Don't seek advice or comfort about financial matters from the uninformed.I've been a real estate investor for close to 30 years and a stock market investor for just about as long.

.) -- including a lien on the stock of a cooperative housing corporation (a “co-op”) -- no lender can enforce its due-on-sale clause due to any of the following prevalent circumstances:(1) The creation of a lien (or other encumbrance subordinate to the lender's security instrument) that does not relate to a transfer of rights of occupancy in the property;(2) The creation of a purchase money security interest for household appliances;(3) A transfer by devise, descent, or operation of law on the death of a joint tenant or tenant by the entirety;(4) The granting of a leasehold interest of three years or less* not containing an option to purchase(5) A transfer to a relative resulting from the death of a borrower;(6) A transfer where the spouse or children of the borrower would become owners of the property;(7) A transfer resulting from a decree of dissolution of marriage, legal separation agreement, or from an incidental property settlement agreement, by which the spouse of the borrower becomes an owner of the property(8) A transfer of the borrower’s property into an inter vivos trust in which the borrower is and remains a beneficiary and which [trust agreement] does not relate to a transfer of rights of occupancy in the property; or(9) Any other transfer or disposition described in regulations prescribed by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.

I trade the stock market a bit before noon.

My original long term goal was essentially to retire from my 9-5 job in 15 years time making enough to have a comfortable lifestyle on income from mutual funds and stocks (I'm slightly ahead of target on this front) but believe I can shorten this to (at most) 9 years if I add real estate into the mix.

That's less than a CD and way less than the stock market, yeah I know this week sucked, I lost $85K, but I'm taking a spare $100K and putting it into the market next week.Why get a loan if you're sitting on $200K?

I put the following tirade together to show my friend how real estate beats the market (equities, stocks).

Movements of the Shanghai stock index and delinquencies in sub prime mortgages have clearly left their mark on mortgage rates.Measures such as more stringent regulations for qualifying borrowers to mortgage loans are bound to affect the housing sector in an adverse manner.

However, the SEC, especially in this gruesome economic climate, is always on the look out for any investment offering better returns than what can be attained through the stock market.

When EVERYONE is doing it (buying RE, investing in "tech" stocks etc) it quite often TOO LATE.

well, a lot also made a bundle on the dot com stocks - and a lot went bankrupt because of it!