On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:06:37 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

In other words. "Here's where too fools met."

I have a friend who is in the building trades (and still doing well I
might add) who told me it got so crazy during the bubble that he
literally had people bidding houses he built up when he finished them.
As in more than $50/60K over his original price. One was like $100K
over.

He recognised it early and backed off several of his developments
mothballing certain lots or combining lots and selling them at cost to
neighbors. I took his advice and Mrs. Wave and I got out of all but
one of our apartments houses right at the top - beat it by about six
months. The last house just sold today at a 20K discount to the
asking price - fair value though so we're not losing anything and
actually made a fairly good chunk.

Smart guy. He's now into "green" building with geo-thermal, solar and
wind power - has an entire new development that's half sold on spec to
some investors wanting to see what the green development will look
like.

There's money out there - it's just smart investors waiting for things
to settle.

It was a good correction in my opinion and sorely needed to bring some
reality back into the lending and housing markets.