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The Mirage Machine

The end of the decade approaches and the next couple of weeks will be filled with stories about what a lost ten years it´s been-from Enron and 9/11 to Iraq and the credit meltdown. In real estate, we didn´t create much-except for a lot of overpriced condos and half baked Las Vegas hotels, but...

By Jonathan D. Miller | Updated on December 21, 2009

The end of the decade approaches and the next couple of weeks will be filled with stories about what a lost ten years it´s been-from Enron and 9/11 to Iraq and the credit meltdown. In real estate, we didn´t create much-except for a lot of overpriced condos and half baked Las Vegas hotels, but we sure bought, financed, and sold a ton of properties, which generated a bank vault of fees off values that weren´t really there. In the end property prices head back down to about where they started the decade, well maybe they´ll be a bit higher for premium properties. And the bloat of middlemen brokers and dealmakers has been deflated.

So what´s the future? Do we really want to resuscitate the mirage machine? Anyone left standing with some cash in hand gets ready to buy at approaching market lows. But then what? Is the idea to sell asap, book big gains? Instead of holding and managing for steady cash flows will we go back into high octane, opportunistic trading mode?

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