>Is the choice for millions really only between - as you seem to have
>presented it here - life in lousy apartments (I'm visualing rats and
>roaches conspiring in dark corners) or sprawl-tastic, gridlock inducing
>houses in developments named things like 'Raven's Beak'?
LOL! you remind me of my first experiences in the depth of suburbania, here in the Tampa Bay area, PIEnellas county, the most densely populated county in LimpDick.
We'd decided to try to buy, since the deals for first time buyers were fab, and we were low-income and there were also all kinds of deals. At the time, you could buy a decent starter in a middling neighborhood for about 85-90k.
Anyway, I was 'enthralled' by the way the developers would name a subdivision (or whatever they're called) and name the streets according to some sort of theme. One development was named after trees: Beechwood Dr., Maplewood Way, Peckerwood Ave., Morningwood Circle. NOT! *grin*
It just flipped me out, since I was used to upstate NY. Of course, there were some naming conventions there, but it just didn't seem so obvious. All the towns were named after figures and places in Greek and Roman mythology, because some clerk in a gov't office somewhere didn't want to use just numbers for the plots they were doling out to Rev War vets (or whatever it was. Memory is fading. I'm headed toward my dotage....). So, he named them after something meaningful to him.
In the old 'hood, all the streets were named after the children of the people who developed the place. Imagine, Ashley Amber Drive and Kenneth Donald Way. Oooo. It was tragic.
Otherwise, I can't imagine why _anyone_ would want to get into the housing market now. Me? If I were employed, I'd just ride it out until the market inevitably burst. The house I'm renting now would go for 2.5 x what it went for 6 years ago -- alas, no one's incomes have increased that much. _I_ don't know how anyone does it. The real estate rep who rented the place told me a year and a half ago that it is really bad for first time buys who can't swing 180k mortgages for starter homes, even with all the deals out their for first time buyers.
Anyway, I'm pretty fiscally conservative, so I'm not represntative of the mood out there.
I'd still like to know, like Dwayne, if this mood is indicative of first time buyers or people who already have a home and, thus, probably have substantial equity to make buying another possible, in spite of inflated prices.
kelley