SoCal Fires to End Housing Slump?
Very likely. When 2,000 houses just disappear it means only that a physical structure on land that is not destroyed must be replaced. Then consider the ten thousand homes that have been damaged, either by smoke, heat, or water from fire hoses. Now we may have an insurance crises just like in Florida when State Farm basically refused to pay damages to the homeowners who lost all or part of their homes as a result of hurricane Katrina. Will this incredibly dense administration just sit by once again? Possibly, only this time a populist Congress will act against the companies. A billion dollars in new housing, at least a third of that amount for furnishings, carpeting, and appliances mean that the housing crises in SoCal is over.
4 comments:
Sounds like massive fires every 5 to 7 years will solve any housing crisis that comes along! I'll bring the matches.
Oracle, I don't think it will make a dent in this housing market. The victims will want their houses rebuild and the thousands (tens of thousands?) of unsold new and resale houses and condos will still remain unsold. There will be a minor boom in construction, home furnishing and car replacement sales, but not enough to deflate the bubble.
Read the Housing Bubble blog for the sordid details: ttp://thehousingbubbleblog.com/index.html
I can only refer to several of my relatives in the construction business. The contractors flock to disaster areas like mosquitos to warm blooded creatures. In all cases I can remember, there was a housing boom lasting three to five years. Florida is exempt after Katrina only because of Condo overbuilding and the refusal of insurance companies to write anything but sky high premium insurance coverage. These SoCal structures will be rebuilt, but this time within a fire proof building code such as the one at untouched Stevenson Ranch, surrounded by fire and not a single structure so much as singed.
Drop in the bucket, mate. Enough to float maybe one Home Depot for a year.
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