Ok Micki, I'll point out in regards from where I come from on this issue.

My parents live in sydney, two years ago they brought a house in queensland from a door to door salesman selling lots of land for housing about to be developed for $280k, they said sydney was too overheated and Queenland was the next boom (house was built very poorly and has massive drainage problems, parts of the house are constantly damp). They signed the contract within 1 hour and on the weekend the man came back with a bottle of champane, box of chocolates and roses to say how delighed he was about the sale. It was a week later I heard about this and I was furious, and I told them to back out and just count any losses. I showed them charts and also better investments which they could have gotten into instead of property (one was some major gold miners) but they didn't listen, claimed they have it negativly geared and property prices never go down. I explained the point that property prices do and most certainly can go down, but they shook their heads and said it won't happen. I mentioned interest rates, my father said if interest rates when up further, the government would be turfed out.

So after 2 years of telling my parents to sell out, they won't. I have also explained peakoil, but not much response.

If my parents get into finacial problems soon, I will not bail them out, they will just have to suffer. Seriously, I explained everything to them and if they don't want to listen then too bad, it's their fault not mine, I will not bail them out.....And that goes for anyone else who has invested so much of their future in property, I will have no pitty, they have all been warned by people like me and others, and even now in the newspapers some news stories are suggesting about the property market slowing down greatly after it has already fallen 10%, but they still do nothing.

Like the law, ignorance is no excuse. Fuck them. Yes they are my parents but should I help them out and then let them drag me down with them, better they fall down by themselves I think, when and if they get back up, I'll help them.

Yes they are my parents but should I help them out and then let them drag me down with them, better they fall down by themselves I think, when and if they get back up, I'll help them.

ORLANDO -- Jackie Lackey, a home builder from Sylvester, Ga., was bubbling with excitement as she boarded the shuttle bus for the home-building trade industry show convening here this week. Like many of the 100,000 building-industry officials attending the convention, her mood was buoyant and there was a bounce in her walk, a reflection of what a good time it has been to be a builder.

Lackey, 58, entered the business last year after a neighbor, a man she had once hired to tint the windows on her mother's sunroom, turned to building. That handyman-turned-builder sold seven houses in February. When Lackey heard about his success, she decided in a flash that she would become a builder, too.

...

In Tampa, though, everything seems rosy to builder Harry W. Gray, who usually constructs five to eight high-end custom homes each year, giving his wife and five children a comfortable life. He thinks the good times will continue as the baby boomers inherit their parents' wealth and look to retire to warmer climates.

"At the very least, we'll continue to build more houses here than last year," Gray said. "The rate of growth may slow but it's still growth."

Gray eyed the signs of prosperity all around him, with exhibit booths displaying Jacuzzi tubs, chandelier-style lighting, gourmet kitchen appliances and gleaming bathroom fixtures. He was looking for a $15,000 revolving pantry that he had seen at a similar trade show about eight years ago. It seemed overpriced then, but he thinks he would find a good market for it these days, now that even charcoal grills are selling for $4,000 at the show.

Gray, 55, looked around the room, smiling broadly, looking into the face of the 28-year-old son he hopes will follow him into the business.

"Ain't America grand?" he said.

Industry economists sounded a more cautious note, anticipating a slowdown from those record highs. "It's been an unprecedented run for the housing sector," said David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, who said that surely the market will slow a bit in 2006.

Lackey, 58, entered the business last year after a neighbor, a man she had once hired to tint the windows on her mother's sunroom, turned to building. That handyman-turned-builder sold seven houses in February. When Lackey heard about his success, she decided in a flash that she would become a builder, too.