I'm not sure you can say that the favelas will ever be an American item. Favelas are usually the construct of extremely poor people from the countryside moving closer to the city to look for work. I doubt we'll see that....they're half-ass buildings put together and then electricity and water is stolen from other main lines and the people have free everything...even internet and tv. I've seen it. Mexico City is probably the best example I'd say...I was in Brazil last month in Rio's largest favela...it's a shithole, but people are just people. They're not really maddening drug lands like they're made out to be. Just a bunch of poor people who can't really afford to live where others do. It's a pretty incredible structure they have and while druglords do control the overall temperament, that actually keeps things peaceful usually because there are strict rules about thievery and stuff. Won't ever happen here. A lot of those favelas are because of lack of government assistance and lack of government oversight of employment opportunities.
We will see Levitt Towns in the US again. Bank on it. 35 or 40 foot wide lots, with prefab homes. Maybe 900 square feet. 10,000 or more in a single cluster. Not trailers, per se. A step up. Prefab units bolted to an anchor on a concrete slab. Rows and rows of them. Sold all day long for $69,900, in the heat of the Arizona or Nevada Desert, or on the frigid plain of North Dakota or in the corn fields of Indiana.
It should be a no brainer that Greenspans senile lowering of the Fed Funds rate to 1% caused the hyperinflated rise in property values and the "more debt is good" mantra. The question is how long and how far the unwinding of this debacle will go.
You think I jest. I just heard of one in the northport or charlotte area, with 150 feet of seawall and a panoramic view - in the high 200s. five people in my office wrote down the mls number. I thought it sounded to good to be true. But apparently a builder from Iowa just gave an agent in our office the listing for 6 homes he is building and the home he is living in. He was living in the one with the view. Look I am signing a lease tomorrow to own the title company for 4 real estate office - and I agreed to not compete. so I am not trying to get your realtor business. But, if you are looking for deals. The sellers finally understand the market here. pabst is right. Selllers know if you don't have a prime location or a perfect house you are overpriced.