Blowing bubbles

Many of us remember blowing bubbles as children (or more recently with our own children). It's a fun activity with no lasting results, inspiring contests to see who can blow the biggest bubble.

I would like to thank the Financial Post for comparing this childhood activity to the writings of authors looking to cash in on consumer fear in an article examining the phenomenon of  books predicting a real estate market crash.

In a very similar fashion, the authors seem to compete for who can make the scariest predictions and sell the most books off of the resulting "ohmygosh" moment they get for it.   But so far, these doomsayers have been a flash in the pan every time.

Folks like this have been calling for a imminent market crash since 2007.  They have been wrong.  And wrong.  And wrong again.  They'll keep going until a downturn that would be common in any kind of marketplace comes and they can point and say "aha!".

The really sad thing is that fear can drive an open market, so when that normal cyclical downturn comes, it maybe exaggerated because people will start to think these economic prophets are right.

Don't buy the hype.  Ignore them.  Or at least take it all with a grain of salt.  Make wise investments if you're an investor, focusing on cashflow.  When it comes to personal home ownership, you have to live somewhere, so don't worry excessively about what the market is going to do to short term values - in the long term there is no reason to think they will not recover.  Just work with a buyers' agent that will give you solid advice and an informed opinion on current market value.

And remember: in the end, as long as you have a roof over your head, you're doing better than a lot of people so why fret unnecessarily?