Real Estate Bubble

I believe we are in the first stages of a real estate bubble. GOM is up significantly, auction prices are up significantly, and IW sales prices are flat.

You can't keep buying high and not selling higher.

Land Market Recession II?

Yep, people have been saying that.

Everybody thinks that LL works on keeping prices stable and has a vested interest in keeping the value of their land auction.

Bollox. They wouldn't have put out a letter like Ryan Linden did that INSTANTLY made prices drop in the toilet. Geez, lucky people who picked up Iris telehub-proximate land THAT day!

IW prices are not so flat. I see some falling, as people cash out -- fed up with the new patch problems, fed up with events listings, moving to the 'burbs in Ansheland -- whaever, it means some are falling. Meanwhile mature prime waterfront still fetches a pretty good price.

I think in the New Continent, prices are going to be dropping after the initial frenzy, which stands to reason. PG is still selling there for 7-8, which is double old world. Mature is up at 10-12, which is like telehub land in OW.

Speaking of which, TH land is dropping and more of it is appearing as Anshe sells telehub. Why is Anshe selling telehub? Well, to cover expenses in her new 12-14 Ansheland sims. But I'll bet she's going to reposition her malls out there, and the residents out there will stick with them there and not come to the OW to shop...as much. Except many of us will remain in the OW and keep business thriving, with more differentiation, hopefully, than the poor landless newb and the rich oligarchic land baron.

For there to be a crash like the snow land in August 2004 and the GOM crash, there'd have to be other factors (snow hit just when fraudsters hit GOM).

People have actually been cautious on the New Continent all along. Lots of stuff not selling there and the baronlet wannabees are having to down those prices. The telehubs not coming in put the kabash on the hopes for quick kills. The RR and road systems aren't clear yet.

I think among the best bargains right now in SL are good PG land with more or less secured views and older sim mature that has residents who have kept up the sims.

Snow land crashed and burned because it skyrocketed.

It was unbridled speculation at its worst. As it turns out, nobody actually wanted to BUILD in it, they all just wanted to buy and re-sell it.

And it STILL hasn't recovered. Snow land can often be found for as little at L$2/m. Maybe LL should nationalize snowland and return it to higher and better uses.

I suggest turning the snowy south into a prison colony, where we can deport our undesirable avs once and for all.

Alternatively, I suggest a 20 sim by 20 sim sculptural monument. The kind of monument which will be able to be seen from any sim on the grid, and will inspire awe in the hearts of all avs. That's right... I propose we construct the Giant Golden Spork of Kubitera.

One of the issues with Snow sim land is the annoying cloud/fog effect some of them have at ground level. Sure you can turn it off, but at every login. No thanks.