America's Housing Bubble: The Real Estate Outlook for 2006-2012 (Paperback)

~ Clif Droke (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Have we in fact seen a peak in housing and real estate prices? Or is the best still to come? You’ll find as many answers to these questions as there are opinions. What can we expect from the real estate sector for the remaining part of this year and in 2006-2009 and beyond? These are the questions that everyone is asking and they are answered in depth in the new book “America’s Housing Bubble (The Real Estate Outlook for 2006-2012"). Following is the table of contents: Ch. 1: The Coming 2009-2012 Real Estate Crash and How You Can Protect Yourself From It Ch. 2: The Scope & Depth of the Real Estate Bubble Ch. 3: Anatomy of a Real Estate Crash Ch. 4: Will Real Estate Return to Earth in 2006? Ch. 5: A Slowdown in the Homebuilding Sector? Ch. 6: Interest Rates, China, and Real Estate Ch. 7: Rent Now, Buy Later Ch. 8: Real Estate Bubbles – Who Creates Them? Ch. 9: When Will the Real Estate Bubble Pop? Ch. 10: Taxes, Fuel, and Real Estate Ch. 11: Real Estate Horror Stories Ch. 12: A Fragile Real Estate Market? Appendix 1: Why Hasn’t “IT” Happened Yet? Appendix 2: Questions & Answers The book is the product of two years of research and writing. The chapter that discusses each one of the dominant financial and economic cycles and their inter-relation to real estate (and the implication for the coming years) alone is worth the price of the book!

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: Publishing Concepts (June 1, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 0971785287
• ISBN-13: 978-0971785281
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,708,829 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beware of Realt-whore propaganda, April 5, 2006

By	HARM (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Granted this book is pretty thin (140 pages) and there are much better treatments out there. Even so, any book that correctly points out we are in the midst of a massive unsustainable housing/credit bubble deserves more than 1 star. I'm giving this 5 stars just to counter-balance the clueless Realt-whore troll's comments above.

And by the way, the banks (and mortgage lenders, Realtors, appraisers, etc.) DO make money re-selling homes in down markets as well as in bull markets. One of the biggest reaons why we're experiencing a housing bubble right now is because the MBS (Mortgage-Backed Securities) & CMO (Collateralized Mortgage Obligations) markets have removed virtually ALL RISK for the mortgage lenders. Banks today are little more than loan ORIGINATORS, who sell off the loans to Fannie MAe, Freddie Mac or a private REIT, who in turn bundle them into MBS/CMO paper. These get sold off to institutional investors (mutual funds, FCBs, etc.), who in many cases are unaware of the risk these securities represent.

If you're a bank and basically carry NONE of the risk of default for any of the loans you issue, why WOULDN'T you make as many risky loans as possible to anyone with a pulse? You get your fees and then you pass off the loan to some sucker's 401k plan. We're going to be experiencing the nasty consequences of this scenario very soon, as this bubble unwinds.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Non-Book, March 6, 2006

By	Charlene Grant (WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Very little content here. Very few pages with very big type on each page with lots of white emptiness at the beginning and end of chapters. Very high-price for very little product. And the analysis is not so hot, either. For example, the author states that the banks don't care if people default on their mortgages because they can always "turn a profit" by re-selling the houses to rich foreigners eager to buy American property for "pennies on the dollar." If you know anyone in banking, ask him/her if the banks really like to sell assets for "pennies on the dollar." Then ask him/her how much of a profit they can turn by doing this. Save your money! Buy something else!

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A "Non-book" is right, April 19, 2006

By	Real Estate Investor (Jersey City, NJ) - See all my reviews

This book does not offer much. It is a loose collection of weak anecdotes, impertinent and out-of-context quotes, and references to data and articles one could easily collect from the internet in a few hours. Entire chapters are simply quotes from news articles. Chapter 8 quotes a 2002 article from People's Daily and an essay by a law school professor - that is the entire chapter. Chapter 12 quotes an article by the editor of The Reaper newsletter - again, that is the entire chapter. Not a shred of meaningful analysis. Not a hint of a cogent argument. It is clear that the author has little understanding of or training or experience in real estate. It is senseless to argue over the points of the book as other reviewers have because the book has no points; it simply has cursory and sometimes misleading references to points other people have made. There are much better books on this topic out there.