Speculative buying in real estate rising

A new study by the National Association of Realtors shows that 23% of all homes purchased in 2004 were for investment, while another 13% were vacation homes.

Yikes ! These numbers are national. I've seen reports that in areas of Florida and California as much as 70% of condo purchases are being done by people who never plan to live in their units.

Given that buying and selling homes are a lot more work than day-trading you would have thought this kind of speculation would be hard... That is what Greenspan was counting on last year. But this seem not to be true.