BoycottHousing.com—useful or a pipe dream?

So you look at the prices of homes for sale in the San Francisco Bay area and you decide you would have to be crazy to ante that much money and pay exorbitant amounts each month. Yet you still want to buy a home in the area eventually. What do you do?

Well, you could sign up at BoycottHousing.com. From their website:

WHAT IS THIS?
A place where people are encouraged to agree to a period of time where they will not buy a house, but continue renting or living in the house they already own. The more people do this, the quicker prices will come down to a normal level. It's basic economics.

WHAT'S OUR GOAL?
We want to counter the hype, misinformation, irrational behavior, and damaging effects of this real estate cycle, and restore balance. We don't want to pop a bubble or cause anything drastic. We simply want ordinary families to be able to buy houses without putting themselves at risk; and homeowners to stop mortgaging their future by borrowing against the inflated prices of their houses. The bigger the bubble gets, the more pain everyone will feel when it collapses. Let's stop this sooner rather than later.

Yes, it’s basic economics if almost all of the demand dries up. But all it takes is a few people able to negotiate prices that enough sellers find acceptable to completely undermine the endeavor. While part of me finds it admirable, I see it potentially hurting the boycotters more in the long run (unless the bay area prices significantly plummet).

As of this morning there were 1,633 people that had signed up at the site. I wonder how many of those signers are still looking and would place an offer on a house if they feel it's a bargain? Boycotts and embargoes only work with full compliance and there is no penalty here for undermining it. I would like to see this passed on and then see if there is any impact on prices.

I had the same thought as the real estate broker in the KGO news article that informed me of the website: the existence of the site signifies some significant demand. As prices dip, there will be more people willing to buy which will help set a floor on how low prices will go. *shrug* Hey, what do I know. I think the plan is flawed on several levels, but we’ll see. Good luck to 'em.

The best feature on the site (to me) is the “House” of the Day feature which shows ridiculous prices and ludicrous listing language. Check them out for a taste of bay area pricing. Not that I expect shame to work when you might actually get $649,000 for a one-bedroom one-bath 'condo alternative' cottage.