Didn’t Japan lower their rate almost to zero and it didn’t help them? I don’t know the details of how similar we are to what they went through, but I see some resemblance.
That they did and no it didn’t help. They had 12 years of falling RE prices. It’s really a shift in perception, once buyers realize RE is over-sold there is a paradigm shift in pricing.
Something that is *very* different over there is they have no social concept of debt-defaults (other than suicide). There are a great many people there still locked into crazy mortgages from the pre-bust years.
The ‘walk-away’ effect should cause prices to correct much faster here.
