The more things change...**
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
(See update below)
Ben Stein, the droll comedic actor and former Nixon speechwriter, weighs in on the ups and downs of L.A.’s real estate market.
‘Every day, home buyers would look at the prices and say, ‘It can’t go on.’ But every day ... it did go on. Middle-class families were priced out of the market, and the brokers said, ‘But the rich will always be able to buy.’ (snip) ‘Then the music stopped.... As if a spell had fallen over the city, suddenly things began to stay on the market for three months, a year, two years. Buyers disappeared. Asked prices stayed high and nothing sold. ‘The great Southern California real estate boom was over. Prices had gotten so high that they could no longer be justified by inflationary expectations, or the influx of foreigners, or the climate, or for any other reason.’
The punch line? Stein’s musings were written in -- ahem -- December 1984!
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
**Thursday morning update: Reader Tim Hebb tracked down Mr. Stein and asked for his thoughts on the current downturn. His pithy reply:
‘This one will be a lot worse.’ (Tip of the blogger’s hat to Hebb for his archive-retrieval skills.)
-- Posted by guest blogger Annette Haddad