Ten million views.

6,000 posts.

Trillions lost.

A world economy in shambles.

And housing prices almost back to where we started.

HousingPANIC ends.

It’s been a journey HP’ers, and an honor. When I started this blog, I knew how it would end up, I just didn’t know how we’d get there. And now we know.

I saw HP as a story, with a beginning, a middle and an end. It was a tragic story, a classic rags to riches to rags tale. And every good story, every good book or film, has a good time to end. For HousingPANIC, that time is today.

The election of Barack Obama last night, as predicted here for years, is that good time to end. After eight long years under the worst president in US history, hope returns. Hope that the guilty will be punished. Hope that the laws will be reformed. Hope that we can dig ourselves out of this national nightmare. Hope that we can confront the challenges of our time.

And so I end the blog on hope. After the anxiety, after denial, after fear, after desperation, panic, capitulation, despondency and depression, comes hope.

But what a journey it has been. We were a ragtag, unorganized and unfunded motley crew of average folks back in 2005 who knew something was wrong in America, and around the world, and didn’t know where to turn.

Everywhere we looked, home prices were skyrocketing to unjustified levels. Mortgage fraud was encouraged. Debt was seen as wealth. Price to rent and price to income didn’t matter. Loans were being given to anyone who could fog a mirror. Housing porn shows ruled the airwaves. Realtors were telling us if we didn’t buy now we’d be priced out forever, and that year-round-golf justified high home prices. Our fellow citizens were queuing up for home lotteries. And the world had lost its mind in an orgy of fraud and gambling on housing.

Meanwhile, our politicians sat back gladly as the Housing Ponzi Scheme inflated, taking straight-out bribes from the REIC to remain quiet. Our REIC-advertising supported media again deserted us. And the madness continued.

And it looked like the madness would never end.

And then, spectacularly, it ended.

And now we’re left to pick up the pieces.

Trillions have been lost. Lives have been ruined. Future generations will be forced to pick up our tab. And empty and unwanted homes litter the land.

Yet the thieves have not been arrested. Laws are not enforced. Realtors practice their lies, restraint of trade, and deceit. And around the world, home prices are still falling and will keep falling until they make economic sense again.

But now, on the 5th of November, 2008, it’s time for HousingPANIC to end. It’s time to rebuild. It’s time to reform. It’s time to arrest the guilty. It’s time to root out the corruption. It’s time to address our ills. It’s time to hope. It’s time to renew. It’s time to reinvent. It’s time to move on.

Thank you to all my fellow bubble bloggers. For most of us this was simply a calling, a passion, a desire to serve our fellow man. A fight against the evil and corrupt. And we have won.

And thank you to the HousingPANIC community. The HP’ers. The brown shirts and the chicken littles and the tin foil hatters. History proved us right, and our detractors wrong. You have won.

I’m going to keep blogging, but on all the issues I find interesting that are confronting America and the world, not just housing. More on the new blog in the next post.

I’ll turn off comments here tonight. This body of work will then be complete. I hope future generations, when they’re studying this bubble, the biggest financial bubble in human history, enjoy this real-time view of what happened, and how it happened. The HousingPANIC blog will hopefully remain here on this lonely little corner of the internet forever. It should serve as a warning to the folly of man. And it should serve as a beacon of hope. That the little guy stood up and said no more. No more.

Peace out.

It’s been an honor.

-Keith