bostonbubble.com

[CJ]

Hi Admin,
This is a great website I found since last year. It's very informative. Thanks for the hard work.

It's till too early to tell, but I guess the bubble will be gone 2-4 years from now. Once it's gone, not many people will be interested in this subject. (A normal housing market should be no one talks about it.......) Why don't you think about change bostonbubble.com to a broader economics forum? That could be more interesting for everyone interested in housing market, stocks, global/ local economics. So we can change ideas and information. I don't mean now, but it's something you can think about.

Any idea?

Thanks!

[CJ]

Sorry, I mean "exchange" ideas and information.

[admin]

I have been thinking about this as well. I do think that once the bubble has corrected, there will still be people interested in a consumer focused approach to determining how to value homes and also in discussing the relative merits of the various Boston neighborhoods. Buyers and sellers will continue to be interested in this. You are probably right, though, that it won't be as much of a prominent issue for the population at large.

Evolving into a broader economics forum is one possibility. I like the sound of that. The end of the bubble is probably a little ways off still, so I think it may make sense to hold off on picking a new direction right away. I'd be interested in what everybody thinks now, though.

One consideration that I'd like to keep in mind is that I would want to retain the past and present discussions which are about the bubble for the benefit of historical context. Maybe it can serve as a type of time capsule when the next bubble rolls around. With that in mind, I'm open to suggestions for expansion or redirection of the main topic at hand.

Thanks,
- admin

[john p]

The subject is your arm.
You're pitching tomorrow.



But what about after tomorrow?



After tomorrow,
we do what all ballplayers do...



we shake hands
till we see each other next season.



Then we go fishing or hunting,
make some personal appearances...



get to know the wife and kids again.



I don't have a wife and kids.



Neither do I,
but I got my pools to clean.

[john p]

Above post from the Bad News Bears...

[India Guest]

I think the housing bubble will take at least another two years to deflate in the Greater Boston area. This website, among others, has helped increase awareness among people, so it has definitely done some great service. However, I believe the focus should now change from spreading awareness, to actual monitoring and follow-through on matching early predictions to the actual numbers as they become available.

There are many trends which could affect real estate and life in Greater Boston. Some of them include demographic changes, immigration, jobs, trade, the stock market, and prominent employers.

Thus, this site could be of more value for both employers and employees (current and prospective) alike to get some unbiased information about the general scene in Boston. In other words, to bill itself as an independent opinion source which is not part of mainstream media. If a decision is made to morph the site along these lines, I would suggest adopting a different forum hosting software, to allow editorials, columnists, and also "sticky" items which can point to regularly updated data, statistics, and also links to past articles in an easily navigable format.

[CJ]

Regarding the forum software, I use vBulletin by Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. It's really good and I like their support too.

BTW, India Guest's suggestions are good too.