Slow Recovery May Still Feel Like a Slump By DAVID LEONHARDT with SHERRI DAY ...
With some people moving money out of stock and into real estate, though, some economists are growing concerned about the possibility of a housing bubble. Home prices have risen about 30 percent since 1995, after accounting for inflation, while rents have risen just 10 percent, according to government data.
This suggests that many people are buying real estate not for shelter but as a can't-miss investment, said Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal group in Washington. Real estate will eventually fall out of fashion, much as technology stocks did, bringing rents and purchase prices closer together, Mr. Baker predicted. ...
Scott G. McNealy, the chief executive of Sun Microsystems, pretended to raise binoculars to his eyes in a recent interview and said, "What is Alan Greenspan seeing through those?
"Chauncey Gardiner — I mean Alan Greenspan — is not in touch with what the rest of us are seeing," Mr. McNealy added, referring to a character played by Peter Sellers in the 1979 movie "Being There" who was known for making odd pronouncements that people considered brilliant. [end clip]