Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> The laws of supply and demand most assuredly apply to land and housing  
> as they apply to oil or food. Do you really not see that?

Yes but the demand for housing is different from the demand for food.  You 
need a certain amount of food, too much or too little is bad for you. But 
housing?  You can live in a 12' camper or a 6000 sq ft house.  The latitude 
is huge. 
 You may have seen the numerous articles about people doubling up, grown 
children moving in with parents and whole families moving in with relatives.  
The 
'demand' for housing, especially the sort of housing most involved in the 
bubble, can be extinquished in a very short period of time.  

Coupled with that, there is a trend now for imigrants to leave the country.  
Also the price of gasoline (which is unlikely to ever abate) makes far flung 
ex-burbs impractical.  

Demographics haven't drastically changed, we are all still sleeping beneath a 
roof somewhere.  And yet housing sales and values are extremely down.   

Oil sales will go down.  Doesn't matter what our preferences and 'druthers 
are, it's a reality the world has to deal with.  But food sales won't.  The 
food 
will be more expensive and of a different type (read a interesting article 
about how the world is turning away from rice and wheat and to the potato), 
but 
the sales of food will go unabated, the only alternative being malnutrition.

But housing sales will go down and the only difference is that where people 
thought they would be living in a 5000 sqft house on five acres, they will be 
living in the refitted garage of their uncle.

> 
> Do you think we are having a disagreement bubble or is this just  
> business as usual?

It's a bubble.  We homesteaders roll along placidly on the great number of 
things we agree on without comment, it's the nature of things the bubbles 
rise 
to the surface.   </HTML>