Clark owns a mortgage that he collects payments on much like a bank would. Recently he's noticed that he is getting mail and phone calls from note buyers. These are people who are involved in the latest dare to be rich scheme. They've heard a pitch in a hotel ballroom somewhere about how you can score quick cash by approaching someone who owns a mortgage and offering to buy their note right now. They typically ask the note holder to sell his or her interest for anywhere between 70-90 cents on the dollar. Clark admits there is a very, very small legitimate business opportunity here. But most of these note-buying schemes are rip-offs.

On a related note, the median home price in the United States -- the level at which half of all homes are more expensive and half are less -- has declined this year for the first time since the feds started keeping records in 1950. Home prices are expected to get lower still in 2008 and even lower in 2009. There are some markets like Portland, Seattle and Charlotte, N.C., that are still increasing. But bubble markets such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, lots of California, lots of Florida, the Washington D.C. metro area and Boston are hurting. The only bubble market that hasn't burst yet is the New York metro area. Expect the average price of a home to decline about 1-2 percent per year for the foreseeable future. Just remember that you have nothing to fear if you're in a home and have no intention to move or sell. That being said, two million families will still be put out on the street this year alone. The only silver lining here is that the bulk of the foreclosures are not owner-occupied. They instead belong to speculative owners who may never have seen the properties they're losing. This housing "correction" is actually healthy because it will allow the country to get back to a place where home prices are more affordable to the average person. Finally, Clark denies that the media has caused the housing slump. The market is slumping because it was built on irrational loans that stretched people too far and too many houses going up on spec.