What Happens if It Bursts?

[real estate bubble?]

What Happens if It Bursts?

AT cocktail parties these days, the chatter often involves a bit of bragging about real estate profits before it winds down to those famous last words: "The market might go down, but my area will maintain its value."

It's as if people think that an electromagnetic field of protection will shield a particular series of brownstones or cul-de-sacs from whatever might befall the market at large because of higher mortgage rates, mortgage defaults or an oversupply wrought by downsizing baby boomers.

(more...)