From the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER– Jonathan Lansner and Jeff Collins:
We asked our panel how the end of the world as we know it might impact Orange County real estate. Even with this extreme theoretical query, there was great debate about the housing’s future post-Doomsday …
Cary Hairabedian of Remax College Park Realty: Unfortunately — or fortunately if you are a home seller — there won’t be that many people leaving Orange County on Saturday. So, demand will be impacted little by the rapture. More significant will be the major earthquake on Saturday followed by 23 other earthquakes around the world throughout the day. Depending on the damage that occurs, real estate purchases will slow temporarily – then pickup quickly again as most people today have only short term memory. We know this because Californians keep electing the same people to government office. Within a week or two, a new event; probably something to do with a celebrity doing something outrageous or embarrassing will take precedence in the news again; and the rapture will become a forgotten footnote in the news. Shortly after that, the government will provide rebuilding funds by printing more money to give away to the earthquake damage area. Property values will shoot up as demand increases greatly to get in on the free government money to purchase in this area. Also, inflation will greatly increase due to the devalued dollar created by printing more money. Buyers will gravitate toward real estate as the most comfortable hedge against inflation causing demand to outstrip supply and prices to rise.
