Less than a decade ago, the American housing market was going up, up, up. At one point, the National Association of Realtors, through a spokesperson, dishonestly maintained house prices would "inevitably" increase during one's lifetime. The gold rush in housing made flipping a common practice; television networks such as HGTV capitalized on the fever that encouraged homeowners to sink lots and lots of money into one's domicile. Alas, the 2008 crash and subsequent revelations about CBOs, dogshit mortgages, and robo-signed foreclosures forced The Land of the Free and The Home of the Brave to take a hard look at the whole creepy, corrupt residential housing business.
What did Americans learn from this sorry episode? Apparently nothing, if a story in today's siliconvalley.com is any indication. The article discusses a new HGTV series which celebrates house flippers. That this style of risky investing is now considered fascinating entertainment, especially in light of the recent housing disaster, is incredible. However, like it or not, these dumb shit TV shows offer a window into what's currently acceptable to consider.
Some people assume house flipping is an easy, foolproof get-rich-quick scheme. In fairness, the HGTV reality TV participants note the risk and hard work they endure to achieve their profitable ends. Of course, the success of house flipping depends upon a "hot" real estate market in which property values indefinitely soar. That this scenario harms society as a whole does not dawn on HGTV or its "reality" participants. But who would want to burst HGTV's reality TV bubble with....well, reality?
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