MASS. HOUSING SLUMP
"Massachusetts is likely going to hit bottom in 2009 and then take another five years to see real estate prices return to where they were in 2005 when the prices started falling . . . If my more conservative assumptions prove correct, then housing prices will bottom out next year won't return to where they were in 2005 until 2016."-PETER S. COHAN, Lifeandmoneytoday.com
"After over two years of declining home sales, weakening home prices and now looming recession it appears that Massachusetts has just entered the price 'free-fall' phase of the housing decline where home prices continuously drop even through the spring months, which are typically strong in the region."
paper-money.blogspot.com
"Why not consider moving back to Massachusetts? You can get much cheaper housing and you won't have to put up with all cranky, gun-owning libertarian types like myself . . . Massachusetts has an income and sales tax, unconstitutional gun control laws and now it has cheap housing. What could be better for your next move? You can leave the heavy snow, freezing temperatures and awful winters of New Hampshire behind and move south to Massachusetts."
Freenewhampshire.blog- spot.com
COLLEGE LIVING
"You'd think that their students are coming from overly pampered homes that require a smooth transition to an equally pampered environment. Apparently the function of our elitist schools is to plant early the seeds of narcissism, self-absorption, and entitlement. What's the $50,000-a-year signal that's being sent to these kids? Life isn't hard."-PAUL HEMPHILL, precollegeprep.blogspot.com
"The problem is students are demanding and then, with loans, purchasing more education than they can afford and, probably, than most will ever need. Like couples buying more house than they could pay for during the real estate boom, I feel like government policy has created a higher ed bubble."
-MURRAYMISES, Wackedecon.com
"The truth is that stingily-built dormitories remain endemic among all but the richest universities. Most colleges still have the sense to devote most of their financial resources to their trademark offerings - research and education. Most students still do not demand sumptuous one-bedroom apartments with designer furniture because they know college is a time for communal learning, not individual ostentation."
-EDITORIAL, Dailyfreepress.com
"Competition among academic institutions therefore seldom takes the form of lowering their costs of operation, in order to lower tuition. The incentives are all the other way. Competition often takes the form of offering more upscale amenities - posh lounges, bowling alleys, Wi-fi, finer dorms. None of this means better education. But, so long as the customers keep buying it - with government help - the colleges will keep selling it."
-THOMAS SOWELL, Townhall.com
"Haven't these kids heard of Ramen? Oh, scratch that. They probably have. No doubt they're demanding noodle virtuosos flown in from Japan to stretch ultra-authentic noodles to swim in the broth with their hunks of perfectly cut Berkshire pork."
-ADAM KUBAN, Seriouseats.com
