Friday, February 10, 2012

The Lipstick Of Peñasco!

-by El Gitano Peñasco, "The Peñasco Gypsy"

Now brace yourself Amigas and Amigos as I’ve been accused in the past of being too negative and those who think I am are likely going to have a field day if not an outright seizure with this week’s rant. So let’s get right down to the issue at hand.

I read in an AZ (online edition) newspaper recently that our beloved Mayor Alejandro Zepeda Munro remarked, during an interview about all the unfinished ‘condo’ projects in the community, that: “During the good times, who ever thought about his project coming to a stop?"

That comment (and more) was in reference to the downturn in the local, national and worldwide real estate prices and economy or what I like to call the Great Global Depression of 2008. It was caused, IMO, by nothing but pure unadulterated U.S.-born Greed!


“Greed” is one of the “7 Deadly Sins”, like “gluttony” and “lust”, and can be argued as being the Mother of All Sins (in this example) in that to be ‘greedy’ is a very selfish, excessive or rapacious desire in the pursuit of money (or wealth), power and status, etc. And it is indeed contagious as well.

Let me take you all back to just the beginning of 2007 when, like the Mayor said, few people saw the writing on the wall. By then all real estate in Peñasco was priced well over its ‘real’ market value and even waitresses in Gila Bend, Arizona were hocking their souls so they could come up with enough money for a down payment to get in on the “Rocky Point” real estate gold rush.

And yet at the same time there were naysayers (of which I was one) who sounded the sirens as early as 2005, screaming the ‘sky is falling’ and demonstrating, mathematically that there was no way in the world the continued increase in real estate ‘prices’ was sustainable. Many of us warned that a major ‘correction’ (aka: crash) was right around the corner.


Those of us who saw it coming and posted our concerns on various PP blogs, etc. were lambasted (to put it kindly), as by 2007 “greed” had overtaken both rhyme and reason with almost everyone refusing to consider even the simplest logic or historical real estate trends indicating that they were foolishly wrong and would soon be facing total and unequivocal financial ruin.

As real estate trends continue to turn around and prices actually stabilize and then begin their modest upward trend this time in Peñasco, don’t get sucked in by hype like (e.g.) how the new Cruise Ship home port or Convention center is going to turn PP into an overnight internationally sought after location.

It ain’t gonna happen in our life time (for sure) and the first time you hear someone--- whether they are a real estate agent (or your doctor, dentist or waitress)--- claim, as they all did just a few years ago that PP is going to be the next Cabo, Cancun, etc. then just know that you are playing with the Devil and we all know what happens when we fool around in Satan’s sphere.

A Gypsy can always dream!

¡Viva Puerto Peñasco y México!

Gypsy

elgitanopenasco@gmail.com
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -Mark Twain