In spite of long term effort to create a housing bubble - no burst

While the story is a few days old, it is still worth commenting on that in October we had a record 13% increase in new homes. The housing market has been one of the factors that kept the US economy doing well in the last few years. In fact I vividly recall during the 2004 election cycle, an anti-Bush caller into a radio show was advocating people to help crash the housing market.

Since that time we have seen Warren Buffet and Alan Greenspan periodically attempt to derail the economy with gloom and doom talk about an impending housing bubble. While Greenspan may not have had bad intentions, it is obvious that the Bush-hating Buffet seems to be driven by a political agenda rather than facts.

While there may be some areas of the country where housing prices are higher than the laws of supply and demand support, most of the country is not. The Chicago area where I live is a perfect example where housing prices have risen dramatically in recent years, but justifiably so. Almost all of Chicago suburbia experiencing continued growth in demand, while the amount of available land to build on is rapidly shrinking. The most new homes are being built in the far west suburbs where there are long commutes. The inner suburbs have shorter commutes and established neighborhoods. Coupled with the trend to bulldoze older houses there and build big beautiful ones, drives the prices here up with good reason.

While the media is quick to point out whenever Bush is wrong, it seems quite slow to point out when a fellow liberal like Buffet is wrong. They media will always connect the dots to show the GOP in an unfavorable light, but if it is a liberal we must connect them ourselves. Now that for some time Buffet's misguided prophecies have only brough him embarrassment, I think it is time for some public pressure to tell him to keep his mouth shut instead of trying to tank the economy.