Sunday, January 17, 2010

Now You Tell Us
Here is great quote from Ray Torto, chief economist at CB Richard Ellis from today's New York Times:
“Anybody who bought property in the last six years has their equity pretty well washed out,” said Ray Torto, chief economist at CB Richard Ellis, a real estate firm. “People are looking back on that period as the peak of the madness, the bubble. The expectation was that there was always someone who would pay a higher price after you.”
I saw Torto speak at a Tenant In  Common Association conference a few years ago, '06 or '07, when he was with Torto Wheaton, and if I remember correctly, was touting real estate and saying that there was no bubble and justifying the drop in cap rates.  He was as the cliche says, preaching to the choir.  It is funny that so few "experts" realized that the whole real estate  bubble was finance driven, and that when the finance stopped so would the drop in cap rates.

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