Posted on 12/02/2010 11:33:35 AM PST by SC_Pete
Or those supposedly charged with the honest and fair regulation of the banking and mortgage industry of which lies, collusion, and various ethics violations were committed?
We know that never happened but it does not justify the total lack of any diligence or common sense frugality among the consumers.
People went willingly into zero percent down, no principal payments for years, etc etc.
Granted it is very hard to think for yourself when the entire media structure was crowing about housing as fail safe, ignoring previous housing busts in the USA.
You got that right. Just before the balloon burst (I think - mebbe during), one poster here said that when he saw a popular show on TV about making money by flipping houses, he knew the end was near. he was right.
Existing home sales are also an important factor to analyze. In the aggregate, a change in existing home prices in a market is indicative of the state of the market, and it should not, as far as I can tell, be affected by builder choices, since the homes are already built.
Bottom line is, the market still has a long way to go before there is a recovery. There is still a large overhang of foreclosures out there, and if they proceed, how they will affect the overall market remains to be seen. In some markets, it seems there was a bottom in the low end. People with jobs could afford to buy a starter house at the low interest rates being offered. The question is whether that bottom will hold. I don't pretend to know, but I do think there is more room to fall at the higher end.
I’m not sure what this means. I read it to be, people are buying more modest sized homes rather than McMansions. I clearly understand housing has not bottomed and house prices continue their long gradual slide downward to some bottom off in the future, but a 14% drop in median NEW home prices just tells me that builders have rapidly adapted to a buyers market by building starter homes again.
I see what you mean—but I do not think that accounts for a 14% drop in ONE MONTH. Things don’t usually move that quickly. I agree with you that real estate has not bottomed. I sold 2 years ago and saved most of my butt.
If i might get a few opinions; at what point or conditions based on where we are now, would it be more of a boost to the markets to just start bulldozing homes. Is this a scenario that could feasibly happen in the near future? Thanks in advance!
And the best part....sellers of existing homes seem to have this collective delusion that it’s still 2005 and they can sell their homes for 2005 prices.
So the houses sit. And sit. And sit.
Just wait until the foreclosures finally hit the pipeline next year. With all of the moratoriums and extensions, they have delayed the inevitable.
“With all of the moratoriums and extensions, they have delayed the inevitable.”
I’m just seeing a lot of waaaaay overpriced homes with sellers standing around waiting for the one sucker to arrive. They know that the market stinks except, of course, in *their* little corner of the universe. The buyers think otherwise and nothing is moving as a result.
Ala Greespan recently had positive things to say about the recovering economy. At the end however, he stated that if the housing market tanks again—”all bets are off.” I think that’s where we are going. This spring should be ugly.
>>With all of the moratoriums and extensions
Actually, the malfeasance is on the banks, they often don’t have the legal title, the rush to digitise meant paper was tossed, handled cavalierly and the banks showed a general disregard and contempt for established legal practices.
People have wisened up and are demanding to see actual titles before they are foreclosed on.
The slowdowns in foreclosures are caused by the Banks and the mortgage holders themselves.
Some people are getting a chance to hold on to their properties.
The rest is human nature, wishful thinking that they will find the buyer who’s willing to pay what the seller thinks the house is worth.
Property is moving, but when realistic sellers price it at the level of the early part of the century’s decade.
What you say is all true—it’s a big mess. Also many banks have been hesitant to mark to market their balance sheets because they will then be insolvent. If they sell, they can no longer hide the devaluation of their assets. When the pipeline finally starts to pour, the downward pressure on prices will take housing down again. As, Greenspan said, if housing goes down “all bets are off.”
I'd like to hear it to. You have no shortage of Conservatives rightfully skeptical of darn near every domestic policy and willing to call them purposefully destructive (with which I agree).
But then for some reason, which I can't fathom, they applaud a foreign policy, which is foisted upon us by the same people, and they lose all critical thinking skills.
Am I supposed to believe these same parasites in Washington somehow magically transform into angels when they are developing defense policy?
I swear, if Obamacare was run by the Pentagon a lot of Freepers would reflexively support it.
It doesn't make any sense.
I just happened to be on the road and hear that comment to Rush about the “barnburner” economy. I was thinking to myself that Rush should ask him if he meant as in actually having your barn burn, that is NOT a good thing!
I was called forty six kinds of an idiot by some on FR back in those days because I said that an increased appraisal value on a house represented NO increase in total real world wealth. It seems that many thought that when they were able to borrow huge additional sums against their home they somehow were much better off financially. I never understood where that notion came from.
“95% of the market is resale anyway.”
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I think it’s higher than that, at least here where I live anyway. I haven’t seen a new house going up around here for some time. There is one new housing development that was started just before the crash and there is one lonely spec house sitting there with no takers still. This is a gated community where they bulldozed an earthen bulwark to block the view from the road. All you can see driving by is the top part of the one lonely unsold house.
“Is this a scenario that could feasibly happen in the near future?”
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Almost any scenario imaginable is possible providing it is utterly insane and that one certainly would be.
I have been trying to think of a reason to expect home prices NOT to drop further...do you have any headache remedies to recommend?
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