hype (hīp) Slang. n.

1. Excessive publicity and the ensuing commotion: the hype surrounding the May-June 2005 CNBC tour of real estate "hot spots" in America.
2. Exaggerated or extravagant claims made especially in advertising or promotional material: "It is pure hype, a gigantic PR job" (Bill Cara in response to Miami "bubbleheads", May 16, 2005).
3. An advertising or promotional ploy: "Some CNBC advertisers are cooking up a million dollar hype to promote America's "hot spot" real estate" (BillCara.com, May, 2005).
4. Something deliberately misleading; a deception: "CNBC says that there isn't any inflation at all, that it's all a hype from Bill Cara, to discourage traders from buying American real estate, stocks, bonds and dollars" (misc. blogger).

[Partly from hype, a swindle (perhaps from HYPER") and partly from HYPE(RBOLE).]

Hey Bill Griffeth, did you save that tape? Tomorrow is the anniversary of your interview of realtors on Florida's Gold Coast, and I asked you to please save that tape.

You do, of course, remember your cross-country tour a year ago in support of the house builders industry? You know, the advertisers who pay your salary?

Yes, I wrote it up in my article, "Miami real-estate boom or bubble?" I called what you were doing at the time "a classic study in bubbleconomics". I bet you weren't amused.

You know what a classic take-out play is in the market, Bill? Your May 2005 trip across America now sits in my dictionary as the best example, as you can see from above.

How does it feel now after dangling all those $18 million properties in front of Miami families with a median annual income of $28,000?

And how does it feel to have whipped Mom & Pop traders into a buyer's frenzy at the top of a market cycle, late in 2Q05?

An article in the Financial Post a couple days ago had a table that shows that the average price of homes on the Florida Gold Coast has declined -33 pct over the past year. I should send it to you.

I think your people should become my people, Bill Griffeth, because the only thing we seem to have in common is our first name, and my people seem to be happy.

Oh, and just like radio journalist Paul Harvey would say after your people read the story at this link, "And now you know, the rest of the story".

Homebuilding -USA

That May-June trip, folks, was a classic take-out.

But, being a long-term reader, you knew that didn't you.

And now you are getting ready to study this group for acquisition candidates " after the crash in the broad equity market indexes.

You can see where the RSI values are. But you " and me " must study this market to find the gems and nuggets in the industry that have the strongest financial structure, the best management, the deepest land bank, the type of home, operations in the right markets, and so forth, to cause us to want to buy.

Maybe that's a project we can all do together.

America is still the place in the world most people dream of living. No matter what happens in the next bear market, the housing industry will come back. Oh yes, the media will carry stories of the Next Great Depression and all of that stuff, but the market will come back. People will buy homes. This industry will recover.

And my people will be earning +26 pct annual returns, while the other Bill's people will be staring blankly into a TV monitor.