Worth, Value and Price
In all of the reading I have done lately on the housing bubble and the financial crisis the most interesting phenomenon I have come across is the confusion surrounding the words worth, value and price. The article in the New York Times on the slowdown of the housing market in the Hamptons was grimly fascinating in this regard.

A home's worth lies in how well it suits your needs. How does it shelter you and where does it allow you live in relation to what you value as a person? Your family, your work, a city you love, the solitude you crave or, in the case of the Hamptons, the proximity to a beach full of rich people. If other people value what you value they may be willing, if they are able, to pay a high price for your home but your home has no intrinsic price that others are obligated to recognize and thereafter, pay.

It is unfortunate when people lose money and especially sad if they lose the place they live but buying a house only ever guarantees that you will have a home. The idea that it could only grow both in worth and price was always an illusion. It is apparently an illusion that is very difficult to relinquish.