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Turning the page

Email|Link|Comments (2) Posted by Binyamin Appelbaum April 15, 2008 10:54 AM

File under Signs of the Times: A columnist at the Dallas Morning News notes that the flow of get-rich-quick real estate books has slowed to a trickle. During the housing boom, business reporters got regular shipments of books about real estate. The publishers hoped we'd mention the books to readers, who would buy the books, and then the authors would get rich quick.

One of the most mocked books was by the then-chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, entitled "Are you Missing the Real Estate Boom?"

The columnist, Steve Brown, notes that many people now probably wish they had.

These days, he writes, the few books he does get have a "funerary air."

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2 comments so far...

The only useful real estate book was Goldman Sachs investment banker John R. Talbot's 2006 book, Sell Now! The End of the Housing Bubble.

But yes, David Liareah's book was an oft-mocked book. My favorite lampoon was the photoshop job of the cover that appeared across the Internet a year or two ago. The original cover showed a house levitating into the air, presumably showing home prices rising into the sky. The spoof version showed the house crashing back to earth, with the hapless suburban homeowners fleeing for their lives.

[Ed. Note: Link fixed. Thanks.]

Posted by Marcus April 15, 08 03:54 PM

Re: "the most mocked books was by the then-chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, entitled 'Are you Missing the Real Estate Boom?'"

That was the 2005 title: Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom? -- Why Home Values and Other Real Estate Investments Will Climb Through The End of The Decade -- And How to Profit From Them.

NAR repackaged this book one year later when it was clear that the bubble was bursting. The 2006 title is Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust -- And How You Can Profit from It. What a laugh riot, huh?

Re: "The only useful real estate book was Goldman Sachs investment banker John R. Talbot's 2006 book, Sell Now! The End of the Housing Bubble."

Talbot's predictions have all been spot on, but very early. His 2006 book was a rewrite of his 2003 book The Coming Crash in the Housing Market, citing all the evidence that's on all the front pages now. Both of these books predicted the meltdown of FNM and FRE that we've seen.

Posted by Sunny Jim April 15, 08 09:36 PM