I have been following this forum for 3 years now since selling in May 2008(Melb outer bayside).Told the Mrs the rises simply couldn't go on and that the crash was just around the corner.(the rest is history..handouts,rate falls etc) She has been throwing this back in my face since and honestly it has badly affected our marriage also.It is amazing to think what not owning(or or is that owing)a bloody house can do to a person's sense of self worth and mental state! Got hassled,harangued,made the butt of jokes by friends . The family all pushing the property always goes up mantra also. They still can't believe that i haven't bought again and are renting.Now considered a wacky black sheep! It got to a point were they would talk about property in hushed tones so I wouldn't hear them for fear of making me feel like I was left out!How considerate!!LOL!! 30 something year olds with good jobs talking about 1 point this and 2 point for knockover houses like it is not real money.I mean these are educated people with degrees etc! Not one of them would even CONSIDER a price fall no matter how many Schiller graphs,Keenisms etc i subtley tried to show them because they had never experienced a fall and therefore had no way of dealing with the possibility. If this was the educated,I can only imagine what falsehoods the uneducated have swallowed. I have had a couple of victories however by stopping two friends buying overpriced investment units in the CBD(reckon I've saved them 50k each already in 6 months) The silence however is eerie from the rest.Have not heard a peep from any of them in 6 months or so.I suspect that the anxiety is starting to grow and the penny(or is that pennies?)is finally starting to drop. The Mrs is only just starting to talk to me again due mainly to Kochie et al.Problem now is she sees all the properties being passed in for 10-15 less than last year and is entering the "we have to buy again now before it booms again" phase.Just doesn't get any easier! Hoping this inevitable crash is quick and brutal so we all get some sleep and get back to living our lives like the good old days(before 2000). On a final note,why is a house passed in on a Vendor Bid reported as the passed in price?If the VB was the only bid then shouldn't the official result be "no bid" or if the VB was say $600k and passed in after a genuine bid of $580k,then shouldn't the official reported passed in price be $580k ? I mean $600k was NOT the highest price a bidder was prepared to pay,right? This reporting system is totally farcical IMHO.
