It is now pervasive, whether fact, fiction, miscalculation or a misunderstanding of economic adjustments — doom and gloom has colored our lexicon and everyone’s on board. The “realists” are merely pointing out facts, the politicians are merely offering a big hand to help all the little people in this troubling time, the agents are merely accepting fate, the lenders are merely going broke, the pundits are merely predicting a dour future — it’s over, real estate is dead.

If you don’t believe it you are an idiot, a Koolaid drinker, a liar, a naive babe in denial or an unscrupulous player preying on the unsuspecting. When someone asks you about the real estate market, tell them it’s dead and getting worse. Tell them there is nothing positive in sight, that it might go for years, decades, a century, who knows, just tell them it’s dead.

We’re doomed, and gloom is our tomorrow and the next day and many after that. Close your doors, lock up shop, sell the Mercedes, real estate is dead. Foreclosures will climb, and after the sub-prime, the leveraged will crumble and then the middle will fold and the highest of the high will fall like tin men one and all. No one will be spared, real estate is dead.

The builders will watch their half-built McMansions sit like bones in a graveyard; realtors will be playing guitars in the park for nickels and dimes; a huge swooshing sound will be heard as the last of the ill winds blow over the rubble that was once a great industry and renters will rule the world and lord over those who once were lords of land. Real estate is dead.

Brokers and lenders will flip burgers or work as city clerks while builders cut grass and investors shine shoes and players of all stripes sing the blues — real estate is dead.

Obama will help the least fortunate, but the ones who rode high will meet their just rewards, for, afterall, it was greed that brought us low. In the wasteland of RE web 2.0 there will be blogs written by the depressed and dispossessed, mashups showing a combination of sorrow, charts showing Read more