It is ridiculous. I have built five houses. Basically the number suggested was less than the lumber to build new and what the heck - let's throw the land in for free.
Anyone that knows me personally knows I am a conservative democrat who on occasion votes for the elephant.Ronald Reagan was one of those times. We were in "stagflation" a new economic anomaly. I was in business school at the time and learned in ECO101 that peoples expectations was part of the mathematical equation. Huh. So Ronnie's staff knew this. They conjured up trickle down Reaganomics and sold it to the nation and said things will get better. The "expectation" was stagflation and 18% mortgage interest would go away. Huh.
Guess what folks - it freakin' worked!
Reaganomics was a bunch of crap and years later David Stockman, the guy that conjured it up like a potion for the American people it would admit that, but what did work was expectations.
So listen up realtors, raise prices, set expectations that the housing crises is over and guess what it will be. For us - we will stay in our wonderful house.