Bubbling scandal?

While the McMansions popping up on land taxed out of agriculture from coast to coast sell for record prices to speculators and the favored few, more and more regular folks find themselves forced out of the housing market without resort to a variety of risky financing schemes. The steady increase in values and the declining ability of the public to pay the price through conventional financing is part of the background for talk of a housing bubble

Still, everyone wants in, because as we all know, you just can't lose money in real estate, right?

Well, that brings us to this weeks entry in the



Maybe Mitchell Wade thought real estate was a sure bet, but...

WASHINGTON – A defense contractor with ties to Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham took a $700,000 loss on the purchase of the congressman's Del Mar house while the congressman, a member of the influential defense appropriations subcommittee, was supporting the contractor's efforts to get tens of millions of dollars in contracts from the Pentagon.

… maybe it didn't matter, because…

Wade, who had been suffering through a flat period in winning Pentagon contracts, was on a tear – reeling in tens of millions of dollars in defense and intelligence-related contracts.

Of course, regardless of Mitchell Wade's sad experience with the San Diego resale market, there's still money to be made through prudent investment. Just ask the senior Senator from Alaska…

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) made $822,000 last year from the sale of a controversial real estate investment with an Anchorage developer who had obtained a huge federal contract with his help, records show.

In 1997, Stevens invested $50,000 with developer Jonathan B. Rubini. Last year, at Stevens' request, Rubini and his partner bought back the senator's interests in their deals for $872,000, according to Senate financial disclosure forms made public Tuesday.

Good luck? Smart choices?

I say it stinks of scandal.