Blue Nettles

So for the last couple of years I've toyed with the idea of buying a home or condo or something. But the market in this area is so out of control. Yesterday I went through a little two bedroom house on a very small lot but with a beautiful garden, nice nieghborhood and a ten minute walk to the Metro. How much? Listed at $350k and a couple also looking at it (it was a open house) where whispering about offering $375 (they got all paraniod when they noticed me listening - it's dog-eat-dog out there).

The market here and in a lot of regions has just become to unreal. I read articles like the one above and it is obvious we have a housing bubble. It is mainly driven by the easy money and low mortgage rates - but nothing lasts forever. The Chinese and other Asian currencies can't be held down for much longer, so the US dollar will have to experience a secular decline (don't even think about the Euro - those yahoos are tankin'). But on the other hand, betting against the US dollar has been a loser for the last 30 years. For all the things wrong with our monetary management (government and private debt, trade deficit, ect.) there just aren't any alternatives out in the world to Mr. Hamilton's dollar.

I'll just zero out my credit card debt and save my pennies and wait for the bubble to burst.

Thy turrets and thy pinnacles
With carbuncles do shine;
Thy very streets are paved with gold,
Surpassing clear and fine.

Ah, my sweet home, Hierusalem,
Would God I were in thee!
Would God my woes were at an end,
Thy joys that I might see!

Thy gardens and thy gallant walks
Continually are green;
There grows such sweet and pleasant flowers
As nowhere else are seen.

-- The New Jerusalem