[Boomer]

We are not buying or selling in either place right now, but I have been fascinated by real estate markets for most of my adult life. Just when I thought I had seen it all — along comes the current insanity.

While I agree with those who say this overall market is different from the big, popped bubble, that does not mean that I think it is sustainable. At some point, buyers will get tired of feeling had and the US market will breathe. (I hope banks do not start handing out HELOCs based on what could turn out to be phantom equity.)

(But TV’s market is different. Potential buyers might feel like they are caught between The Village of Rock and The Village of Hard Place where the buy price is concerned. But no matter what that famous philosopher Mick Jagger told us, a long time ago, time is not on our side — anymore. And, besides, in most cases, the house owned elsewhere is going to sell overpriced. TV marketing knows all this, of course.)

But back to the overall US market. . .

I just now looked at Zillow and at realtor.com to see what their algorithms “think” about what houses we own, and have owned, are worth. On the northern house, both seemed unrealistically high.

How realistic can those sites possibly be? There is no human element involved in the pricing? Are those sites just a starting or stopping point? Are they just pie in the sky? Are they just as often too low on their estimations?

Boomer. . .

(Btw, it is a little weird to look at realtor.com because they do not appear to remove the old pictures from the last time the house was sold. So if you think you miss your old furniture, you might be able to visit it on realtor.com if you listed with the MLS.)