HOUSING BUBBLE Christiana approaches one of LJ's favorite topics! Read the LA Times article she links to on "interest-only" mortgages, it's absolutely mindboggling ( "If you can fog a mirror, you can get a home loan," said mortgage analyst Ralph DeFranco.). You can get yourself into a house, as long as you can barely afford to make the interest payments!

I have several friends actually in on these deals. If you ask them to justify their decision, you'll get a respone like this: "Hey, I plan to sell the house for a profit before I actually have to start paying the principal."

Yeah, right. Basically, even if housing prices are flat over the next few years, the pain will be widespread.

You know, California is a great place to live. Just the other day I saw a billboard which read: "Bad credit? Who cares? We can get you a loan!"

http://www.phoblographer.com/2005/04/i-dream-of-real-estate.html