San Diego Housing Market News and Analysis

If you define recession as many economist do, then probably no double dip. Of course, if you're unemployed, you never got out of the recession so you can't have a double dip.

But with QE2 coming, I predict more asset bubbling, low bond yields, big corporate profits, continued high unemployment and an ongoing weak housing market with plenty of foreclosures (though no tsunami). ie. more of the same.

Pretty much what xbox said.

As far a real estate goes, I like to remind those who bought at the peak, that, for them, if they are still holding on, the recession will last until values recover to peak prices + the aggregate amount above rent they paid for all those years. ;)

That will be a long time.

We're in this weird "biflation" environment (blurb: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/16/what-...). Basically, if you follow commodities, there is massive inflation on the horizon due to the devaluation of the dollar. Commodities are up around 60% this year alone. Companies have started announcing price hikes.

QE2, if it's around $1T which is what banks are begging for, will quicken that even more dramatically. This means necessities like food, gas, utilities, etc could get much much pricier in the near term. At the same time, the Fed has said it will keep rates at 0% basically forever. This means your savings account will not keep up (stocks will probably continue to rally, though).

If this happens, it will put a nasty squeeze on most everyone. Daily costs will rise, leaving less money for rent/mortgage. Salaries will likely not keep up with inflation because commodity prices will squeeze corporate profit margins.

Still not good for housing.

P.S. Abolish the Fed

QE has only one objective in mind: to clear toxic assets from bank vaults. The only effect it has on the real economy - is a perceptive effect - which is very important when the fundamentals are shot.