Best property deals are in the Eastern block at the moment, I bought 4 flats in Ukraine (Luhansk district) for an average price of $9k ~2 years ago, the average has now gone up to $30k. Slightly off subject, but I would not buy another property in the UK until there is a correction/recession, crazy prices right now.
don't u know all the dummies bought stocks in 1999 - they caused the market to crash! - all the smarties saved their money and bought houses - they always land nice and softly...
Keep one thing in mind. Some of these ARM's reset a lot quicker than the borrower might think. If you make the absolute min payment on a 5 yr ARM, it will likely reset after about 2-3 yrs. The reason is that with the min payment your loan balance is increasing and once it hits a preset level, your loan "resets" with a higher payment inorder to pay off the principal during the term of the loan. I can just imagine someone getting a notice that "Next month your Option ARM payment will increase from $1,050 to $1750", when they thought they had a couple of years left at the lower payment.
I think it's really going to take a recession and layoffs in Northern California to really break the bubble. Things are selling more slowly but they are still 100% higher than 5 years ago. The resets aren't going to be that large for the majority of those people and all but a few have solid equity they can cash in or negatively amortize if necessary.
No one here has mentioned it, but I have read that the west coast is highly susceptible to coastal flooding. There is irrefutable evidence that shows that ocean levels are rising at an unsustainable rate, and within our lifetime there is a distinct possibility that everything between Seattle to Baja California will be drenched. I can't think of anything that would keep real estate prices propped up after a diluvial event of this magnitude, much less keep them on the rise. RoughTrader