
People change their views on rising house prices. Rather than cheering an endless increase, they worry about another decline. Economists and politicians almost universally accept that everyone wants to see rising house prices. Having written for seven years to an audience of prospective homebuyers, I can attest that some people don't want to see perpetually rising home prices -- at least now while they're shopping for a home. The severity of the last housing bust destroyed the central myth concerning rising house prices: real estate prices do not only go up. Once people realized housing was not the safe investment they thought it was, their enthusiasm for owning declined precipitously -- as it should. The obvious suddenly hit everyone in…[READ MORE]