by Marc Lamphier
Posted by Marc Lamphier on March 26, 2006 at 22:32:50:
those numbers don’t tell the whole story. In the Boston area I’ve seen several of these boom cycles in my lifetime; each one was followed by a small decline and then flat prices for 5 ~ 7 years. But these are nominal prices – in the meatime the price of everything else went up and salaries went up and rents went up – and in real dollar terms homeowners saw their property values significantly decrease. You have to factor in inflation. Also, ask yourself what your returns would be over the same period of time if you have bought stocks instead.
Mike was not saying this was absolute – if you believe that history does not repeat itself then feel to believ that this time around is somehow different. But the truth is that neither you nor I could possibly know. Given that, I would have to agree with Mike that history is usually a smarter guide than we are.