ourbrainhurts

This Atlantic article made me feel better about my long-held suspicion on the housing market:

Too little attention has been paid to the most fundamental cause, the same one that was at the root of the many booms and busts that Sakolski chronicled years ago: the contagious optimism, seemingly impervious to facts, that often takes hold when prices are rising. Bubbles are primarily social phenomena; until we understand and address the psychology that fuels them, they’re going to keep forming. And unless we apply that understanding to the bubble we’re trying to recover from, we risk calamity.

This short article in The Atlantic formed the basis of our decision not to buy a house during the real estate bubble (and why we looked at moving to Boise), and informed my conclusion that the real estate market was vastly over-inflated.

Real Estate Market in Historical Perspective