For a Change, People Have Stopped Buying What They Don't Need:

After the dot com bubble burst, the economy was driven by real estate and easy credit until more houses than could be sold had been built. Then the house of cards collapsed.

Jack Healy reports in today's New York Times that home sales are at their "Slowest Pace in More Than a Decade." When was the last time that you heard the U. S. was suffering from a housing shortage? If you are under forty, perhaps even under fifty, that's a phrase that you have absolutely no familiarity with.

For decades the myth has been that if you invest in real estate you can't lose. Property would always go up in value. The other myth, the one about supply and demand, was mostly ignored. Sure, there are folks living in substandard housing, but for the most part they simply can't move into the realm of home ownership.