[2banana]

There will be weak demand for housing for at least 3-5 years. And prices will need to drop by 50% (or wages increase by 100%)

[ikka]

Drop baby drop!

Deport a few more illegals and prices will go down further.

Yes, I am waiting to buy a house in late 2008 when the mother of all ARM resets should have crested, resulting in a further depression of housing prices.

[MNJohnnie]

I wonder when the Chicken Little hysteric in the US Drive By Media will finally recognize the utter stupidity of making these sorts of doom and gloom predictions time after time after time. These sorts of forecasts NEVER are even close to accurate. Just as the good news never turns out to never be as good as promised, these bad news predictions in the Junk Media always turn out to be vastly overstated.

How about the Junk Media quit hyping the news and manufacturing imaginary crises and simply go back to straight forward REPORTING of the facts.

[MNJohnnie]

Economists say

You have to subscribe to read the article. Does this "reporter" actually name the economists and quote them fully or are we just suppose to accept his word for what they are saying?

[Perdogg]

I doubt that very seriously. People right now are playing chicken with the market.

[Don Corleone]

The population is still GROWING and people have to live somewhere.

[samtheman]

Economists Fear Weak Demand For Homeownership Will Fester

[Inspectorette]

I'm wondering how the devastating fires in Southern California will affect the housing market there. People who have lost their homes need to find a place to live, and soon. Re-building takes time, especially in areas where the permit process is long and involved.

I may be totally wrong, but I can envision a scenario where people who have been burned out will take their insurance money and buy existing properties that have been languishing on the market.

[jocon307]

As pleased as I am to see the housing bubble burst (and I am thrilled, believe me) this part “...the percentage of people who own their homes continued to decline...” strikes me as overstated. It may have indeed declined, but I can’t imagine it has delcined very much at all.

[aShepard]

.........and the percentage of people who own their homes continued to decline, according to a Census Department report...................

Now, take out 20 to 40 million illegals from your statistic, and run your ownership analysis again!

[tailgunner]

Would help you should mark online.wsj.com a subscription site.

[modican]

and the percentage of people who own their homes continued to decline

I hope my Rent does not go up. These people have to live somewhere. I wonder what the impact on the apartment business is.

[Anima Mundi]

I wonder if there has been a shift in the psychology of all of it. Once it was the American dream to be a home owner. My observation is now that many young people (early 30s) have been shut out of the housing market for their entire adult lives. When something is so far out of your reach, eventually cognitive dissonance sets in and you find a way to convince yourself that you really do not WANT that thing. You tend to find all the negatives of having a thing that you can’t possibly get. There may now be a group of people who really don’t have that much desire to own a home because they are used to renting or apartment living and they just don’t want the responsibility of home ownership and upkeep. They don’t enjoy or relate to fixing things up around the home, decorating it, etc. Many young men can do anything with a computer but hardly know how to hang a picture on a wall. Many young women have great careers but little time for fussy homemaking stuff. Also the demand for all those great big houses might be changing as young people have no need for bedrooms for the nonexistent kids.