At this point, the war about massive govt intervention is over, and they are just arguing over how to clean up the accounting. The war ended when the FHLB was given the green light in 2007 to pump in unlimited funds for Countrwide and other lenders still offering 90%+ loans on over-inflated homes. Over $500 billion was already pumped in during 2007, and it’s still flowing freely. The main aqueduct is flowing, and now they are just fine-tuning by opening as many other spigots as they can think of.
Natural economic forces would take home prices in So Cal down by 50% in a few months, I would guess. After all, just think if you’d lend some homebuyer, with your own unborrowed cash savings, a non-recourse, no-prepayment penalty loan for 90% of today’s still-inflated prices, for a return of just 2-4% annually above what you could get on a 10-year Treasury. That’s what’s happening in today’s market, and obviously the only people doing it are banks and others who are getting explicit or implicit guarantees from you and me (the govt.).
So don’t get upset about the future. It’s already in the past!
