Sure, when the price of gas goes lower, everyone will start buying houses. The fact that so many are unemployed, underemployed or have no job security has nothing to do with the crashing housing market. A 5 letter word comes to mine: IDIOTS!
“The fact that so many are unemployed, underemployed or have no job security has nothing to do with the crashing housing market.”
Bingo. The fact that housing prices have been artifically manipulated into their sky high dollar amounts, that are realistically unaffordable, is an even bigger issue. This bubble has been nearly two decades in the making. With the $1 Billion dollar “Homeowner Bailout” (EHLP), the Obama administration is going to ensure that only those it wants to own a home can afford one.
Housing prices will drop another 50% unless snapped up by foreigners. The (average) housing prices today are unsustainable to the (average) U.S. family. Adjusted for inflation, for well over an hundred years, the average price of a single family dwelling was $100K (Except for about 2 years, following the depression, where manufacturing of housing was optimized, then the inflation adjusted price was about 65-70K).
When people get it through their heads that houses depreciate over time unless their money is losing it’s value faster, and realize that an oversupply of aging structures should, has, and will continue to fall, it will stop coming as a surprise.
The U.S. has NEVER had a populace that could afford the housing prices of the last few years, or even today. The unprecedented and extreme rise in housing over the last 2 decades was all based on cheap credit, governmental forced loans, and in many cases municipal manipulation (higher appraisal for tax assessment).
No one should be surprised that as 85% )IIRC) of new graduates are returning home, extended families are moving in together, and the overall job and economic outlook is plummeting, that the price of houses will fall for a decade or more (if there’s no sudden crash in the meantime).
Obama isn’t the cause of the housing correction, but he sure is going to do all in his power to make it worse, and use it to his advantage to decide who ultimately can and cannot own a home. He’s a politician, that’s what they do.