About a month ago I started reading a book by Kevin Phillips entitled Bad Money.  You can listen to an interesting prophetic NPR interview with Phillips 4/15/08

I am only about half through this dense book (a follow-up to his earlier provocative book American Theocracy), but this past couple of weeks the scenes portrayed in Kevin Phillip’s prophetic voice has been playing out in front of my very eyes!

We are now experiencing the results of our nation’s dramatic shift from its manufacturing base to growth in the financial services sector, reckless finance, failed politics and a global crisis of American capitalism.  The stock market fluctuations have not been equalled in recent history.  What does this mean for real estate investments?

The current press suggests that home prices are still falling and will not rebound until late 2009 and point in particular to Florida, Arizona and California.  With this broad brush one might infer that Saratoga real estate is also distressed, which is hardly the case.  Yes, there are properties now selling for hundreds of thousands less that originally listed several years ago, but they were unrealistically priced then and did not represent actual market value.

After all the dust has settled and we see how our nation is going to work itself out of a global recession, I believe history will prove that wise investments in Saratoga real estate will have been a better place to have park money than the more volatile stock market.   As a Saratoga native and Realtor, I understand the local market.  Call me at 408-857-8800 if you need help in making astute real estate investment in these uncertain times.  Rick Bonetti