Posted on 01/05/2009 5:10:16 PM PST by Lorianne
Top economists at the Allied Social Sciences Association's annual meeting have been searching -- in some cases, in vain -- for signs of life in the U.S. housing market, a key element for busting the country out of a deep economic downturn.
Karl Case, economics professor at Wellesley College and co-creator of the Case-Shiller housing price index, said it was hard to predict when housing prices would finally hit bottom.
"People who say, 'Oh, the bottom is coming in February,' are in la-la land," Case said during a panel on housing in the macro economy at the ASSA meeting in San Francisco.
But he also said there are a few signs of life.
Some of the biggest potential overshooting in home prices on the way down is in states such as Arizona and Florida, areas where major overbuilding took place during the boom. "Where this glut is occurring is fortunately in places where people still want to go," Case said.
"People are showing up at the (foreclosure) auction sales and buying. The price declines are starting to gather in buyers," he said. "And a fair number of people are prepared to lower the price on their house until it's sold."
That capitulation effect, breaking through the phenomenon of "downward stickiness" on housing prices, started to show up more markedly in 2008, Case and collaborator Robert Schiller, a Yale economics professor, said in a paper presented at the conference.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
We ain’t seen nothin’, yet. Soon, we’ll see the notes coming due and the ‘bundling bungles’ the banks made concerning retail property loans.
The Overbuilt supply houses must be sold at prices people can afford. And guess what People want a home with a resonable chance to valuate in 10 years down the road.
Try having homes sold at 200,000 Avg. price with a 1,100$ Mortgage then people will bite.
The Only way to artificially restart the housing industry
is to Remove the excess Real Estate from the Market. And
I don't want to give the Demi-goats any ideas on how to
do it.
Where I live (southern WI) we have a pretty stable housing market. No one I know is losing their home, few bought more home than they could afford, etc.
However, the building of retail space in the past five years has been at breakneck speed. And a LOT of it is sitting empty.
It’s the same way with upscale condos the Libtards insisted we needed ‘downtown’ and the fever was caught by even my small Cow Town of 6,000. We do not NEED $250K 1,000 square foot condos, but we got ‘em. And they’re sitting empty.
Prices are too high. Supply is greater than demand. These Washingtonian losers are MORONS. Their house of cards has fallen.
Wow, that must be some nice condo!
Show-room new. Never been lived in, LOL! Need one? ;)
I got a 4.875% quote on a re-fi today. Anyone think it will go any lower?
A local bank is offering 4.5%, no points, no processing fees, nada...IF you close the deal before January 20th, LOL!
Sugar River Bank in Wisconsin.
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