This anecdote from Spiro, headlined by Garth Turner at greaterfool.ca 21 Jun 2010 -
“I live in Vancouver and since I have a junk removal business I am in contact with proud house owners every day. But I keep my mouth shut. I didn’t used to. I was trying to warn them but after a while I realized I might be getting some negative feelings of my clients towards me by pointing out some painful facts. So I stop doing it. I realized that I should just let natural selection (on mental level) do its work. I came to Canada, Vancouver, from Eastern Europe. I am not one of those doomsday guys. But I’m shaped by experience. I’ve seen how crazy government policies can destroy lives. But sometimes people just screw them up without much help. At some point, because of that, prices might even go lower than 3 times the annual income. However, I fear that local and global economies will suffer so much that banks will be willing to loan to only few people. Not enough to take possession of all properties. What happens then? Eventually repossessed property goes to the issuer of the loan…the bank. The bank will try to sell it. What if that doesn’t work since there are few people around with good credit and a job that pays more than $10/h? The bank will become a landlord …renting its own properties? I don’t think they want to be in that business. That’s when I think properties will hit some ridiculously low prices.”
