Where are all the people??

So many people on the west coast of Florida (we're in Sarasota) are hyperventilating because of the real estate craze and it leads to some curious happenstances. Many individuals have been persuaded to buy a condo purely for the purpose of making a profit. The thinking goes like this: The price of condos went up 37% in 2004 and 23% in 2003, so if I buy a condo now and just sit on it -- don't actually move in or rent it to anyone else -- I can make tens of thousands of dollars by this time next year.

 

That leads to many, many empty condos in the middle of the peak season down here -- January, February and March. You can see it mostly at night, when the buildings are curiously dark.

 

We looked at the building next to us last night.  There must be 60 condos in the building and yet there was only one light on -- on one of the units on the top floor. Where are all the people? Sitting in their primary residence, waiting for the dollars to roll in, baby.

 

Where will these people be when Fanny Mae, which owns 90% of the mortgages in the country and which mistated its revenues by $9 billion last year, collapses?