All houses are not the same either.

OJ, I'm more than a little surprised by your silence on the Kelo decision. What gives?

I was just wondering the same thing myself

Me too. I sort of assumed David would have something to say about it. Personally, I think the taking is fine so long as the compensation is just. Like Brown v. Bd. of Ed. they're arguing the wrong side of the formula. It looks like it's ultimately a legislative matter.

Kelo is more interesting for the reaction of the libertarians than for its actual holding, which simply confirmed what everyone knew the law to be.

Let's settle a far more important question than investment strategy. Zucchini, although very aggressive vegetable which must be watched closely lest it take over the world or at least your vegetable garden, can never hope to aspire to being the worst vegetable as long as okra exists.

I can never vote Republican again unless they overturn this monstrosity. I haven't been this upset since the steel tarrifs made me a Democrat last time.

The Kelo decision is perhaps the worst decision by a US Supreme Court since Plessy v Ferguson.

If the government can boot people out of their homes merely to increase the tax revenue or to give freebies to private interests that pay off local officialdom, isn't home ownership merely a fraud?

Thankfully, I'm moving to a State with CCW.

Bart: The fact that they have to pay the fair market value of the property takes this out of the atrocity category. The fact that the decision merely confirmed the pre-existing law takes it out of the monstrosity category.

You also point the way to the remedy: either change the law in your state or move, although as a remedy for this particular atrocity moving has a certain piquant irony.

erp: From okra, we get gumbo. What excuse does zucchini have?

"Kelo is more interesting for the reaction of the libertarians than for its actual holding, which simply confirmed what everyone knew the law to be."

It's interesting that Justices Thomas, Scalia, O'Connor, and Reinquist disagree with you.

OJ,

You are not understanding this explosion in housing prices. It is not fueled by people buying a "primordial" dwelling. It is feuled by people buying a second house with the intention of selling it in six months for a profit. Or by people buying a house they don't intend to stay in for more than a year. Or by people who are using interest-only loans to get into houses they can't really afford. And so it is being fueled by money that can go elsewhere and at some point will - with a resultingly large drop in housing prices.

They're activists trying to legislate from the bench.

Brandon:

And you fail to grasp simple demographics. There aren't enough dwellings.

Japanese real estate still isn't at levels seen in the early 90s and probably won't be there in our lifetime. Hawaiian real estate, even with the recent run-up, still has a ways to go before we get back to where it was in the early 90s.

The collapse won't be as severe as that of Japan by any means, but it will be there. People decide how much house they can afford based on monthly payments. We are at record low interest rates. When interest rates rise, and they are rising, the price of houses will decrease because the same monthly payment won't buy as much house.

The existence of really dangerous products today like interest-only mortgages, no money down products, and negative amortization loans merely add to the eventual downward pressure on housing prices. Adjustables only adjust one way, UP.

David,

What is fair market value? And what makes anyone think that the same political system and business/politician partnerships that drive people from their homes won't game the system to force down the compensation people receive? We have already seen government engage in other forms of cheating hardworking people, like taxing social security receipts of affluent retirees, so why should anyone think the government wouldn't happily screw over the middle-income homeowner at the earliest possible opportunity?

We have no more rights than a White Zimbabwean wheat farmer. We can be booted out of our homes for any reason and we have to take what some government lackey, some semi-literate slimeball hack politician handed a black robe and a gavel, says we do.

At least in a socialist nation, the government is honest about the fact you have no property rights. Here, we not only have no rights, we have to swallow the fiction that we do.

Sorry, guys, but Midkiff was the real atrocity. That is the tiger that was swallowed in one gulp, while Kelo is the gnat being strained at.

bart:

Yes, nations in decline will see falling real estate values, until robots start demanding paychecks and housing...

Bart: When I was practicing, I had a partner who had a minor specialty in challenging eminent domain condemnations. Believe me, juries give good value.

Even if we grant what you say, nothing changed last week. We've had these sort of redevelopment authorities, which I agree are almost always boondoggles, for years. Of course, when they're knocked down it becomes a casus belli. You'll note that your arguments apply to any taking, and not just those like the New London taking in Kelo.

What excuse does zucchini have?

Ever make zucchini bread?

Brandon and bart are spot on regarding the housing bubble. Unfortunately OJ, you can only understand linear trends. Things that go up only go up, and things that go down only go down. Have you ever heard of a market "getting ahead of itself"?

For people who bought a house at a price and with a mortgage that they can afford, a downturn in the market will not hurt them, unless they lose their jobs and have to sell. For people who are counting on prices and incomes always going up and rates never going up, and have leveraged themselves to the max with multiple investment properties in markets where the rental rates can't match the monthly payments, then a downturn will hurt.

Robert:

Yes, "ahead of itself" illustrates the linear point.

So you are saying that this is the time of year in which people like oj are always surprised that the lengths of the days stop getting longer? Do you think that someday they'll figure it out? And what sort of explanation do you think they'll come up with?

Raoul:

Not in the basement they don't.

Raoul,
OJ, if he ever notices it, will chalk it up to Warren Buffett and George Soros shorting daylight futures.

People who speculate deserve their profits if they guess right and their losses if they guess wrong.

Regarding the New London ruling, it has only one possible silver lining - that the taking was for a private for-profit development corporation. I hope this is true, as it might teach the Left a lesson about unlimited government power: Live by the sword, die by the sword.