Thomas Sowell: How can a housing market be 'saved'?

Washington Examiner ^ | January 3, 2011 | Thomas Sowell

[jazusamo]

*PING*
Thomas Sowell

Recent columns
Promises and Riots
Has Regulation Put An End To Rule Of Law?
Random Thoughts

Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to or removed from the Thomas Sowell ping list…

[jazusamo]

Please bump the Freepathon and donate or become a monthly donor!

[fhayek]

As clear and concise an argument for free markets you will not find.

[Larry Lucido]

You can’t “save” any market. You can only get out of the way and let folks make their mistakes or killings, and live with the results.

[marron]

The demand for housing will rebound when people are sure they have employment.

And it will rebound when the banks are sure their loans can be repaid.

That will happen when the economy as a whole rebounds. In the meantime, low prices are an opportunity for some that won’t happen again in their lifetimes.

The quickest way to bring the economy back is to quit monkeying with it. Investment requires the kind of certainty you can never have as long as the government keeps changing the rules of the road. Once the rules stop changing, investment will pick up and employment will pick up and the housing market will come back.

The “other” quickest way to bring the economy back is to make a focused effort to make this country energy independent. Steam-roll any regulations that get in the way of energy projects. We spend half a trillion a year buying transportation fuels from overseas. When we start spending a bigger chunk of that here, this economy will turn around so fast our heads will spin.

[coldtexan]

“If anyone is especially deserving, it is those who had the common sense to avoid taking on bigger financial obligations than they could handle, but who are now expected to pay as taxpayers for other people’s irresponsibility.”

Amen!

[dynachrome]

“Why should people who save be sacrificed for the benefit of those who spent more than they could afford?”

Money quote.

[george76]

home sales are down more than 25 percent and the inventory of unsold homes is about 50 percent higher than it was the same time last year. This is just one of innumerable stories about the woes of the housing market

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qRDg9WS7fk

[org.whodat]

Wrong, the housing market will not rebound, the market will assume normal conditions when the price drops to where! Demand and price meet. The chamber of commerce crowd drove down wages with illegals at the same time over pricing happened because of giving montages to people that could not pay the loan. Wages would need to go way way up to afford the current price. But every time the price drops the more AIG and freddy and fanny will lose.

[Lorianne]

I’ll take it a step further than Sowell

All this talk of recovery but no one ever asks:
RECOVER WHAT ?

The economic system we had never made sense and was unsustainable no matter who was in charge.

An economy based on unsustainable levels of consumer spending, based on unsustainable levels of consumer debt, fed by unsustainable exectation of real estate valuation rise is .... can you guess? .... NOT SUSTAINABLE.

So, why are we trying to ‘recover’ ourselves back into an unsustainable economic system and why are both parties subscribing to that notion?

[dajeeps]

The most terrifying words known to man:

“I’m from the government and I’m here to help”

Really?

Hands off and let housing take care of itself. Thanks.

[Terry Mross]

One problem is many people have too much debt.

[marron]

the market will assume normal conditions when the price drops to where! Demand and price meet. The chamber of commerce crowd drove down wages with illegals at the same time over pricing happened because of giving montages to people that could not pay the loan. Wages would need to go way way up to afford the current price. But every time the price drops the more AIG and freddy and fanny will lose.

I agree with you.

[marron]

An economy based on unsustainable levels of consumer spending, based on unsustainable levels of consumer debt, fed by unsustainable exectation of real estate valuation rise is .... can you guess? .... NOT SUSTAINABLE. So, why are we trying to ‘recover’ ourselves back into an unsustainable economic system and why are both parties subscribing to that notion?

And I agree with you. Well said.

[EVO X]

So, why are we trying to ‘recover’ ourselves back into an unsustainable economic system and why are both parties subscribing to that notion?

Because FASB suspended mark to market on the assumption(lie) that stuff on the books was really worth more.

[listenhillary]

I keep hearing that people are saving instead of spending. Paying down their debt instead on consuming. That is why the administration was talking about using inflation to get people to shake loose some of that money they have been saving.

I agree there are those still with a lot of debt.

[nina0113]

How can a housing market be 'saved'?

Easy-peasey. Just put it in the lockbox next to the Social Security.

[jazusamo]

Easy-peasey. Just put it in the lockbox next to the Social Security.

LOL!

You've solved the problem. Now the Congress-critters can use one for a collateral loan to save the other and vice versa. ;-)

[Still Thinking]

How can a housing market be 'saved'?

If it finds Jesus?