Thursday, January 20, 2011

Irrational Exuberance

On one of the streets along the route of my morning walks there are three houses in a row that appear to be victims of the housing crisis. The first, for a long time, had a sign out front reading "Open House." I believe the realtor parked in an empty driveway across the street. (The driveway has been in for years but there is no building on that lot.) Now the sign simply says "For Sale." The second house (with the equivalent of a five car garage--two in the side and three in the back--but, fortunately, not the usual "garage doors are the facade of our house" design) has a "For Sale" sign and a tube for taking printed info on the house.

The third was the most entertaining of all. The sign out front read "Not Yet For Sale. Call ###-####." That sign is now gone and there was a guy in there with a paint can and brush.

Beyond the third house was an empty lot. I say "was" because yesterday, in the middle of all this unsold real estate, somebody started building on that lot. They did some leveling yesterday and this morning they were pouring the foundation.

There are several other houses in the neighborhood up for sale (including one with a "Pre-Foreclosure Sale" sign) and I know of at least two more that are just plain abandoned.

One admires the optimism.

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